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Gators meeting expectations

Rivals pointed to the Gators as a top team and their run Saturday in Lecanto justified the talk.

By IZZY GOULD
Published September 20, 2005

LAND O'LAKES - Some runners had to wonder what happened to Land O'Lakes two weeks ago at the Gator Invitational.

Virtually every coach in Pasco County believes the Gators are this season's team to beat.

Yet in their meet the Gators finished third; strange when you consider the bulk of competition was local.

Of course, there's always a deeper story beyond names and numbers. In this case, it was the absence of freshman Felix Soto, who had a prior commitment.

With him, the Gators were resilient Saturday en route to second place at the Lecanto Invitational.

Gators coach Kris Keppel said earning second at a large meet - this one with 33 schools - was one of many goals his runners hoped to accomplish.

"We're where we want to be at this point," Keppel said. "That's the highest finish we've ever had at a large meet in our school's history."

Gainesville Buchholz won the meet, but Keppel was satisfied with runner-up honors to the perennial power. Land O'Lakes senior Steven Bell won the race with a time of 16 minutes, 25.50 seconds.

But youth makes up a good portion of the roster at Land O'Lakes.

Sophomore Jake Proudfoot finished 10th with a solid 17:09.14 and Soto was No.3 for the Gators - 17th overall - in 17:29.31.

There also was a heated battle between Matt Whitlock, Tommy Spock and Tommy Cook - all finishing within a second of each other for 47th, 48th and 49th, respectively.

"That's probably the best team I've seen Land O'Lakes ever have," said Michael Stanton, a nine-year veteran coach at Zephyrhills. "The depth is at (Nos.) 4, 5 and 6."

Keppel believes this is the best pool of talent he has coached in 12 seasons at Land O'Lakes. His goal is to help the Gators earn a top-five finish in the state meet.

For now, the Gators will focus on cutting their times before the next major meet, the flrunners.com Invitational VI Sept.30-Oct.1 at Little Everglades Ranch.

Many of Keppel's peers, including Hudson coach Frank Buono, believe the best is still to come for the Gators.

"Land O'Lakes is far ahead of all the teams in the county," Buono said. "They have a great youth program over there. Pine View Middle could put a team together and probably beat half the teams in the county. ... When a team gets an elite runner like Bell, everyone's trying to keep up with him. It was the same at Mitchell when they had (Jeff) Masterson. Other teams don't have that rabbit out there."

--Contact Izzy Gould at 352 521-6517 or igould@sptimes.com

[Last modified September 20, 2005, 01:55:19]