Gulf state runners converge on Mobile

By Arthur L . Mack for DyeStat

At least 40 teams from Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi are expected to participate in this year's Mobile Challenge of Champions meet at Langan Park on Saturday morning.

This year's meet—the 23rd edition of the event—will have teams in the Open and Invitational Divisions. The races start at 8 a.m. with the Open Division girls and conclude with the Invitational boys race.

“We have some pretty good teams coming in this year,” meet director Steve Schoenwald said. "As of Monday, we had 11 schools in the invitational boys division and 14 in the invitational girls division."

Ocean Springs and Starkville are the defending invitational girls champions. However, this year, several other teams could have a say as to who will take the top two slots.

There is Ascension Catholic of Donaldson, LA, the Class 1A Louisiana State runner-up. Ascension is led by Stephanie Breaux, who is among the individual favorites. Another Louisiana team to watch is Luscher Charter of New Orleans, the defending Class 3A state champions.

Other out-of-state schools include a pair of Mississippi schools — Vancleave High, runner-up in the 4A championships and Ocean Springs, the defending 6A champion; and West Florida Tech of Pensacola, which finished sixth in the state 2A meet.

Locally, Baker, Bayside Academy, Cottage Hill Christian, Daphne, Fairhope, McGill-Toolen, St. Paul's and UMS-Wright should have strong teams. Bayside Academy was third in last year's 3A state championships. St. Paul was third in last year's Class 5A championship meet, while UMS-Wright was runner-up in the Class 4A state championships.

St. Paul's, McGill-Toolen, and Cottage Hill Christian should especially bear watching, because all three schools have talented runners.

St. Paul's, which finished third in last year's 5A state championships, has eighth-grader Isabel Valenzuela, who finished first in last week's Warrior Challenge 2-mile race, where she ran 12 minutes, 17.9 seconds. Cottage Hill Christian's Caroline Cumbest, who finished second in that race (12:31.0) and McGill-Toolen's Grace Jensen—who was the top runner in the Spanish Fort Invitational (20:50.7).

The invitational boys competition could be a barn burner.

One runner to watch in particular is Alabama Christian's Sheldon Britton, who won the Class 5A 1,600 and 3,200 meter runs in last year's state championships with times of 4:27.53 and 9:47.68 respectively. Britton, in fact could be one of the favorites in Saturday's race.

Traveling schools include Acension Catholic and Luscher Charter, Ocean Springs, second in last year's Mississippi 6A state meet, as well as St. Stanislaus, defending Mississippi state 4A champions; and West Florida, the defending 2A district champs.

Local teams to watch in Saturday's competition include Baker, which won last week's Spanish Fort Invitational; Cottage Hill Christian, second in last year's Alabama state championships and trounced the competition in last week's Warrior Challenge; St Paul's, led by Warrior Challenge winner Brett Erickson, who ran 10:46.1; and Spanish Fort, which finished fourth in last year's Alabama Class 6A championships.

In addition, there's also Fairhope, last year's Baldwin County Champion.

Baker is led by Jay Day, Spanish Fort is led by Jack Morgan, while Cottage Hill Christian is led by Tyler Bennett. Another athlete to watch is Bayside Academy's Ash Midyett, who finished third individually in the Alabama 3A state championship race.