Another weekend of racing has been completed in the 2011 cross-country season! Except for some of Maclay’s ladies, all of the teams that competed this weekend attended the Lincoln Invitational at Tom Brown Park Saturday morning. In the girls’ competition, the first Tallahassee finisher was Kellie Hays from Lincoln. She came down the final hill in third, finishing with a time of 21:53. Her teammates Naliyah Gilbert (22:19-6th) and Anica Sunshine (22:21-7th) also contributed to the Lady Trojans’ second place finish! Florida High finished third, led by Isabella Yue who was eighth in a time of 22:54. Other Tallahassee teams included Maclay who finished fifth, and Chiles who finished eighth.

After the girls finished climbing the grueling hill at Tom Brown, the boys took their turn. Lincoln’s Jacob Slupecki won the race in 16:49, and his teammate Alex Close was tenth (18:14). Maclay, however, barely beat Lincoln out for first place by a four-point margin, led by Travis Covert who finished second (17:06). Contributing to Maclay’s win, Connor Daughton (17:21) and Jack Rutledge (18:03) finished fourth and ninth respectively. Next came North Florida Christian in fourth with Seth Venable (17:35-5th) and Luke Strickland (17:41-7th) finishing in the top ten. The other teams included Chiles in fifth, Florida High in seventh, Rickards in tenth, Godby in eleventh, and John Paul II in fourteenth.

Later Saturday night, Maclay’s ladies competed in the Katie Caples Invitational at Bishop Kenny High School in Jacksonville. As a refreshing breeze blew off the St. John’s River, the ladies were able to enjoy a flat course after sunset. Despite going off course, Stefanie Kurgatt managed to win the race in 19:23! Her teammate Kristin Sweeney placed ninth (20:28), and Maclay finished tenth overall. Once again, many of the local athletes will compete locally next Saturday at the ARP. Be sure to come on out to the FSU Invitational to see both collegiate and high school competition!