The Lincoln Invitational doesn't care that you're a state cross-country champion. It doesn't even care if you're the defending champion. This was evident on Saturday, 19 September 2009, when Riley Doherty ran 16:19 over the Tom Brown Park 5K course for the win, ahead of FHSAA-1A champion Patrick Swain, FHSAA-3A champion Matt Mizereck, and defending Invitational champion Will Stanford. In the girls race there were no state champions or defending champions to be dethroned, and in a re-run of Monday's Cougar Challenge Maclay's Stefanie Kurgatt ran away from teammate Kristin Sweeney to claim the title, 19:59 to 20:26.A morning meet in past years, the Invitational opened at 5:00 pm in Tom Brown Park with the
girls' 5K race. Or at least the start was scheduled for 5:00 pm. Girls from 13 schools waited on the line for ten minutes for the race to start while a light rain fell. Finally the starting gun fired and the runners charged down a grassy slope. After the initial scramble, Maclay's Sweeney took the lead early in the first mile as the runners moved over the Goose Pond Trail bike path. On the second mile as the course ran through the woods, though, the lead belonged solely to Kurgatt, with Sweeney and Maclay senior Lindsey Sanders holding the next two positions. However, behind the Maclay vanguard the Leon girls were moving up through the field. Maclay held the first three positions all the way to the line, but Sanders had to fight off Leon's Allison Clarke for third, 22:12 to 22:14. Maclay had the first three positions in hand, but Leon had the next four, and for the fans of both teams there was a tense wait for the fifth runners to decide the team title. In the end Maclay's Lindsey Poole (19th, 23:50) and Elizabeth Santoro (28th, 24:14) were in well before Leon's Taylor McMahon (74th, 29:15), and Maclay took the team title, defeating the defending champion Leon 53 to 88.
The threat of rain fading, the boys' race started as soon as the girls were off the course. Even after half a mile as the runners traversed the Goose Pond Trail bike path, the mob was led by some raging optimists, but Doherty, Swain, and Mizereck were just off the lead, with defending champion Stanford back in the pack. By the middle of the second mile, Doherty and Swain were leading through the woods with Mizereck trailing in third. Swain moved out in front on the third mile and had a respectable lead around the last turn, a hairpin bend around a pine tree. Doherty rounded the tree seconds behind him. Swain looked cool and unreadable as usual. Doherty looked nothing but determined, and went after the leader on the final straight. The spectator noise increased as Doherty overtook and passed Swain, winning by less than half a second. 200 meters back, Stanford of Leon had moved up through the field to end up in third place at 16:57. Two-time state champion Mizereck faded to eleventh, where he finished in 18:02.
Leon placed its five scorers in the top twelve, so there was less drama in the boys' team competition than in the girls'. Leon ended up winning for the fourth year in a row with 37 points, while Maclay's 75 points was good enough for the Marauders to placed second, improving on their 2008 third-place performance.More hot competition in high school cross country lays ahead, most notably in three weeks at the October 10 Florida State University Cross-Country Invitational at the new Apalachee Regional Park cross-country course.
Links:
- Results at FLRunners.com
http://fl.milesplit.us/meets/55202 - Photos of the girls' race
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2719290&id=5215641&l=cd14ae16f8 - Photos of the boys' race
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2719286&id=5215641&l=b9bc49e2be - Kurgatt, Swain win the Cougar Challenge
http://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2009/09/cougar-challenge-opens-cross-country.html - Whose birthday is today?
http://runningbirthdays.blogspot.com/
