Sometimes it pays to be young.

Not that anyone competing at the 15 November 2014 FHSAA State Cross Country Meet was old. Some were younger than others, though, and only four of the eight individual titles went to seniors. The reign of the underclassmen started with the first event of the State Final, the 4A girls’ 5K. Frost was still on the grass at Apalachee Regional Park when the big schools’ race started at 7:30 AM.

Winter Park frosh Rafaella Gibbons ran a race that was reminiscent of her first ARPXC outing at the FSU Invitational in October. Like that earlier race, Gibbons worked her way up through the field and was running with a small lead group at the two-mile mark. Also like that earlier race, Gibbons said goodbye to her rivals on the last mile. She charged home to a 18:05.5 win, the fastest time of the day in any of the girls’ races. 40 meters back, Lake Brantley junior, Sinclaire Johnson finished runner-up in 18:14.1, and the St Thomas Aquinas senior Alexa Cruz, the defending champion, was third in 18:19.5. In addition to Gibbons, Winter Park also put three other Wildcats in the top ten--sophomore Hana Herndon (7th, 18:29.7), junior Katherine Kuhn (9th, 18:33.7), and sophomore Elizabeth Jenkins (10th, 18:38.3). Once junior Emily Nix had finished 25th in 19:24.4 for the Wildcats, Winter Park had 40 points and a state championship trophy. St. Thomas Aquinas, champions in 2013 and 2014, scored 54 points to place second.

Evangelical Christian senior Sarah Candiano struck back for the senior's in the next race, the 1A girls' 5K. Candiano set the early pace in the race, leading a group through the mile mark. The group was a bit smaller at the two-mile mark, but Candiano was still leading. She broke away on the final mile to win the race in 18:27.8. Mount Dora Bible eighth-grader Rebecca Clark finished second in 18:37.3, just ahead of Holy Trinity  junior Shelby Smith (3rd, 18:40.9). Smith’s fellow Tigers Samantha Folio (10th, 19:29.3), Maleia Storum (15th, 19:45.1), Sydney Smith (19th, 19:51.8), and Brianna Basford (20:01.6) followed their leader home, giving Holy Trinity 61 points and the state title--the eighth girls’ championship that the school has won over the years.

The 4A boys race saw a lead pack of five runners emerge early--the 2014 champ and Miami Sunset senior Nick Diaz, Plant senior Jack Guyton, Sickles senior James Zentmeyer, Coral Reef junior Carlin Berryhill, and Lyman junior Joshua Jacques. With a mile to go the group had dropped Jack Guyton, leaving four runners. Nick Diaz was next to fall back. That left Berryhill, Jacques, and Zentmeyer brawling for the win almost all the way to the finish line. The first down the final slope and into the chute was Joshua Jacques, running 15:16.0. Carlin Berryhill rushed in second in 15:18.4, with James Zentmeyer third in 15:20.2. Nick Diaz edged Jack Guyton for fourth, 15:45.5 to 15:46.3. With the win, Jacques became the fourth Lyman runner to win a boys’ title, but the Greyhounds still had never won a team title. That changed within minutes. Lyman junior Jordan Armstrong (8th, 15:58.2), frosh Bryce Bell (22nd, 16:19.5), senior Charlie Le Grand (36th, 16:31.4), and sophomore Paul Le Grand (77th, 17:07.1) combined with Jacques for 118 Greyhound points. That gave Lyman the victory and the school’s first boys’ cross country championship. Coral Reef was a very close second with 123 points.

In spite of excellent racing conditions on the Saturday morning of State, many of the front runners didn't clock quite as fast as they had at ARPXC five weeks earlier at the FSU Invitational Pre-State Meet. In the 1A boys race, Franco Martins did improve on his October performance, while defending 2013 runner-up and william and Mary signee, Andrew Cacciatore did not. So in a battle of seniors, Windermere Prep’s Martins won the state title in 15:30.0, while Holy Trinity's Cacciatore finished a distant runner-up in 15:55.5. Cacciatore did succeed in leading Holy Trinity to a fourth-straight team championship, the school’s eighth. Cacciatore and Tigers Trevor Kattenberg (5th, 16:12.3), Michael Wilson (13th, 16:38.8), Egan Kattenberg (15th, 16:43.6), and John Cacciatore (18th, 16:53.5) scored a winning 33 points for their team. Runner-up Geneva totaled 138.

