Meet Recap by Herb Wills

FACA Senior All-Star XC Meet 2015

When a cross country team scores 25 points, it wins. That’s part of the mathematics of the sport. And at the FACA Senior All-Star Cross Country Classic the North squad scored 25 points in the girls’ 5K race. They won. Emma Tucker of Chiles led the North’s charge, passing St Thomas Aquinas’ Alexa Cruz in the final kilometer to win the race 18:56.83 to 19:00.78. The boys’ 5K belonged to the West team. Their ace, Tampa Plant’s Rob Leverone, won the race in 16:10.20, leading his team to a score of 41 points and victory.

FACA hosted The Classic on Tallahassee’s Apalachee Regional Park Championship Cross Country Course, making the 21 November 2015 meet a return to the scene of the State Final, held two weeks earlier. This Saturday morning, though, there were only two races, with the girls racing first. Maddie Fulmer of Fort Walton Beach was the early leader, but Alexa Cruz soon took over. Halfway through the race Cruz was thirty meters ahead of the rest of the field. Meanwhile, Emma Tucker had moved up into third. Tucker continued to move up, passing Fulmer and setting her sights on Cruz. With a kilometer to go Tucker had pulled even with Cruz. Then Tucker surged.

“She picked it up,” said Cruz. “I tried to keep her in range. I lost a few seconds on the hill [i.e., the Wall], then I sprinted with 400 meters to go and tried to catch her. It was close.”

It was, but Tucker made it home first in 18:56.83, with Cruz taking second in 19:00.78. Fulmer finished strong to take third in 19:20.04, beating out George Jenkins’ Victoria Jung (4th, 19:20.89) and Chiles’ Alex Wallace (5th, 19:23.16) on the final stretch.

Tucker, Fulmer, and Wallace were the first of six runners that the North put in the top ten, scoring 25 points for the team title. Led by Jung, the East was second with 52 points, and Cruz’s South squad was third with 55. The West was fourth with 105 points.

Minute after the girls cleared the course it was time for the boys to race. Through the first mile there was a lead peloton rather than a lead runner--no pacemaker had broken away from the field. That changed on the second mile when Lake Mary’s John Lyons, running for the East, made a move. By the halfway point Lyons was out front with a ten-meter lead on the field, stretching out the peloton.

Lyons couldn’t maintain the pace, though, fading to eventually finish 13th in 16:40.58. With Lyons gone Rob Leverone took over. At the four kilometer mark Leverone was in the lead, a few steps ahead of Justin Pacifico of Flagler Palm Coast. Leverone widened the gap on the way to the finish line, winning the race in 16:10.20. Also running for the West, Marshall Dillon of Charlotte passed Pacifico early in the final kilometer then raced home to take second in 16:14.40. Leonard’s Ilio Sanchez was third in 16:19.01 and Trenton Liberty of Mandarin was fourth in 16:21.80. Pacifico placed fifth in 16:23.03.

Behind the one-two finish of Leverone and Dillon, the west scored 41 points, taking the team title. Led by Trenton Liberty, the North was second with 50 points. The East narrowly outscored the South for third, 58 to 61.

Several of the athletes have additional post-season races scheduled. “I’m going to Nike Cross Regionals,” said Alexa Cruz.

“We’ve got two girls and one boy headed to Foot Locker next week,” said Chiles coach Scott Gowan.

“This was a workout for Foot Locker,” confirmed Emma Tucker.

It was also a race, though, and you could see the workout vs. race conflict in Gowan’s coaching at the Classic.

“Just finish, just finish,” the Chile coach called out to Emma Tucker with 200 meters left in the girls’ 5K.

“But get in!” he amended his instructions after spotting the charging Alexa Cruz just behind Tucker.