Nick Norton breaks free from a tight situation for his first event title.
By JOHN SCHWARB
Published October 19, 2003
BROOKSVILLE - Three runners entered the stadium track in a row, with Nick Norton leading the way. It appeared to be perhaps a precarious position, with Lecanto teammate Dustin Elder just two strides behind and Crystal River's Clayton Bristol a few more strides back in third.
But with his first event title in sight, Norton failed to relinquish the lead and clocked a personal-best 16 minutes, 52 seconds in winning Saturday's Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Championship race at Hernando High.
"I felt a lot of pressure," said Norton, a sophomore. "I just said "I'm going to run my heart out and see how it goes.' "
Norton did not run all week while nursing a sore tendon in his left foot, but said he was not about to miss the conference race, especially after last year when he passed on it to attend a Florida State football game.
His teammates also turned in some of their best performances of the year, helping Lecanto to an easy team victory with 30 points on a pleasant morning for running. Elder finished third (16:55), Wayne Saxer took fourth (17:07) and Jon Edge finished seventh (17:22).
Those four Panthers finished before second-place Hernando (60 points) had its No. 1 runner finish. Mike Laird (17:30) was eighth for the Leopards.
Lecanto's girls were equally impressive in the first race of the day, taking five of the top 10 spots to tally 32 points, 17 ahead of second-place Crystal River. But Holly Van Sicklen was the individual story, successfully defending the conference crown she won last year as a freshman.
The sophomore completed the 3.1 miles in 20:06, 14 seconds ahead of Hernando's Leela Hadsock. After negotiating a hill at the 1.2-mile mark, Van Sicklen pulled away from a pack that included Hadsock and Lecanto teammates Deirdra Witherspoon and Taylor Cooke.
"It was a heck of a race, my race of the season," Van Sicklen said. "This means a lot to me. I don't know how (next week's) districts are going to go, but for today I'm very happy."
