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Jesuit Faces Challenge At State Championship

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By MATTHEW POSTINS, Tribune correspondent

Published: November 16, 2007

Jesuit will renew its growing rivalry with Naples at Saturday's Class 2A FHSAA State Cross Country Championships at Little Everglades Ranch in Dade City.

Naples edged Jesuit at last week's Region 3 meet, which Jesuit won last year. At last year's state meet, Naples overtook Jesuit for third place by 13 points.

Saturday's race isn't all about this little rivalry. But there's a little fuel there for Jesuit now that Naples overtook them at regional.

"It definitely should be close," Jesuit runner Connor Revord said. "But we don't want what happened last year to happen again. We want to show the state who we really are."

That won't be easy. Aside from Naples, Belen Jesuit, the defending 2A champ, is back and won the Region 4 meet with just 19 points.

"The thing is it's really close between the top four or five teams," Jesuit coach Greg Maurin said. "It's going to be a real tight race."

Jesuit has two things going for it, Maurin believes. First, the regional course in Estero prepared Jesuit for the undulating track they'll see in Dade City. Second, Jesuit should have Michael Gonzalez back from an illness. He missed the regional meet and is one of Jesuit's top five runners.

"He's a consistent runner," Revord said. "We put him back in there and we feel like we can get three of our top five runners close together."

Jesuit isn't the only area school out for a state title Saturday.

Seminole, which swept the 3A-Region 3 boys and girls titles for the first time in school history, is out to improve at state. The Seminole boys will seek to overtake Chiles, which stood between Seminole and a state title last year, while the girls will seek to improve their 10th-place state finish last year.

Tarpon Springs' Kailand Cosgrove, who finished fifth at the 3A-3 meet, hopes to be over her bout with bronchitis and strep throat and attempt to better her third-place finish at state a year ago.

Meanwhile, Newsome's girls will join Seminole in the 3A field after surprising many by winning the 3A-Region 2 team title to advance to state in their first year in 3A. Former Barbados Olympian Orlando Greene is their coach. Plant's boys also came out of the 3A-Region 2 meet as the champion.

In 4A, Sickles will send both of its teams, led by boys runner Derek Wehunt, who finished second at the 4A-Region 2 meet. Wehunt's regional time last week was 42 seconds better than his state time last year.

Also in 2A, Tampa Catholic and Academy of the Holy Names will run in the girls division. TC is making its first state appearance under second-year coach Andy Mathews. AHN is making its third straight state appearance.

In 1A, Berkeley Prep's Richard Blake enters the state meet as the Region 3 champion. He finished fifth at state last year and has improved more than 20 seconds on his state time from last year.

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