Wehunt, Gryphons Struggle, Advance

For many runners, there's a fine line between being fit and getting injured or sick. For the second time this season, Sickles senior Derek Wehunt finds himself on the wrong side of that line suffering the effects of a flu bug.

His illness caught up with him just after the first mile of Saturday's Class 4A-Region 2 cross country meet at Polk Community College. He was there with the leaders to that point, but soon fell off the pace and struggled to finish sixth.

Taking the individual crown was the guy Wehunt has never managed to beat, defending 4A state champion Brian Atkinson of Melbourne. Turning in the day's top time from any of the three classes who raced here, Atkinson won the 5-kilometer event in 15 minutes, 56 seconds.

Wehunt, who caught his bug last week and could be heard coughing and hacking during Saturday's race, ran 16:45.

"My training hasn't been very good all week because I just haven't been able to run without coughing or feeling weak," Wehunt said. "I caught this from twin brother Dan 13th place and now it seems like the whole team is sick."

On the bright side for the Gryphons, they did manage to qualify for state by taking third place (82 points). Now they have a week to get over the illness. Melbourne was the easy winner with 38 and Sarasota (75) was second.

Running his best race of the season, Durant's John Mitchell was the area's top individual finisher in the 4A meet, taking third in 16:29. He'll be running at state without the support of his team, which had two other runners in the top 40 but finished ninth.

In the 4A girls race, Gaither was the only Hillsborough County squad to advance to state. The Cowboys, led by 14th-place Julissa Lopez and Sandra Pratt (30th), took sixth. Considering two of Gaither's varsity runners were unable to finish the season due to injuries received in an auto accident last month, its qualification for state was quite an accomplishment.

Durant sophomore Grace VanDeGrift also overcame a huge hurdle to reach the state meet. She came back from an early-season stress fracture in her lower leg to take the final individual qualifying spot Saturday, 15th place. Also reaching state as an individual was Mitchell's Kelli Williams, sixth in 20:21.