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Titusville meet to provide big test

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By BILL WARD

wward@tampatrib.com

Published: September 29, 2009

The biggest test of this young cross country season comes Saturday for some of Hillsborough County's top teams and individuals at the prestigious flrunners.com Invitational 10 in Titusville.

The meet features multiple divisions of high school competition but the highest level is the Race of Champions, where several of the state's top boys and girls programs, as well as select individuals, will square off at the Chain of Lakes Park.

Girls teams from Hillsborough that have made the cut for the Race of Champions are Plant and Wharton, which are both in 4A this fall. With teams like Community School of Naples, Winter Park and Miami Our Lady of Lourdes on hand for the girls ROC, Plant and Wharton should find out just how good they are.

The Panthers are led by sophomore Molly Harry and junior Lizzie Goodwin, while the Wildcats are paced by junior Abby Ritter and senior Erin Bailey.

Before it's all over, the boys ROC at flrunners.com could be the most competitive event of the entire season. There, county teams from Robinson, Jesuit and Plant will face the best the state has to offer in all classes, both from a team and individual perspective.

Plant's boys, who are in 4A, are coming off a big win last weekend at the Buchholz Bobcat Invitational in Gainesville, where junior Bo Nalsen grabbed fourth place overall. Jesuit, last year's 2A state runner-up, was hit hard by graduation but the Tigers have managed to come back with a surprisingly strong squad built around junior Blake Lopez.

Robinson, meanwhile, has what could be the best squad in school history and is looking to make an impact in 2A this fall. The Knights feature standouts Bryan Garcia, Michael Shuey and Josh Epperson. Also entered in the boys ROC are Pasco's Wiregrass Ranch and Pinellas' Countryside.

Individually, Chamberlain senior Mark Parrish has made it into the ROC. He is coming off an impressive win at last week's Ryan McCall Invitational at the Sydney-Dover horse trails, where he turned in a 5-kilometer time of 16 minutes, 18 seconds. If you've run on that challenging course, you know that's a fast time. Over the three days of the meet in Dover, no one else broke 17 minutes on that course.

"He worked hard for that," Chamberlain coach Bill Strack said of Parrish's performance. "Mark doesn't always show a lot of emotion after a race but that time, he had this broad smile on his face and he gave me a big hug."

Parrish will have plenty of competition for top individual honors. Among the entrants are two-time 3A state cross country champion Matt Mizereck of Tallahassee Leon; 2A champion Michael Wallace of Jacksonville Bishop Kenny and teammate Colin Barker, winner of the state 3,200-meter title in track; 4A state 1,600 champion Armando Del Valle of Miami Christopher Columbus; 2A state runner-up Erick Montoya of Estero; and last week's winner of the Mountain Dew Invitational, Elliott Clemente of Miami Belen Jesuit.

DURANT HOSTS MEET: The annual Ron Frost Invitational, hosted by Durant High, is set for 6 p.m. today on the school's campus. Several of the teams located on the eastern side of the county are slated to compete. Robinson is favored in the boys meet and St. Petersburg Northside Christian is the team to beat in the girls division.

Reporter Bill Ward can be reached at (813) 259-7456.

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