GREEN COVE SPRINGS - For St. Johns Country Day School senior cross country ace Rebecca Stratton, to be called a two-time meet champion was going to be pretty cool, and to also be a defending champion was just as cool.
"I won this event last year when they ran it the first time at the Clay County Fairgrounds," said Stratton. "When they moved it here (Seamark Ranch just past Penney Farms in Green Cove Springs), I thought, It would be tougher with some more hills and lots of sand, but that I should try win it again, first, to defend my title, and second to be able to say I am a two-time champion. My brother had a couple like that."
Her brother, Class 1A state champion Matthew Stratton, also a track state champion, now a runner for the University of Florida, has been rolling for the Gators and watching her sister get better each year.
"He's doing well at Florida, but we both went to Arizona over the summer with his team and had a lot of good running together," said Rebecca Stratton, who took off last weekend from her team's race at the Middleburg Bronco Classic to nurse a sore leg muscle. "There was some elevation and mountains and we did a lot of other things together, like zip lining and whitewater rafting, and Matthew talked a lot about my training and my mental attitude to have for my senior season."
Not only did Rebecca Stratton listen to her big brother, but she took off from the starter's horn at the Seamark Ranch hosting the High School 9:12 Clay County Cross Country Invitational on Saturday that had a lot of the Seamark Mud Run obstacles still in place, but not on the course, and dominated to the finish with a time of 20 minutes, 25.28 seconds to outrun Olivia Hermanson of Suwannee High School, second in 20:50.50 with her sister, Ryleigh, third in 21:19.01.
Behind the top three, locally, Ridgeview senior Emily Turner finished fourth in 21:28.91, St. Johns Country Day School's Kate Staten was fifth in 21:35.98 with Bishop Snyder's Lauren McInnis sixth in 21:37.65.
Rounding out the top 10 were Faye Brooks of Snyder, Morgan Wade of Oakleaf, Sadie Siemon of Suwannee in ninth and Arwen Haley of Suwannee in 10th.
In the team scores for the girls, Suwannee won with 35 points, with St. Johns second with 54 and Oakleaf third with 124.
In the boy's race, it was Oakleaf High's Jack Strombeck taking over just a quarter mile from the start from teammate David Masalin, who blasted the opening quarter mile to ensure a fast field. Strombeck, who had barely missed a region invite last year as a freshman for the Knights, had admitted to switching out from his swimming aspirations over the summer, to a full-time concentration on cross country and track for his sophomore season, much to the pleasure of Oakleaf coaches Sherronda Harris and Shay Mensie.
"We have a very young team and will be conditioning them to make an impact in October and November and Jack is the leader of the team," said Harris, who was part of the coaching staff that a state track title to triple jumper Takoda Brown last spring. "I'm happy that he has decided to focus on cross country and, I think, his commitment will energize the rest of the team. We will be a force in the next few years."
Strombeck, cruised through the sand-filled, moderately hilly course, to finish with a swift 16:29.25 split to outrun Brian Olson of Cornerstone Classical Academy by nearly 10 seconds in 16:39.86 and Cornerstone teammate Josh Kline in third in 16:44.61.
"David took off from the start I think because he was just fired up to be here," said Strombeck. "He played in last night's varsity football game against Fleming Island last night and wanted to be here for the team. I figured his legs would get tired out there because this is a tough course with all the sand and soft grass."
Strombeck had teammate Luke Janke, a freshman, not too far off this pace in fifth place, to give the Knights a solid team score for first place of 38 with Columbia second at 65 and Cornerstone third at 97. Oakleaf finished with two more runners in the top 10; Lincoln Morales in ninth and Jelani Chester in 10th for their low team points with three more Knights getting into the top 20 including Grant Keppel in 12th, Alejandro Rueda in 16th and Clayon Buettner in 19th.
"Those top five guys were less than two minutes away from Jack's winning time," said Harris. "We are coaching them that cross country is a team sport and that if they run together, they will finish in that top tier at district and regions and get a ticket to the state meet. That's the goal."
For the boys, St. Johns finished fifth, led by Arlo Kistner's 22nd place in 19:11.2; Bishop Snyder was sixth led by Andrew Fredland
s 11th place in 18:22.7; and Ridgeview was seventh led by Braidyn Matz in 13th in 18:24.5.
In the 12-team field, Clay finished 10th led by Jeremiah Jewell at 31st in 20:29.1, and St. Johns Classical was 12th, led by C. Lewis Lopez in 71st in 22:56.6.
For the girls, Oakleaf was third led by Wade with Ridgeview fourth led by Turner. Clay finished 10th led by Annaliese Hovda in 21st in 24:29.1 with St. Johns Classical 11th led by Charlie Mallory in 50th in 28:16.6.
The Clay County Invitational also had a boys and girls 3K race for middle school runners with the No Excuses race team out of St. Johns County dominating the girl's race.
The Seamark Ranch hosted the event with the Jacksonville Athletic Club staging the logistics of the race and Florida Race Day Management handling the timing and results of the race.