Chamberlain’s del Monte, Gulf’s Grippo lead locals at Foot Locker

Posted Nov 26, 2011 by Bill Ward

Updated Nov 27, 2011 at 06:24 PM

Paced by Chamberlain senior Max del Monte’s 19th-place finish, area cross country runners represented Florida well in Saturday’s Foot Locker South Regional Championships at McAlpine Greenway Park in Charlotte, N.C.

Competing in the top boys division of the meet, the seeded race, del Monte took 19th place in a 5-kilometer time of 15 minutes, 22 seconds. That was just 20 seconds away from qualifying for the Foot Locker finals, where only the top 10 finishers in each of the four regionals advance. Del Monte, the state runner-up in Class 3A at last week’s title meet in Dade City, was the second finisher from Florida, behind 11th-place Chris Godwin of Gainesville Buchholz, who was the state runner-up last week in Class 4A.

Also running well in the boys seeded race was Plant senior Travis Christenberry, who was 33rd in 15:32, and Riverview’s Michael Babinec, 52nd in 15:47.

In the girls seeded race, two girls from Florida, Olivia Ortiz of Lakewood Ranch and Lily Williams of Tallahassee Chiles, advanced to the national meet by placing 5th and 10th, respectively. The top local girls finisher in the seeded division was Gulf’s Kari Grippo, 59th in 18:22. Wiregrass Ranch’s Nakita Shah was 65th in 18:36 and Plant senior Danielle Kissel was 84th in 18:49. In the girls freshman/sophomore race, Academy of the Holy Names freshman Colleen Doherty was fifth in 19:00. She was the second freshman finisher by just one second.