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Track: LOL Boys, Wesley Chapel Girls Win At Chasco

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By LEE DIEKEMPER/Tribune correspondent

Published: March 7, 2009

NEW PORT RICHEY - Land O' Lakes' boys and Wesley Chapel's girls came out on top in Friday's Chasco Invitational at Gulf High.

The Gators won the boys event with 132 points to second place Wesley Chapel's 116. The Wesley Chapel girls came away with the girls title with 182 points to second place Ridgewood's 160.

For both winning teams, unexpected stellar times by a pair of their respective teams' stars pushed them over the top.

For the Gators, it was distance runner Felix Soto. While Soto winning an event isn't exactly news, how convincingly he won was a bit of a surprise.

"I thought the kids had a real good meet," Gators coach Al Claggett said. "The distance runners ran very well and Soto was very impressive tonight."

Soto was part of the Gators' 4x800 relay team and won both the 1,600 and the 3,200. But it was the 3,200 run where even Soto surprised himself. Despite running the event for the first time this season, he nearly set a personal record.

Soto won the 3,200 in 9:55, just seven seconds off his personal best mark of 9:48.

"I was happy with what I got," Soto said. "That showed me I am there. If I had someone right behind me to push me I could have broken it. I could have run faster."

"We had some performances that surprised me," Wesley Chapel coach Kristi Frye said.

Those performances Frye referenced were from Shantel Houston. The Wildcats won the meet largely on the strength of Houston winning four events. This even though she isn't quite into track shape yet. Houston was a key starter on the Wildcats' girls basketball squad that advanced to the region final held just two weeks ago.

While her track teammates were already rounding into shape, Houston was still in the thick of basketball season.

"I really didn't expect that, I've never done that," Houston said of winning four events. "That was only my second time doing the 100 hurdles and only my second time doing the 300 hurdles. I looked at other people's times and saw how good they were and I thought, 'Oh, man.'"

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