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Quintet leads Barons to second city title

Five of St. Petersburg Catholic's boys place in the top 13. Shorecrest wins the City Meet for the girls.

By JOHN C. COTEY

© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 5, 2001

ST. PETERSBURG -- There was little doubt before Thursday's St. Petersburg City Meet that Admiral Farragut's John Biffar would win the boys race. The only question was how?

How about according to plan?

"We wanted him to go out at about five minutes for the first mile, then put on a surge and open up that gap, and then just cruise on in," said coach Phil Barnhill. "And that's pretty much what he did."

It took Biffar 15 minutes, 28 seconds to win his second consecutive City Meet, a time nine seconds faster than his 2000 winning time. St. Petersburg Catholic scored 31 points, 41 more than second-place St. Petersburg, to win the boys team title for the second consecutive year.

The Barons placed all five scorers in the top 13, led by second- and third-place finishes by Tony Cormier (16:11) and Brian Sullivan (16:19) respectively.

Cormier was near the front for the first mile, which Biffar said surprised him. Once he was able to pull away, Biffar was able to work on strengthening his running attack in the second half of the race.

"Winning is great, but I'd rather be ready at the end of the season," he said. "I just wanted to go out and work on my second half."

The girls champion was Shorecrest with 38 points, and Keswick was second with 62. The Chargers were paced by a 1-2 finish from individual champion Maggie Thompson and Brittany Whitelock in ending the Crusaders two-year win streak at the meet.

Thompson, a transfer from California, won her first varsity race in a time of 19:43, four seconds off her personal best set last year at the California State Meet in Fresno. The junior trailed Whitelock nearly the whole race, then passed her before the 200-yard straightaway.

"She did the same thing to me last Saturday and got me in the last 15 seconds," said Whitelock, who ran a 19:51 in her second straight runner-up finish. "I just like to go out (fast). She got me today."

Thompson said she was merely running her typical race.

"I usually just go out and try to stay as even as I can, and if I have anything left I'll speed up," she said. "I felt pretty good today."

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