BARTRAM TRAIL - Clay High senior Erika Martinez and St. Johns Country Day School senior Richard Nichols both ran breakout races on Saturday at the Bartram Trail High Bale N Trail 5Km course.

Martinez and Nichols are fairly new faces on the local cross country scene with Martinez a defensive midfielder for the Blue Devils' girls soccer team and Nichols being a top five runner for the Spartans behind the likes of Matthew Stratton and Graham Myers the past few years.

"I definitely would not be here if not for Kaygen (soccer and XC teammate Kaygen Williamson)," said Martinez. "Kaygen just kept saying 'Erika just run, it will make you so much better in soccer'."

In her first season on the cross country scene, Martinez has slowly dipped her finishing times to approaching region-level qualifying times with her 20:59.70 on Saturday for 28th place a solid improvement on the elusive 20 minute mark that puts most athletes into their respective region championship meets. Most area region races hover in the 17-19 minutes range for state qualifiers.

"I figure from my running in a 90 minute soccer game, this seems like the same thing except there are no stops," said Martinez. "It definitely takes a lot of mental focus along the whole course to keep track of everything going on around you and how your body feels."

In the girls race, 17:50.50 was the winning time from Creekside sophomore Alyson Johnson in a runaway with second place at 18:39.20.

Not far behind Martinez, locally, were Williamson in 35th in 21:15.80 with Oakleaf junior Morgan Wade at 37th in 21:23.70. The top 13 finishers were under 20 minutes.

In team scores, Bishop Kenny (4th in 2A last year) topped the girls field with all five scoring runners in the top five to earn 29 points with Oak Hall (1A state champion last year) second at 58 and Providence (1A 8th last year) third at 109. Oakleaf was top area school at 10th with 335 points.

Nichols, with a prerace strategy from coach Greg Stratton of pacing teammates, made a decision that he felt very good at the start and would run near the front.

"Honestly, I really wasn't feeling like a great race," said Nichols. "At the start line, I felt great with the great weather, everything just clicked and it felt right for a good race. I turned to coach Stratton and told him I felt like a good race."

Nichols powered against an elite field of runners up front from state powers Trinity Catholic (overall winner Cedric McFadden in 16:03.70), Creekside, Oak Hall and Ponte Vedra to push across in 27th plce in 17:04.80. Note: McFadden played running back and linebacker for Trinity on Friday night and also was a varsity lacrosse player.

"That is my best time ever by about 30 seconds," said Nichols, who trained with state champion Matthew Stratton, now at University of Florida, for three years. "We hit the first mile at 5:20 which was a little fast for me, but I didn't even feel it out there. Everthing felt good the entire race."

In the boys race, Oakleaf High sophomore Grant Keppel, who has been top area runner in the first half of the season, finished 37th in 17:21.00 with Orange Park football athlete Ty Obermeyer third area finisher in 64th at 17:48.30.

Creekside (4A state champion) won the team title with three runners in the top 10 with 57 pints with Oak Hall (4th in 1A) tying the Knights also with 57 and three runners in the top 10. Bartram Trail was third at 80.

FIHS Myers fourth in Georgia XC

By Randy Lefko

Sports Editor

CARTERSVILLE, GA - Fleming Island High's senior cross country duo of Graham Myers and John Keester IV both powered to top finished as the prestigious Wingfoot XC Classic in Cartersvile, GA, on Saturday in one of the toughest events in the southeast United States.

Myers and Keester both were among a front running pack of 25 runners under 16 minutes with Myers fourth in 15:26.20 and Keester IV 23rd in 15:54.00 as the Golden Eagles battled with the likes of winner Tommy Latham of Marist High (Brookhaven, GA), who has a mile split of 4:08.5 on his resume; Luke Alverson of James Clemens High (Madison, AL) with a 4:17 mile, and Raghav Gopalakrishn of Ardrey Kell High (Charlotte, NC) who has a 4:06 mile and the North Carolina 4A state title.

Latham, the Georgia Gatorade (National) runner of the year last year and 6A state champion, won in 15:02.30 with Clemens at 15:15.20 and Gopalakrishn third in 15:18.0.

In the team scores, Fleming Island was fifth with 214 points with James Clemens winning with 161 points.

In the girls race, Fleming Island sophomore Brooke Reynolds was top finisher at 44th in 19:57.30 with individual champion Claire Stegall of Nolensville High in Tennessee (4:39.94 mile and 3A state XC, 1660, 3200 champion), leading a breakaway threesome all under 18 minutes with her winning time of 17:21.20 winning by 28 seconds over Caroline Wood of Pace Academy of Atlanta (2A state champion). Claire Shelton of Dunwoody (GA) (defending Wingfoot champion/1A state XC champion) was third in 17:53.70.

Allie Knotts was second finisher for Fleming Island; 18th team, in 20:17 for 58th place.