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By KEITH NIEBUHR
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 20, 2001
INVERNESS -- Before Wednesday's Citrus County Championship at Whispering Pines Park, Citrus junior Tony Lyons crouched and vomited.
This, he later said, was a good thing.
"Every time you puke before you race, you do well," Lyons said. "It's becoming my thing, I guess."
Hey, whatever works.
Lyons, running stride for stride with teammate C.J. Bryant the entire 3-mile race, finished in 17 minutes 49 seconds to claim the boys title and lead the Hurricanes to a convincing win. Bryant was second in 17:50.
"We're not even breathing hard," Lyons said. "It felt great today."
Citrus, which claimed the first seven spots, finished with 15 points to win its fourth consecutive county title. Lecanto was second with 62, followed by Crystal River with 86.
Amanda Howard of Lecanto won the girls title for the second consecutive year. Lecanto, which placed the top three runners, finished well ahead of Citrus (49) and Crystal River (59). Lyons and Bryant, both state-ranked by www.flrunners.com, ran with their teammates for the first 2 miles, then separated from the pack.
As they neared the finish line, both ran at a regular pace as neither seemed too concerned about beating the other.
"We came in at the exact same time," Bryant said. "They just gave (first place) to whomever. Somebody had to come in first and somebody had to come in second."
The race served as a tuneup for Citrus, which will compete at the prestigious South Florida Invitational on Saturday in Tampa. Therefore, none of its top runners pushed themselves too much. Howard won by 12 seconds with a time of 20:47, but was challenged a bit by teammate and runner-up Deidra Witherspoon. "At the 2-mile mark she started closing in, but then I started to run a little faster," Howard said. "It's my senior year and I just really want to do good. I really wanted to win this."
Howard also plans to run Saturday in Tampa.