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Mustangs get good measuring stick
By JAMAL THALJI, Times Staff Writer It's not the state cross country meet. It's just tougher. Because that's the kind of elite competition the third annual Flrunners.com Invitational will draw to Polk Community College on Saturday. Land O'Lakes, Mitchell, the River Ridge girls and the Wesley Chapel boys will line up against the best in the state, regardless of classification. Locally, all eyes will be on the Mitchell boys and sophomore phenom Jeff Masterson. The Mustangs climbed to No. 2 in the flrunners.com Class 3A poll, and Masterson has risen to No. 3 in 3A thanks to his season-best time of 15 minutes, 9 seconds. Mitchell coach Bill Napolitano and his team have been anxiously counting the days. "This is our biggest challenge of the year," Napolitano said. "We're going to have a lot of top teams, a lot of top schools and a lot of top individuals." It's also a chance at redemption after the team followed up a strong win at the Gator Invitational with a subpar victory at last week's Ridgewood Invitational. "You have to consider that we've been conditioning all summer long," Napolitano said. "We went to Land O'Lakes and had a great meet. We went to Ridgewood and we didn't have a very good meet. There were a lot of things there that weren't too agreeable with us at that meet. "We sat down and had a team meeting and I was very critical. We discussed some things, including the direction we want to go in." Masterson called the coach's pep talk "positive reinforcement." "If he's correcting one person," Masterson said. "He's correcting all of us." Despite some minor ailments, Napolitano said he expects his team to rebound with a strong performance. But then they'll have to. As a state-ranked team, the word is out on Mitchell. The Mustangs enter the boys' race of champions division, the elite division, ranked seventh overall among competitors. Warren East Kentucky is ranked No. 1 overall, followed by Winter Park (No. 1 in 4A), Martin County (No. 2 in 4A), Leto, Flagler Palm Coast (No. 1 in 3A) and Plant (No. 3 in 3A). "This is a bragging-rights meet," Napolitano said. "It really pits the best against the best." That elite group includes Masterson, who admits he's nervous entering the toughest race of his career against such runners as Maclay's Ryan Deak (No. 1 in A), Ocala Vanguard's Steven Hassen (No. 1 in 3A), Flagler Palm Coast's Sam Vazquez (No. 2 in 3A) and Satellite's Alex Stewart (No. 4 in 3A). "Of course you have to be nervous when the polls come out and they put you in the top five for this race," Masterson said. River Ridge girls coach Erik Hermansen hopes this race will help his runners, led by defending Sunshine Athletic Conference champion Samantha Jacobsen and Danielle Coyle, improve their times. "I want to see how they fare against tough competition from all over the state," Hermansen said. "But it's just another race. We're practicing, we're getting better, and we're using it as another stepping stone to improve." Land O'Lakes coach Kris Keppel is expecting big things from his top two girls, Dani Shimer and Jamie Myers, and a breakout performance from freshman Steven Bell. "We're shooting for the top five out of 28 teams," Keppel said. "We still only have four girls, but they'll all be healthy and ready to race on Saturday. "If there's going to be a surprise, it's going to be Steven Bell. He seems to be more determined than he's been the first part of the month."
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From today's Pasco Times Editorial Letters |
