Deak wraps up cross country season By David Yon

Ryan Deak won his first state title in Tampa Saturday while helping Maclay deliver state title number 15 to coach Gary Droze. Deak ran 15:12 to dust Tim McLeod who was fifty seconds behind at 16:02 and reinforce Maclay’s dominance in this event. Maclay has won every state 1A title since the class was created in 1999. They also won the 2A division the last time they were a participant in 1998 and they were runners up in 1997. That is five straight titles. Deak’s time was the fastest of the entire meet, regardless of class. Ross McMillan (12th, 16:56), and David Huntzinger (18th, 17:04) joined Deak in the top 20 finishers. Maclay kept its point total to 85 to win easily over Holy Trinity which scored 147 points.

The girls team has also been impressive over the years and, while they were just short of the boys accomplishment, they did grab second place with strong efforts by Jennifer Emo (5th, 19:43) and Adriana Piekarewicz (20th, 20:35). Holy Trinity won with 63 points while Maclay had 140.

Chiles proved it was more than just a new face in the class 2A division by grabbing second in the boys race and sixth in the girls race. Bishop Kenny was top dog in the boys race while Our Lady of Lourdes was the girls winner. Chiles’ boys team was led by Herbie Thiele who finished fifth in 15:57. Alex Miletich (10th, 16:14) and Stephen Smith (15th, 16:30) were the other top Chiles finishers.

Allie Hunter qualified for state without a team, but she used the opportunity to capture seventh place in the girls 3A division with a time of 19:47. Leon High’s boys, the lone 3A team representatives, took 19th place.

More results at http://flrunners.com/.