Central 5K competitors take it slow, steady

With a weekend meet on tap at Land O'Lakes, the times are a little bloated in season opener.

By DEREK LaRIVIERE
Published September 6, 2006

BROOKSVILLE - The cross country programs from Land O'Lakes, Central, Hernando and Nature Coast Tech officially began their seasons with Tuesday's 5K at Central.

As expected, Hernando's Ben Martucci ran away with the boys title, leading the race the entire time. He broke away around the 1-mile mark, but what was unexpected was the times. Martucci, who normally runs between 15 and 16 minutes on a 5K course, crossed the line in 17:36.

"Coach (Ernie) Chatman told me to take it easy out there today because we have a big meet this weekend at Land O'Lakes," Martucci said. "So I gave about 80 percent because I didn't want to kill it."

The consensus was that most of the top runners had the same mentality. Land O'Lakes' Jake Proudfoot pulled in with a second-place finish in 18:02. The rest of the top five was rounded out by Hernando competitors, giving Chatman a positive outlook going into the weekend.

"We came into this one with a hard practice mentality," Chatman said.

"I think we accomplished what we wanted to out here, and this will give us a lot of confidence going into the rest of the season."

On the girls side, Land O'Lakes took first overall in the team standings, but Hernando's Emi Stephens won her first cross country event. Stephens finished in 23:17.

The team victory was the Gators' first in girls cross country since 1998. Last season the program didn't have enough runners to qualify for team events.

Land O'Lakes edged host Central by one point, 29-30. Hernando did not have enough runners to qualify for the team standings because top runner Anna Gray is still out due to illness.

Central had good performances on both sides. Liz McGeehan ran a 24:33 to register fourth place. Alex Yattaw finished ninth, running the 5K in 19:22.

Nature Coast, which didn't have enough boys to qualify in the team standings and came in third on the girls side, also had decent performances.

Alex Mason led the Sharks with a time of 19:45 to finish 13th. Candice Lopez, a freshman, led the girls with a 27:38, good for 14th.

[Last modified September 6, 2006, 01:47:30]