KEYSTONE HEIGHTS - Middleburg High cross country coach Kenneth Yancey had an Army of red-clad warriors with him at the Keystone Heights Cross Country Invitational last Saturday and came home with two team trophies—boys and girls—with the depth of the Broncos playing a big part on the day.

"We're getting stronger up front, and the teams are staying close enough together near the finish line that we can get some good point totals," said Yancey prior to the race that saw his boys and girls teams both take the team titles, with the boys scoring 25 to win over Baker County's 58. "We have Daniel Johnson up front and Adam Ruoss pretty close at the front, then a good group of guys for those 3-4-5 points."

For the girls, Middleburg's top finisher was freshman Lauren Rosset in fourth place behind winner Shakira Agatha Wigham of Interlachen, Emily Turner of Ridgeview and seventh grader Kenzie McCollum of Trinity Christian to start the Lady Broncos scoring.

From Rosset, Yancey had Isabella Munoz in 14th, but more importantly, Kynlee Helmuth and freshman Temperance Brown in 17th and 18th, and Riley Toomey in 20th to put the Bronco first five in before both Interlachen and Ridgeview. Middleburg won with 50 points, with Interlachen second with 62 and Keystone Heights third with 69.

Keystone Heights had seventh grader Ryleigh Thomas as first finisher in an impressive seventh place in 23 minutes and two seconds with teammates Olivia Griffin and Melody Tyre in together at ninth and 10th.

In Tallahassee, at the prestigious HOKA Nights of Thunder Invitational, Fleming Island's boys team threw big punches with the likes of Chiles, Niceville, Sunlake and Bartram Trail on the Tallahassee state championship racecourse. The team finished third in a three-way slugfest with Chiles and Niceville, the points at 75, 76 and 80 at the top. Fourth place was Saraland with a 183 total.

Chiles was second in Class 3A last year with Fleming Island seventh and Niceville 14th. Bartram Trail was 11th in Class 4A.
Fleming Island featured five runners under 17 minutes on the rugged, hill course to be used for the FHSAA championship races led by senior Andrew Boyer at 16:23.1 for seventh, with junior J.P. Strombeck at 11th in 16:33.0. Senior Marcos Serrano was third finisher in 15th place in 16:44.9 with Luke Janke and sophomore Ryder Muyres the fifth sub-17 tab at 24th in 16:56.9.

"We finished third by just five points, but we lost Jacob Sanders to an injury before the race," said Fleming Island coach Dave Allen. "Sophomore Ryder Muyres, who was close to 17 minutes for the season, stepped up big with a personal record of 15:56 to keep us in the mix. All of our young guys; sixth, seventh and eighth finishers for the team had best races on the state course."

For the Fleming Island girls team, junior Brooke Reynolds was top finisher in a rebuild year with a ninth-place finish in 20:05.41. Karissa Lou ran her best race with an 18th place finish in 20:45.98.

Fleming Island's girls scored 130 team points and finished fifth with Chiles winning with 40 team points.