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Chiefs Begin Tradition With Runner-Up Finish

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By BILL WARD

wward@tampatrib.com

Published: November 23, 2008

DADE CITY - It's not easy establishing tradition at the state cross country meet when your school doesn't own much of a history there. But Chamberlain's boys might have laid down a solid foundation for the future after their strong performance Saturday morning at Little Everglades Ranch.

Led by the third-place finish of junior Mark Parrish, the Chiefs turned in their best effort of the season to grab second. That result produced the school's best showing in the sport ever by a boys squad.

Before Saturday, the highest Chamberlain had finished in the boys state finals was third place 35 years ago.

"In my heart of hearts, I thought we had a good shot at second place but you never know," said Chiefs coach Bill Strack, who has guided the boys squad the past four seasons. "But everyone had to run their best race. There wasn't a lot of room for anything else."

Oddly enough, Parrish was the only member of the Chamberlain team who didn't run a lifetime best Saturday. But with a 5-kilometer time of 15 minutes, 43 seconds, Parrish was still the area's fastest performer in all classes for the second year in a row.

The personal records came from the remainder of the Chiefs' scorers - Chase Nelson (16:16, 19th place), Charles Toledo (16:24, 23rd), Brad Nelson (16:43, 42nd) and Max Del Monte (16:45, 44th) - as well as their sixth and seventh runners, Robert Kimbrough (16:49) and Alex Leinhauser (17:52).

Pre-meet favorite Tallahassee Leon, which boasted a 1-2 finish from junior Matt Mizereck (15:16) and sophomore Will Stanford (15:20), was the winner with 63 points, 30 ahead of the Chiefs.

Newsome, led by 12th-place Keegan Bixler, and Plant, paced by sixth-place Trenor Wilkins, both scored 231. But the tie for fifth in the team standings was broken on the finish of Newsome's No. 6 runner, Shawn Reed (68th). Land O' Lakes (243) earned seventh place, led by 10th-place Felix Soto. Wharton's boys were 14th, led by the 20th-place finish of John Grellner.

Armwood's Gilbert Vasquez ran as an individual qualifier and finished 29th in 16:32.

In girls, Wharton earned its sixth straight top-10 finish by taking fourth place with 200 points - one point ahead of fifth-place Newsome.

The Wildcats had two runners in the first 25 - senior Alyssa Franks, who, despite the effects of a recent flu bug, was 22nd in 19:36, and junior Erin Bailey, 25th in 19:38.

"We ran pretty well and finished about where I expected," Wharton coach Wes Newton said. "Considering all we lost to graduation last season and what we had coming back, it was a pretty good year for us."

Newsome boasted Hillsborough's top girls performance with the 19:30 senior Rebecca Webster ran for 21st. Entering Saturday's meet, Webster had never beaten Franks.

"It was a great way to finish the year," Webster said. "I wanted to run a personal record and go 19:30 and I did it."

Land O' Lakes sophomore Alyssa Brandt turned in the area's fastest showing by any girl in any class with her 19:25, good for 18th. That was one second ahead of Mitchell's Kelli Williams (24th in 4A).

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