This future looks bright

You will read about these names again: Taylor Drake (Maclay), Molly Drake (Maclay), Matthew Katz (Maclay), Herbie Thiele (Chiles), Zita Magloire (Chiles), Allie Hunter (Lincoln) and Christy Cooper (Florida High). These runners, each a member of the All Big Bend Team, formed Monday night’s panel of experts at the Meyers Park Community Center for the GWTC lecture series. Their backgrounds are very diverse and include soccer, baseball and basketball players. They all now appeared to share a love for the sport of running – both cross country and track. And they all seemed to work very hard at their sport.

Track season starts very soon. Keep an eye out for them and I think you will see some big things this year from this group and others in this area.

Taylor Drake is a senior at Maclay and been a part of four state championship teams. He has run the 800 in 2:08, the mile in 4:40, two mile in 10:09 and three mile cross country in 15:59.

Molly Drake is a junior at Maclay and has been a part of three state championship teams. Taylor is her brother. She has run 63 seconds for the 400, 2:27 for the 800 and 19:26 for cross country.

Matt Katz is a senior at Maclay and has been running since his freshman year, participating on four state championship teams. He has run 4:28 for the mile, 9:53 for the two mile and 15:38 for cross country. He finished 5th in last year’s state cross country meet.

Herbie Thiele is a sophomore at brand new Chiles High School and has just begun to show his ability. He has run a 2:09 800 and 16:16 in his first year of cross country.

Zita Magloire is a junior at Chiles and one of coach Scott Gowan’s prize pupils. She has run a 2:20.52 for 800, 5:13.38 for 1600, 12:26 for 3200 and 18:33 for cross country. She was fourth in the 1A state meet.

Allie Hunter is a sophomore at Lincoln High School and ran the fastest 800 and 1600 times seen in awhile in the big bend area last year. She ran 800 in 2:14.85, 1600 in 5:02.82 and the cross country distance in 18:47. She was 14th in the state 4A meet.

Christie Cooper is a senior at Florida High School. She has run 2:23.62 for 800 and 19:19 for cross country.

Seen here are  (l-r) Allie Hunter (Lincoln), Zita Magloire (Chiles),
Herbie Thiele (Chiles), Matt Katz (Maclay), Taylor Drake (Maclay), and
Molly Drake (Maclay).