A scoring error gives Mitchell the Zak Lukas title.
By JOHN SCHWARB
Published October 6, 2004
Upon closer examination, Hernando's boys did not win Saturday's Zak Lukas Invitational.
Instead, it lost 82-83 to Mitchell.
While getting results ready to post online late Monday night, Leopards coach Ernie Chatman noticed 21st-place finisher Stephen McManus of Springstead and 36th-place finisher Alex Mason of Nature Coast Tech were scored as part of their teams.
But neither team had the five runners required for a team score. So Mitchell's Joey Buono earned 24 points for finishing 25th instead of 25 and Mike Holl 42 for finishing 44th.
Hernando gained just two points from Ian Hetu's 39th-place finish for 37 points.
So an 85-85 tie (the Leopards won via a No. 6 runner tiebreaker) turned into an 82-83 Mustangs victory at Hernando High.
"That's just the way it is," Chatman said. "That's okay. We take nothing away from our runners. It would have been nice (to win). I'm more worried about what the runners do individually and their improvement."
Hernando has not won its invitational since 1980. Meanwhile, Mitchell won for the second straight year.
"I didn't even know that we won," Mitchell coach Jacki Wachtel said. "That's nice, but I'm disappointed with our lack of team spirit. We didn't have a lot of the guys helping each other out. I think they got the message and won't let that happen again."
Times staff writer Bob Putnam contributed to this report.
