'Canes hit bump on road to state

Before the season, the Citrus boys had designs on a top-five finish at state.

Now, the Hurricanes hope to just get there.

Saturday's disappointing third-place performance in the Class 2A, District 3 meet at Lecanto High left Citrus coach Bruce Nelson searching for words.

"We didn't do well at all," Nelson said. "We're not going to qualify for state if we run like this at regionals."

Citrus senior Tony Lyons, the county's top runner, did his part, capturing first in 16 minutes, 6 seconds to claim his second straight district title. But Matt Baum (10th, 17:38) was the only other Hurricane to place in the top 20. Justin MacDonald (18:17), Kyle Helt (18:19) and James Lopiccolo (18:21) were 22nd, 23rd and 24th, respectively.

"We were almost a minute slow for what we should have been in our 3-4-5 guys," Nelson said. "I'm going to try to get that minute back somehow."

Citrus was seventh at state last year and fourth in 1999 and 2000.

ANYBODY HAVE THE TIME? Because starting times were listed wrong in some newspapers, a few teams arrived late Saturday, causing organizers to push back the start about 30 minutes.

Lecanto coach Dan Epstein, who ran the event, had no idea how the mistake was made but said all coaches were given a packet with the correct times. Nevertheless, the decision was made to delay things so runners would not be punished for somebody else's mistake.

Some runners had little time to stretch.

"We got here about five minutes before the race started," said Gulf's Melissa Dattoli, who placed second behind Lecanto's Deirdra Witherspoon.

Dattoli still managed to run within 20 seconds of her personal-best.

"I'm happy with second," she said. "Deirdra pushed me hard. I was there, but toward the end she pulled away. She deserves it."

MIXED EMOTIONS: Lecanto's Epstein was not satisfied by the Panthers' third-place finish, but was happy to see Crystal River earn the girls title Saturday.

Epstein once coached the Pirates.

"I couldn't be happier for Crystal River," Epstein said. "Look at what they've done. They're well-deserving of it. (Pirates coach) Laura Shirley has done a great job with the girls."

Witherspoon and Nicole Mailloux (8th, 21:15) were Lecanto's lone top-15 finishers. That has Epstein concerned about regionals.

This Saturday's Region 2 event, also at Lecanto, will have seven state-ranked teams, including No. 4 Cocoa Beach, No. 7 Rockledge and No. 8 Orlando Bishop Moore. Cocoa Beach is led by Elynore Kabboord, the defending state champion.

SEE YOU SOON: Wesley Chapel junior David Forry, second to Lyons by five seconds Saturday, looks forward to a rematch at regionals.

Forry's 16:11 was a personal best and school record.

Lyons led from the start.

"I gave it my all, but I didn't have enough to challenge him," Forry said. "But I had never seen the course and Tony has."

Forry, second in the recent Sunshine Athletic Conference meet, thinks he will be better prepared this week because he knows the course.

-- Keith Niebuhr can be reached at 860-7337 or online at niebuhr@sptimes.com .

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