St. Petersburg's Clayton Hofstra wins in the end, and the Lakewood boys and Shorecrest girls win City Meet team titles.
By JOHN C. COTEY
Published October 1, 2003
St. Petersburg's Clayton Hofstra trained all summer with one goal in mind: To win a race.
Any race.
Then the season started and he learned a tough lesson - he wasn't the only one who trained hard. And after gamely trying to knock off Seminole's Ken Magee in some early races, Hofstra came to a conclusion.
Any race would have to be the Magee-less City Meet Championship.
Tuesday at Crescent Lake Park, Hofstra won what he said might be the only race he can this year, prevailing over a charging William Werly in a dramatic finish.
In a season of easy wins for Magee, Hofstra, teammate Tommy Nagy and Keswick Christian's Werly staged a back-and-forth duel.
First it was Werly, then Nagy, then Hofstra, who tried to pull away at the 2-mile mark. But Werly, highly regarded for his finishing kick, charged back and actually passed Hofstra in the chute.
However, Werly seemed to pull up short, thinking he had crossed the finish line, and Hofstra regained the lead at the last possible moment to win in 16 minutes, 37 seconds. Werly, a winner in his last two races, was a second behind.
"I knew he had a good kick," Hofstra said. "He killed me in the last mile last year, but today I think he stopped because he thought he crossed. I heard him behind me. I just didn't want him to kill me again."
Neither Hofstra nor Werly could will their teams to victory, because surprising Lakewood turned in a 6-7-8 finish from James O'Berry, Kyle Larson and Brian Stamp for a team total of 53 points to top Hofstra's Green Devils, who scored 81.
In stark contrast to the boys thrilling finish, St. Petersburg sophomore Kerry Allen won again, finishing in 18:56.
But Shorecrest's Cori Morris and Pavandeep Birk finished 2-3, and Samantha Specht was fifth for the Chargers to give them the team title with 49 points. St. Petersburg was second with 74.
