Talk about some home cooking to take into district week.
Hernando High hosted Saturday's first Citrus/Hernando Classic, formerly the conference championships. Neither the boys or girls teams won, but both got enough big performances to think big entering Thursday's district meet.
On the girls side, the Leopards' No.2-5 runners posted season bests, led by Danielle Coopman's time of 20 minutes, 46 seconds, which topped all county girls. Her
previous best was 21:14, set Oct.2 on the same course during the Zak Lukas Invitational. Anna Gray (20:51), Nicole Daughtry (21:32) and Josefine Tonn (21:55) also ran their best races of the season.
As for the boys, sophomore Ben Martucci turned in his second straight victory, coming from behind to beat Citrus' Joe Silvestro with a personal-best 16:45.
"It should be a boost to him," Hernando coach Ernie Chatman said.
Bret Chatman finished second for the Leopards (seventh overall) with a time of 17:04, 15 seconds better than his previous best of 17:19 set at the Aug.28 Red Mule Labor Day 5K. He was the tail end of a pack of seven runners finishing within 19 seconds of each other, a good sign for this point of the season.
Another good sign - a whopping 10 of Hernando's 11 total runners posted personal bests, with only Andrew Martucci not in the mix due some asthma complications during the cold morning (he finished 19th in 18:26).
Hernando's district race is Friday in Tampa, including teams from Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough counties. The way Ernie Chatman handicaps it, the Leopards should advance comfortably behind powerhouse Jesuit.
"Everyone else is running for second place, that's the honest truth," Chatman said. "But we're running well."
