Wehunt, Parrish, shine at UF Invite

Posted Sep 19, 2010 by Bill Ward

Updated Sep 22, 2010 at 02:01 AM

Former Sickles High distance running star Derek Wehunt and ex-Chamberlain standout Mark Parrish propelled the University of Florida to an easy victory at Saturday morning’s Mountain Dew University of Florida Invitational in Gainesville.

The local duo were the Gators’ Nos. 2 and 3 scorers as UF won this meet for the seventh straight year.

Wehunt, a Gators sophomore, took second place overall in the 19-team meet in an 8-kilometer (approximately 5 miles) time of 24 minutes, 48 seconds—a personal best. Parrish, a UF freshman, went 24:58 for fourth place. The winner of the men’s race was Florida junior Josh Izewski in 24:39. The Gators scored just 22 points to beat runner-up Embry-Riddle by 74 points.

Besides the fact he is a true freshman, one of the most impressive things about Parrish’s strong showing is that he defeated teammate Matt Mizereck (9th, 25:25), the guy who won the Class 3A state finals last season for the third straight year. For Wehunt, it was a strong start to his second season with the Gators after being sidelined last winter with a case of mononucleosis.

Division II University of Tampa finished ninth and were paced by another Chamberlain product, Charles Toledo (23rd, 26:29). Robinson High’s Bryan Garcia was the Spartans’ No. 4 man, taking 60th in 27:27.

In the high school division of the meet, Berkeley Prep was the lone Hillsborough County representative. That’s due primarily to a rule within the public school system preventing teams competing during the Jewish Succos Holiday.

The Bucs’ boys, led by Michael Rosenback (35th) and Alex Main (41st) finished eighth with 272 points in a field of 45 squads. More importantly, they were the second Class 2A team, behind meet runner-up Miami Belen Jesuit (115). Class 4A Miami Columbus was the winner with 66 points. Berkeley’s girls, paced by Amita Dhillon (39th) took 21st in the 39-team field.