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Cross Country: Sickles' Zentmeyer wins Mitchell Invitational

 
Published Sept. 28, 2014

NEW PORT RICHEY — With visiting Ocala Vanguard in the mix at Starkey Park for the Mitchell Invitational on Saturday, the pace was sure to speed up and it did. Some bay area individuals proved their mettle but Vanguard — with a boys team ranked fifth in the state by Flrunners.com and girls ranked ninth — had landslide victories.

Sickles' James Zentmeyer won the boys' race, outdueling Vanguard's Joey Fitzpatrick.

In the girls race, when runners emerged from the wooded trails at the 2.5-mile mark, Mitchell's Emily Kerns was chasing Vanguard's Audrey Carpenter with no other runners within 10 seconds. They both dug out the last 100 meters but Carpenter held on to win in 19 minutes, 9.1 seconds with Kerns in 19:09.6. Nature Coast Tech's Amelia Schmit finished third in 19:48.60. Sickles' Abigail Grant was fifth in 20:01.90.

"After the 3-mile mark we both picked it up a lot," Kerns said. "She'd pull ahead and I'd catch up to her, today was just her day."

Carpenter pulled Kerns to a season best by more than 35 seconds. Kerns said that with Friday night's rain there was a giant puddle, knee-deep in places, to add to the course's complexity.

"I love this course," Kerns said. "When I ran through the puddle I was surprised at how deep it was, I was splashing all over, I'm pretty sure it got in my hair."

Vanguard dominated with 29 points with Wharton (146) second and Seminole 179 (third).

In the boys race, Zentmeyer battled Fitzpatrick. Zentmeyer took the high side of the trail and avoided the giant puddle but turned up the heat near the 2-mile mark. When the boys emerged from the woods, Zentmeyer and Fitzpatrick were dueling with Jefferson's Daniel Erickson behind.

"He (Fitzpatrick) didn't want me to pass him; every time I'd push, he'd speed up," Zentmeyer said.

With about a half mile to go, Zentmeyer made his move and left Fitzpatrick in the rearview to win in 16:19.0.

"I could hear people cheering (for Fitzpatrick) a good bit behind me, so I knew I had a few seconds on him and I just kept it up," Zentmeyer said.

Fitzpatrick was second in 16:24.3 followed by Nature Coast freshman Trevor Foley (16:48) and Erickson (16:50.6.) Osceola's AJ Jimenez was sixth in 16:52.70.

Vanguard won easily with 50 points to runnerup Sickles' 123. Ryan Murphy, Nathan Collins, Angel Maldonado and Nathir Fator contributed to the Gryphons' photo finish, just one point ahead of Lakeland's McKeel Academy. Steinbrenner claimed fourth with 138 points.