JACKSONVILLE - On a sloppy, rolling hills kind of course, Oakleaf High cross country showed a little mettle with sophomore Jack Strombeck letting coach Sherronda Harris' words of warning to area teams take more traction in a strong 11th place finish at the UNF Duval 5K cross country invite on Saturday at the University of North Florida golf course.
Strombeck, after winning the Clay County Invitational last week, slogged with the rest of the front field that was chasing lead runners Parker Adams of Bolles and Cole Swesey of St. Augustine, to clock in at 16 minutes, 48 seconds to put Oakleaf just a hair behind both Bolles and Fleming Island in the final team scores; 163-166-187 as Nease took top honors with 75 points holding off Bartram Trail at 77 and Creekside third at 78 in the St. Johns County slugfest up top.
For the girl's race, with state cross country powerhouse Satellite in the field and smashing the team scores with 56 points, Fleming Island's Brooke Reynolds and Ava Hendryx stayed within eyeshot of each other to boost the Golden Eagles team score for a third-place finish at 106 points.
Reynolds and Hendryx have been as strong a duo as coach Dave Allen has had with Allie Knotts, now at Charleston Southern University, and Reynolds was a formidable front attack for the Fleming Island girls team.
This year, as Allen cited, it is newcomer Jennifer Fagan who has sparked talk of a strong region finish for Fleming Island. Fagan, a Texas transfer, sprinted home in 17th place in 20:47.6 to bolster the Fleming Island team score as Satellite had their top three runners all in the top 10.
Cornerstone Classical Academy eighth grader Avery Hartley, who won the middle school Clay County Invitational 3K last week, blew up the field in the first mile with a resounding 18:14.5 winning split to out-surge Bishop Kenny senior Stephanie Grden's runnerup 19:33.6.
For St. Johns Country Day School, senior Rebecca Stratton continued her strong return to racing after a minor muscle tweak, finishing 13th in 20:39.2 for a sixth-place team finish.
In the boys' race, Nease put two runners in the top 10 with Creekside landing fourth with Jackson Lafser behind Bishop Kenny's Jack Liuzzo with a 16:35.0 split as the top 12 runners were under 17 minutes on the mud-drenched course.
Fleming Island, though, was without senior lead runner Jacob Campbell as area seniors were taking the ACT. Andrew Boyer emerged as the Fleming Island top finisher in 17th in 17:15.7.
Oakleaf got their number two runner, freshman Luke Janke, in at 30th in 17:53.0 with Fleming Island's Jacob Sanders 35th in 18:13.0 making the local battle even tighter. Fleming Island got the edge with Marcos Serrano in at 38th just in front of St. Johns Country Day School's Arlo Kistner at 40th.
Races scheduled for Saturday, September 21 include the Katie Caples Invitational at Bishop Kenny High School, the Indian Invite at Keystone Heights, and the Embry Riddle Classic in Daytona Beach.
Fleming Island will make its annual trek to the Wingfoot Classic in Cartersville, Georgia on September 21.
In the college UNF Duval 5k race on Friday, host UNF won both men's and womens titles with area runners adding to the Osprey team scores.
The men, led by a 1-2-3 finish, won with a 15:34.3 by sophomore Ilias El Khattabi, and former Fleming Island High standout Kameron Wallizada finished 26th in 16:32.9.
Florida State College-Jacksonville finished eighth in the men's team scores with Benjamin Hale (SJCDS) 58th in 17:43.1, Aiden Taggart (FIHS) 82nd in 18:52.7, Noah Looney (CHS) 86th in 19:08.6, Spencer Middleton (FIHS) 95th in 19:49.2, Christian Mayfield (OPHS) 100th in 20:52.5 and Jacob Gaskins (OPHS) 102nd in 21:07.6. Ty Obermeyer (OPHS) is on the FSCJ roster also.
For the girl's race, won by UNF with 27 points to Florida Atlantic's 33, UNF put five runners in the top 10 led by senior Smilla Kolbe in 18:37.9 with Fleming Island High grad Emma Millson, a junior, sixth in 18:46.0.
For FSCJ, local runners were Ava Banks (RHS) 107th in 26:20.0 and Lauren Hughes (MHS) 110th in 26:47.9.
For Bethune Cookman University, Duane Lee (OHS) 62nd in 17:51.5, and Alyssa Williams (OHS) 81st in 24:06.4 both competed.