Only a handful of girls have won four FHSAA cross-country crowns during their career. After this years 2A girls’ races, Pine Crest’s Tsion Yared has one title, but she has chances to win five more, because Yared is only a seventh grader. Wearing heavy gloves against the morning chill, the diminutive Yared ran 18:18.8 to win her race, with Ransom Everglades sophomore Beatriz Ruan taking second in 18:29.9. In the team standings, though, Pine Crest had to take second billing to the Bolles Bulldogs. Bolles junior Mackenzie Wilson (4th, 18:38.6), frosh Caitlyn Collier (7th, 18:49.9), frosh Rachel Shapiro (9th, 18:53.1), senior Ashley DeHechavaria (17th, 19:42.1), and junior Suzanne Dannheim (21st, 19:54.3) scored 46 points for the Bulldogs to Pine Crest's 56, winning the meet. It was the ninth state championship for a Bolles girls’ cross country team, just one shy of Florida’s all time high of ten by coach Roy Harrison’s Plant High girls.

In Girls 3A, Miami Northwestern sophomore Daesha Rogers bolted out to an early lead. It was a familiar sight if you had been at the State Meet in 2013. In that race Rogers had also headed straight to the front, then faded to finish second. This time around Rogers faded early, dropping out of the top ten before the end of the first mile. Vanguard senior Elizabeth Mulford had the lead then, and continued to widen the gap during the next mile. Late in the race some of her pursuers started to close, but Mulford was too far ahead. Finishing nearly 60 meters ahead of the next runner, Mulford won the 3A girls’ state title in 18:28.7. St. Augustine junior Kelly Aponte was second in 18:41.7, with Chiles junior Emma Tucker third in 18:44.20. But the team crown was all Creekside’s. With scoring by frosh Tara Openshaw (5th, 18:47.3), senior Jessica Taylor (6th, 18:47.8), senior Colleen Openshaw (20th, 19:21.2), senior Megan Prangley (27th, 19:32.4), and junior Kaitlin Rocker (31st, 19:39.3), Creekside tallied 73 points to win the school's first team title ever in cross country. The Fort Myers Green Wave girls took second with 112 points.

The week before State, Calvary Christian junior Joel Lacy lost the 2A Region 4 boys' race to Ransom Everglades junior Gabriel Correa, 15:58.2 to 16:04.9. Lacy had a chance for revenge in Tallahassee. He took advantage of it. Surging ahead late in the race, Lacy won the 2A boys' state title with a 15:48.3. Wolfson senior Connor Vaughan was second in 15:54.6, with Correa third in 16:00.0. Trinity Prep sophomore Trent Mandato was fourth in 16:00.3. Mandato was joined by Saints scorers Jesse Millson (7th, 16:14.1), Chas Cook (22nd, 16:38.7), Bo Cherry (35th 16:53.5), and Preston Copenhaver (37th, 16:54.7). The five tallied 84 point for Trinity Prep, and the Saints successfully defended their 2013 title. Pine Crest scored 149 to place second in the 2A boys' team standings.

In the eight years from 2006 to 2013, Belen Jesuit won seven FHSAA 3A boys team titles in cross country. Belen Jesuit runners started the 2014 race like they were determined to win another title in the first few hundred meters; there were a lot of gold jerseys near the front as the field thundered down the opening straightaway. By the mile, though, the lead belonged to an athlete in red and white--Leon senior Sukhi Khosla. Khosla took the leaders through the first mile in 4:41. Tom Perkins, the volunteer calling mile splits, walked up to the front part of the course after the last runner had gone by his post.

“When Sukhi passed the mile mark, there were a bunch of guys around him,” said Perkins. “When I walked up the hill to see what was happening, he was alone.”

Once again, Khosla had broken away by the first trip up The Wall, ending the first half of the race alone. The second half of the race was an exhibition. Khosla breezed home to win in 15:01.8, the fastest time clocked in any of the morning's eight races in the last race of the day. Merritt Island junior Steven Cross was second in 15:23.3. Then came the cross-town struggle for the team title between Tallahassee Chiles and Tallahassee Leon. Chiles senior Avery Bartlett took third in 15:31.8 for the Timberwolves, but Leon answered with a fourth-place 15:33.6 from Lion senior Hunter Scott. Leon still had the edge when Chiles senior Allan Hernandez placed seventh in 15:39.1, but then the Timberwolves finished their scoring with senior Tyson Murray (8th, 15:43.4), senior Jared Grigas (24th, 16:05.8), and junior Austin Dodson (27th, 16:08.2). When the dust had cleared, Tallahassee had two trophies, but the team champions award belonged to Chiles with 64 points, and the runner-up to Leon with 77.

The last runner left the course, the last score tallied, and the last award made. And with that, Florida’s 2014 high school cross country season was over.

So. When does track start?