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Wilkins' return powers Plant

Staff Photo by BILL WARD

Sidelined the past two months with stress fractures in both legs, Plant senior Trenor Wilkins returned to action Tuesday to help the Panthers capture the county cross country title.

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By BILL WARD

wward@tampatrib.com

Published: October 28, 2009

TAMPA After sitting out the entire cross country season recovering from stress fractures in both lower leg bones, no one was counting on Trenor Wilkins to do much at Tuesday's Hillsborough County Championships besides line up and get his first race under his belt.

Turns out, the tenacious Plant senior was the difference between the Panthers winning and losing.

With Plant missing its No. 5 runner due to injury and its No. 3 man competing with the flu, Wilkins gave arguably the gutsiest effort of the meet. He not only grabbed 11th place in the 5-kilometer (3.1 miles) race at Lake Park, he was the Panthers' No. 2 man behind seventh-place Bo Nalsen.

Without Wilkins, Plant (77 points) likely would have finished behind Newsome, which turned in a standout showing to take second with 97 points, and Chamberlain (107), which put three runners in the top 10, including individual winner Mark Parrish.

"It felt so good to be out there racing again," said Wilkins, who covered the course in 17 minutes, 8 seconds. "Best part was, nothing hurt."

After the race, Wilkins admitted he never got a doctor's clearance to start running again two weeks ago. After training in the pool six weeks prior to that, he said he simply went on whether or not he had pain in his legs as he began to run every other day.

"That (effort) is just Trenor being Trenor," Panthers coach Mike Boza said. "It was great to have him back."

Parrish, meanwhile, looked like a runner capable of again contending for a state title. After an early challenge from Berkeley Prep's Tyler Greathouse, Parrish put on a strong surge near two miles and pulled away to win comfortably in 15:53. Robinson's Bryan Garcia overtook Greathouse (16:25) in the final half mile to earn second in 16:17.

In the girl's race, Newsome freshman Brianna Jackson established herself as the county's No. 1 runner again, winning in 19:37. She was the county's top performer at the Pre-State Invitational two weeks ago. When she first moved to the Tampa Bay area earlier this year from suburban Chicago, Jackson could barely complete a seven-minute warm-up run because of the heat.

Now Jackson is the county champion, running another personal best.

"This is not anything I would've expected," Jackson said. "I've been told a lot 'Oh my gosh, you're just a freshman,' but it's not like it's my first time running."

Indeed, back in Illinois, Jackson ran track as a sixth grader and middle school cross country in seventh and eighth grade.

With freshmen Caroline Gibson and Julia Rodriguez going 2-3 and Stephanie Choate finishing ninth, Plant (45) was able to win the girls team title - despite junior Lizzie Goodwin dropping out of the race with breathing problems and sophomore Molly Harry running with lingering effects of the swine flu.

Wharton (94), led by fifth-place Abby Ritter, was second and Newsome (98) took third.

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