Eight and counting for Jesuit

By TERRY JONES
Published October 26, 2006

TAMPA - Connor Revord was instructed by Jesuit coach Mike Boza to run a fast race to give his team a good time. He did.

His time of 16 minutes, 18.09 seconds won the boys race and helped the Tigers team to their eighth consecutive district championship. Jesuit senior Eric Bracy was second in 16:26 and the first five Tigers each finished in the top 10.

Newsome, led by second-place sophomore Casey Dolan, won the girls title. Tampa Catholic sophomore Meghan Sullivan won the girl's race in 20:33.

"The course was smooth and I just wanted to win the race and bring our guys in with a good time," Revord said. "I was pushed by Spencer (Duhm). I saw him pushing me at a turn, but I didn't look back at the end."

Bracy passed Duhm in the last few yards with strong kicks.

Jesuit coach Mike Boza was as pleased with the performance of Bracy as he the team victory.

"Today was a breakthrough for Eric," Boza said. "It was certainly his best effort yet."

Also scoring for Jesuit were Matthew Tucker (fifth), Matt Hindman (ninth) and Alexander Tatro (10th).

Robinson placed second for the boys and Newsome third. Those were the only Hillsborough County boys teams and all met the top eight cutoff for region qualification.

For the girls, the top six teams qualify. Individual qualifiers are the first 15, whether they are on the qualifying teams or not.

At the finish line, Dolan's 20:44 was 11 seconds behind Sullivan, but it helped the Wolves win by 32 points ahead of second-place Academy of the Holy Names. Tampa Catholic was third.

Sullivan also is a strong tennis player, but Wednesday she was all cross country.

"There were some very good runners here," she said. "I moved into the lead at the 2-mile mark and I could almost feel the Newsome runner close behind me all the way. She pushed me hard."

[Last modified October 26, 2006, 06:53:53]