Sickles senior Derek Wehunt is on a roll. For the second week in a row, he has taken on his competition on a state-wide stage and emerged victorious.

Last week, it was the FSU Invitational in Tallahassee. This time, it was Saturday morning’s Race of Champions at the flrunners.com Invitational in Titusville. And just like the FSU meet, Wehunt led from start to finish to post a winning 5-kilometer time of 15 minutes, 25 seconds.

Although weather conditions were near-ideal and the course flat and fast, there might be some debate on the accuracy of the course, That’s because the top 10 of Wehunt’s race all broke 16 minutes and the first 20 were all sub-16:15. That’s a bit too fast and other races Saturday there had similar results. But it doesn’t matter. In cross country, it’s place that matters and Wehunt was No. 1—again.

“Right now, it’s that confidence thing for me,” Wehunt said. “Just going out there and knowing I can take the lead and keep it. Years before, I’d say ‘Oh, I’ll just go with the pack so I don’t go out and kill myself.’ Now I’m actually challenging myself and not like babying myself. I’m taking it hard the whole race and that last part I know I’ll have something left.”

Chamberlain junior Mark Parrish and Durant senior John Mitchell also had a great races, taking third (15:38) and seventh (15:52), respectively. Parrish actually hung with Wehunt for nearly half the race, with the two runners splitting the first mile in 4:40. Wehunt continued to push the pace, hitting the second mile in 9:55 and finally dropping eventual runner-up Armando Del Valle (15:33) of Miami Columbus with little more than 800 meters to go.

The only disappointment for Wehunt was the absence of Class 4A rival Brian Atkinson of Melbourne. Even though the meet was in his own county and the school’s JV squad attended, Atkinson did not race flrunners.com.

Wharton’s boys and girls also made a good showing, with senior John Grellner winning the Invitational division in 16:08 and senior Alyssa Franks taking 37th in the girls Race of Champions. As teams, the Wildcats’ girls were eighth in the Race of Champions and the boys seventh in the Invitational race.