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Durant Runner Finishes Strong

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By DAREK SHARP, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 10, 2007

PLANT CITY - Grace VanDeGrift is not an easy name to remember, but it's looking like cross country watchers may have to get used to it real quick.

The Durant High freshman, just starting to heal from a leg injury that slowed her all season, had a very strong showing in the first big high school meet. VanDeGrift came in second at the 4A-District 4 race Nov. 2 in Sarasota.

VanDeGrift, along with Cougar boys runner John Mitchell, advanced to today's Region 2 meet in Melbourne. Runners in the top 15 will qualify for next week's state meet.

Katheine McMeekin of East Lake dominated the girls district race, covering the 3-mile course in 19 minutes, 18 seconds. VanDeGrift was nearly a minute behind McMeekin at 20:15 but also had a comfortable lead over the nearest runner. East Lake's Alicia Aldrige was third at 20:40, behind her was a large pack of competitors.

Emily Hoy was Plant City High's top finisher, coming in 27th with a time of 22:39.

Mitchell came in eighth in the boys race at districts, running a time of 17:01. Sickles had the top three placers. Daniel Barousse was Durant's second-best performer, 18:19, 35th place, and Plant City was led by Tanner Hawkins, 19:57.

Sarasota Riverview won the girls team championship.

Today's regional meet is at Palm Bay High School. In addition to the teams that performed well at the District 4 meet, VanDeGrift and Mitchell will be squaring off with racers from the Melbourne-Kissimmee area.

Melbourne High was impressive at the district level, placing five runners in the top 10 of both the girls and boys races.

Based on the top times at the District 3 meet, VanDeGrift could be in the top 15 if she can duplicate last week's performance. Mitchell's time should put him right on the cut line.

The girls regional race starts at 9:30 a.m. and the boys race starts at 10.

Reporter Darek Sharp can be reached at dsharp@tampa trib.com.

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