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Recap - Mobile Challenge of Champions - XC - Dyestat

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DyeStat.com   Sep 8th 2013, 6:27am
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MOBILE CHALLENGE OF CHAMPIONS RESULTS

 


Panhandle Power: Fort Walton Beach FL Sweeps in Mobile 
 
Strong individual performances turned in by Thomas Howell (FL) and Kate Mattox (MS)
 
By ARTHUR L. MACK
 
MOBILE, Ala.—Florida Panhandle powerhouse Fort Walton Beach came, saw, and conquered.
 
The Vikings, long one of the top teams in Northwest Florida and perhaps in the entire state, came to Mobile’s Langan Park and ran away with the Invitational Boys and Girls divisions of the Mobile Challenge of Champions on Saturday. The boys held off Panhandle rival Niceville, winning 35-56 and survived a 1-2 finish by Niceville’s Thomas Howell — who was second in the Challenge of Champions Track and Field Meet’s Invitational 2-mile — and Nicholas Morken, who ran 15 minutes, 59.20 seconds and 16:03.58, respectively, in hot weather on a slow, and in some spots muddy, course. (Photo at right by Arthur Mack).
 
Three Louisiana teams -- John Curtis of River Ridge, Brother Martin and St. Thomas More — rounded out the top five with 92, 145, and 184 points, respectively.The start of the boys varsity race at the Mobile Challenge of Champions, with Niceville's Thomas Howell out in front. (Arthur Mack photo)
 
On the Invitational Girls side, Fort Walton Beach also dominated, defeating Ocean Springs 74-104. Parkway was third with 172, while Starkville, led by girls race winner Kate Mattox (18:51.25) and Mandeville rounded out the top five with 190 and 206 points, respectively.
 
Fort Walton Beach head coach Jeff Fields said that the regional rivalry with Niceville, as well as preparing for the weather, played a hand in the sweep.
 
“We’ve been working hard all summer and coming off where the girls were Panhandle Region champions and (3A) state runner-up, and we followed it up with a lot of hard work this summer,” he said. “Obviously with the boys, Niceville has Thomas Howell, who is the defending state (cross country) champ and Nick (Morken), who finished third. When you have that kind of training in-house, it’s kind of easy to train against them. As for the weather, I told them that everybody else had to run in it, so we just hydrated and it was gut check time.” 
 
A trio of Fort Walton Beach runners — Charlie ShackelfordDemery Benedict and Trey LaNasa — took the early lead, with Howell and Morken, as well as defending champion Robert Hope of Mobile (Ala.) UMS-Wright and Devyn Keith of John Curtis close behind. For about a mile, they ran as a group, and then Howell and Morken broke away at the two-mile mark.
 
Howell downplayed the relatively fast time, hinting he could go even faster later in the season.
 
“It was a pretty slow course,” he said. “I was expecting to just relax and place and not worry about time today. We were kind of relaxing behind Fort Walton Beach, because they’re pack runners and have a really good team. There’s a lot of improvement ahead.”
 
Morken said he and Howell wanted to leave their mark as seniors.
“It was our first time running the course, and we were just trying to get a feel for it,” Morken said. “We are seniors and we can’t come back here next year. We didn’t know where to make the move. We wanted to draft off Fort Walton because they knew the course.”
 
Mattox, like Howell a runner-up in the Mobile Challenge of Champions Invitational 2-mile event, was locked in a battle early on with a star-studded cast that included Parkway’s Allison Ringle, Fort Walton Beach’s Emma Rudman, and Regen McGee of Pass Christian MS. Mattox, though, pulled away in the last half mile of the race.
 
“I really enjoyed it because I didn’t know what to expect, and I like that,” Mattox, a freshman, said. “I didn’t feel much pressure on me, and I was praying to God to give me strength and endurance to do my very best. It was really competitive, but it was good because we really got the chance to push each other. I was in pain, but it was either deal with the pain now or the pain of giving up (too soon).” 
 
Niceville won the Open Girls Division, defeating Ft. Walton Beach 33-114. Rounding out the top five were Mt. Carmel(120) Navarre (152) and John Curtis (154). Niceville’s Mackenzie Shinnick was the Open Division Girls’ race winner in 21:57.88.
 
Brother Martin won the Open Boys Division, edging Fort Walton Beach 80-91. Mandeville was third with 92, followed by John Curtis (102) and Navarre (105).
 
Daphne (Ala.) star John Alan Walker broke away from Mandeville’s Dylan Heck with about a mile to go and won the Open Boys’ race in 17:18.97. Afterwards, he said that the heat was tough, but he was prepared. What he wasn’t expecting was a challenge from Heck around the two mile mark
 
“It was rough,” Walker said. “We have practice in the afternoons only two days a week, but I worked out all summer anyway, so I was ready for the heat. I was afraid I was going to be dehydrated for a minute. There were three of us, and when we reached the tennis courts, this one guy (Heck) passed me, and then I passed him back.
 
“I wasn’t expecting this kind of competition, because the Open race is usually a JV (junior varsity) race and it was more of a confidence booster for us. I think some of the teams slipped their varsity runners in this year. But it was a very good race. I had cottonmouth early on and I couldn’t breathe, but once I got to the water station and got some water in me, I was all right.”



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