Parrish, Jackson, pace area runners at Pre-State

Finally, the area's cross country runners got some decent weather to race in.

That came Saturday morning at the Pre-State Invitational cross country meet at Little Everglades Ranch in Dade City, where thanks to a cold front, the thermometer finally dipped below 70 degrees for the first time this season.

Leading the way for the locals was Chamberlain senior Mark Parrish, who was seventh in the elite division race in a 5-kilometer time of 15 minutes, 42 seconds. Most coaches consider the Little Everglades Ranch course challenging but relatively fast and, more importantly, accurate. With the cooler weather and good footing, times were generally quick and many runners posted personal-best or season-best performances.

Parrish's effort, along with a solid 20th-place showing by sophomore Max del Monte (16:09) and a 50-second personal best by No. 4 man Sean Russo (17:13, 96th place), powered Chamberlain to 11th place with 331 points, tops among area schools in that division. Jake Covington (53rd, 16:38) was the Chiefs' No. 3 man and Alex Leinhauser (166th, 18:34) was their final scorer.

The Chiefs' showing was something of a upset locally because Plant, ranked No. 1 in Hillsborough County by the Tampa Tribune/TBO.com, took 14th place with 351 points. The Panthers' No. 1 man was 28th-place Bo Nalsen (16:16). They're still without senior Trenor Wilkins but he's recovered from the stress fractures in his legs and is running again.

Class 2A Berkeley Prep's boys, meanwhile, had a good showing to take 16th place. The Bucs were led by senior Tyler Greathouse, who was 14th in 16:01. That was a slight improvement over the the time he ran last week in North Carolina to win the small school race of the Great American Cross Country Festival. Berkeley also got a good effort from junior Michael Rosenbach, who turned in a personal best of 16:30.

Land O'Lakes was also in the elite boys race, taking 17th place paced by Matt Schwartz (31st, 16:21). Jesuit earned 20th place paced by Blake Lopez (51st, 16:37) and Robinson finished 23rd led by Bryan Garcia (23rd, 16:11).

In the large school race later in the morning. Seminole's Chase Sutton produced a big win, crossing the finish line 16:15 to win by seven seconds. Also running well in that race was Sickles senior Julian Gines, who was fifth in a personal best of 16:36.

On the girls side, Plant girls were the top local performers in the elite division, taking 10th place with 272 points. The Panthers would have finish much higher but they lost several places when sophomore standout Molly Harry collapsed with exhaustion in the final 100 meters and had to crawl across the finish line.

Plant had a new No. 1 runner emerge from the race, freshman Julia Rodriguez, who was 40th in 19:48. Usual No. 1 Lizzie Goodwin was 53rd and another freshman, Caroline Gibson, was 45th in 19:57.

The top area individual girl finisher was Newsome freshman Brianna Jackson, who was 34th in a personal best of 19:44. Jackson moved to the area from Illinois during her eighth grade year and has been something of a surprise to Wolves coach Orlando Greene. As a team, Newsome was 17th with 424 points and Land O'Lakes, led by Renae Porsch (44th, 19:54), was 20th.

In the large school girls race, King's Dayna Cline was seventh in 20:07.