TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Cross Country Season Starts Heating Up

ADVERTISEMENT

By DAREK SHARP

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 10, 2008

PLANT CITY - The reason for the cross country season getting a later start than the other fall high school sports is simple.

"They want all the runners to get accustomed to running in this heat," Hillsborough County Athletic Director Lanness Robinson said.

With temperatures around 90 degrees during a normal cross country practice time, it might take at least a few meets to truly get used to the conditions.

But ready or not, the runners will be put to the test next week as the season begins. The East Hillsborough Invitational is set for Tuesday.

Both Plant City and Durant will be among the cross country squads gathered at Newsome High School for the season-starting test.

Newsome should dominate the meet. The Wolves sent both their boys and girls teams to last year's Class 3A state meet, where the girls finished sixth and the boys wound up seventh.

Only one of the runners from last year was a senior, so Newsome will be a state title contender.

The Cougars return two runners who made the state meet in 4A, John Mitchell and Grace Van De Grift.

Both Durant standouts may be in line for tremendous seasons. Van De Grift had various injuries that slowed her down during her freshman year, but she is fully healed.

As for Mitchell, the senior appears to be rarin' to go.

"I ran with him last week, and he was bounding all over the place he was so excited," said Durant Athletic Director Christina Raburn, who was an accomplished runner in her collegiate years and is still active in the sport.

Plant City is relatively inexperienced.

Also running Tuesday will be the squads from Brandon, Bloomingdale, East Bay, Lennard, Riverview and Spoto.

Though not quite in the heat of the day, the races should still feature tough heat conditions: The girls race begins at 6 p.m. followed by the boys at 6:30.

Cross country events are three miles.

Reporter Darek Sharp can be reached at dsharp@tampa

trib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT