Chris's Musings 10-16-07

Chris Sumner, Godby Cross Country Coach

As many of you probably already noticed last week, the temperature is dropping. For most of us, this is great news; because as the temperature drops, so does our times. I personally know it felt better Friday on the track compared to those hot nights over the summer. At Maclay, the City Championship turned into a Big Bend Championship with the absence of a few local teams and individual athletes. Aucilla, Franklin County, and Marianna joined in the action. Both boys and girls races produced numerous seasonal and personal bests. Over in Jacksonville, the ladies from Chiles showed their strength finishing a close 4 points behind Bishop Kenny and 3rd overall. Their spread from 1st to 6th was exactly 1 minute with their seventh runner not to far behind.

This coming weekend should be a great show down. The Panhandle Championship has always been known for its blazing fast course. This year with so many teams running so well, we should expect nothing less than a complete makeover of the honor roll. If the teams from the west come over, look out for the team battle on the boys’ side. Chiles, Leon, Maclay, Navarre, Niceville, and Washington all have strong teams this year and should make it a close race. With most of these teams all in the same district (3A District 1) things will be interesting and enlightening. 2A District 1 will also have most of its top teams battling it out. Though these teams are not as strong as the 3A boys, they are closely matched. Arnold, Gulf Breeze, Marianna, Pensacola Catholic, and Wakulla all have a fairly close pack of guys; should give a good insight on districts. The ladies are not to be forgotten either. Chiles, FWB, Leon, Maclay, and Niceville will make for another great match-up. The individual race for top honors will also be an exciting battle. Chanelle Cox of Niceville will have to defend her title against some very good talent in Chloe Kowalski of Pensacola Catholic, Alicia Fenley of Maclay, Laura Hempel of Rickards, and Kara Taylor of Chiles, to name a few. I sure wish Godby could be there for all the action. Hopefully Coach Gibson will forgive us on missing the race this year. I promised my team I would take them to Key West and this was the only weekend that worked. Good luck to all.