TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Robinson Has Been A Surprise

ADVERTISEMENT

By BILL WARD

wward@tampatrib.com

Published: November 12, 2008

TAMPA - When he first volunteered to be an assistant boys cross country coach at Robinson, Mark Altimari says he did it to help guide the career of his son, Matt Altimari.

But four years later, Matt has gone off to run for the University of Tampa and Mark still finds himself on the staff with Coach Raven Lewis. And he has no plans to leave.

"I just love the sport, and it's a bonus to coach these kids," said Altimari, an officer with the Tampa Police Department. "At first, I wanted to coach just to make sure my kid had a running program. But after that first year, I really felt like coaching was something I would keep doing."

Altimari, a former standout runner for Leto's "Long Red Row" under Coach Bob Ennis, says he has been surprised by this year's group of Robinson runners. With Matt having graduated and the bulk of the team underclassmen, he thought the Knights were a year away from a shot at reaching the Class 2A state finals.

But entering Friday's Class 2A-Region 3 meet in Estero, Robinson's varsity squad of juniors Bryan Garcia, Josh Epperson and Riley Parks, sophomores Mike Shuey and Justin Ramirez, freshman Ricky Mills and lone senior Darrin Gibson has a good chance to finish in the top six to qualify for next week's state meet.

Robinson easily advanced to the region meet by taking second at last week's 2A-District 5 meet at Lake Park. The Knights were only 55 points behind 10-time defending champion Jesuit and advanced an individual from the girls meet, junior Lexie Goldberger, who was eighth in her race.

Altimari still expects the Knights' best year to arrive in 2009, but he is excited about what they have accomplished this fall.

"They've just all gotten serious about it this year and decided to work," Altimari said. "And with some good results here and there, they believe in themselves."

LONGHORNS ADVANCE. One of the big surprises from last week's district action was the Lennard boys squad, which qualified for its first regional meet by taking fifth in the 2A-5 meet at Lake Park.

Under Coach Eric Blicker, the third-year school scored 131 points to finish 19 ahead of the sixth and final qualifier, Sebring.

The Longhorns were led by senior Renato Barreda, who took 13th in 17:54, and juniors Casey Aykroyd and Ian Mills, who finished 24th and 25th, respectively. Their two other scorers were Trent Kloter (31st) and Marcus Featherson (42nd).

AMAZING GRACE. Considering she has come back from a stress fracture in her leg at the start of the season, the third-place finish of Durant sophomore Grace VanDeGrift at the Class 4A-District 4 meet is nothing short of amazing.

"I only had a few weeks to train," VanDeGrift said of her road back this fall. "I was just happy to qualify for regionals. Last year, I was injured again during cross country, but I qualified for state. This year, I missed probably two months due to the injury, and that's a lot of training time. I swam in the pool a lot. I kept in pretty good shape."

Tribune correspondent Larry Bugg contributed to this report

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT