Parrish takes second at state finals

Posted Nov 21, 2009 by Bill Ward

Updated Nov 21, 2009 at 02:25 PM

Chamberlain senior Mark Parrish turned in the Tampa Bay area’s top performance of Saturday’s state cross country championships in Dade City by grabbing second place in the Class 4A boys race in a 5-kilometer time of 15 minutes, 30 seconds.

Parrish made a solid attempt at hanging on to eventual winner Brian Atkinson of Melbourne, but the defending state champion set a blistering pace from the outset. Atkinson paced the lead pack through the first mile in an unofficial split of 4 minutes, 45 seconds and by two miles, held the lead at 9:45. By then, Atkinso had surged ahead by 20 meters while Parrish held second place over such standouts as Armando Del Valle of Miami Columbus and Ryan Pikering of Greenacres John I. Leonard.

Coming down the homestretch for the final 600 meters, Atkinson still held the lead and Parrish was trying to close the gap. There just wasn’t enough time for Parrish to do that and Atkinson also seemed to find a final gear to make sure he held on to win in the fastest time of the day in all classes, 15:20.

Other area runners cracking the top 10 for all-state honors were Berkeley Prep senior Tyler Greathouse, seventh in the 2A race in 15:53, and Robinson senior Bryan Garcia, eighth on 15:58. The best individual finishes for area girls were turned in by Wharton junior Abby Ritter, 12th in the 4A race at 19:07, and Sickles freshman Sarah Hartman, 11th in 3A, also in 19:07.

On the team side, Plant’s girls had the best showing of any county team, taking fifth in 4A girls with 152 points. The Panthers were led by freshmen Julia Rodriguez (23rd), Katherine Ralston (36th) and Caroline Gibson (39th). The county’s top boys team was Berkeley, which took sixth in the 2A meet. The Buccaneers had a team average time of 16:51, faster than 4A teams Chamberlain (ninth, 16:55) and Plant (11th, 17:04).