Five Leon County Schools Qualify For XC Regional Meets

On Nov. 4th, two high school cross country district meets took place involving seven schools from Leon County. Chiles, Lincoln, Leon and Rickards competed in the 3A District 1 meet while Maclay, Community Christian (CCS) and St. John Paull II (JPII) competed in the 1A District 2 meet.

According to the FHSAA manual, “The first eight placing teams and the top four placing individuals who are not members of an advancing team shall advance to the regional meet.”

3A District 1

The 3A District 1 meet took place at Twin Oaks Park located in Niceville, Fl. Chiles, Lincoln, Leon and Rickards all advanced their boy’s teams to regionals while Chiles, Leon and Lincoln advanced their girls teams to regionals.

The Chiles boys cross country team placed second in a field of 13 teams with an average run time of 16:42. Following them in fourth place, the Lincoln cross country team had an average time of 17:27. Leon and Rickards finished fifth and seventh with average times of 17:45 and 19:05, respectively.

Notable Leon County performances from the boys meet included Chiles’ Joshua Hicks (Sr.) placing first with a time of 16:05.50, Chiles’ Jonathan Kiros (Jr.) placing second with a time of 16:06.10, and Rickards’ Jamarin Lane (Sr.) placing eighth with a time of 16:37.40.

On the girls side, Chiles placed first as a team with an average time of 19:36 while placing five runners in the top ten. Leon and Lincoln finished sixth and seventh with average times of 22:50 and 24:03, respectively.

Notable Leon County performances from the girls meet included Chiles’ Emma-Claire Tanenbaum (Fr.) placing first with a time of 18:25.60, Chiles’ Chloe Molen (Jr.) placing fourth with a time of 19:34.90 and Chiles’ Madeline Brockmeier (Jr.) placing seventh with a time of 19:59.50

1A District 2

The 1A District 2 meet took place at Alligator Lake located in Lake City, Fl. Maclay and CCS both advanced their boys team to regionals while Maclay advanced their girls team to regionals as well.

Maclay ‘s boys cross country team placed second overall out of a field of 15 teams with an average time of 16:36 while placing four runners in the top 15. Following Maclay, CCS placed sixth with an average time of 19:15 while having two runners in the top 15.

Notable Leon County performances from the boys meet included Maclay’s David Barton (Jr.) placing fifth with a time of 16:22.0, CCS’s Luke Meli placing eighth with a time of 16:58.7, and CCS’s Jeremey Collier (Sr.) placing 13th with a time of 17:19.6.

On the girls side Maclay placed eighth as a team with an average time of 23:54 while JPII came in tenth place with an average time of 25:18.

Notable Leon County performances from the girls meet included JPII’s Serafina Rietow (Sr.) placing 19th with a time of 7:03.4, Maclay’s Marguerite Miller (Jr.) placing 31st with a time of 7:22.08, and Maclay’s Nishi Bhanderi (Sr.) placing 33rd with a time of 7:23.6.