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Wiregrass Ranch boys, girls take 6th

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By LARRY BUGG

Tribune correspondent

Published: November 22, 2009

DADE CITY - For a school as new as Wiregrass Ranch, grabbing sixth place in both the boys and girls division of Saturday's Class 3A state cross country finals had a championship feel to it.

In the school's fourth year of existence, the Bulls have risen to become one of the top distance-running programs in the area, and Saturday's meet was a testament to that.

Leading the way for the Bulls was freshman Nikita Shah, who earned 17th place with a 5-kilometer clocking of 19 minutes, 32 seconds. As a team, the Wiregrass girls totaled 249 points.

Tallahassee Chiles easily defended its girls state crown with 40, while another team from that city, Leon, repeated as boys champion.

"I thought the girls ran great today," said Wiregrass girls coach Don Howard. "We wanted to finish top 10 and we did. We wanted Nikita to finish top 20 and she did. We had a few (personal records) out there. We were 13th last year. It could have been a little cooler, but we got lucky. This is good."

Bulls coach Chris Loth's boys team was paced by junior Ryan Pulsifer, who overcame a midseason bout with the H1N1 virus to take 26th on Saturday in 16:34. Joshua Reilly was Wiregrass' No. 2 man, finishing 41st in 16:47.

Land O' Lakes senior Matt Schwartz was the area's top finisher in the boys race, taking 11th in 16:19. As a team, the Gators finished eighth.

Running as an individual qualifier, Armwood's Ben Hilton capped a standout season by taking 20th in 16:27. Teammate Danielle Newsome was 39th in 20:16. The area's best finish in the girls race was turned in by Sickles freshman Sarah Hartman, who ran 19:07 for 11th.

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