Two local cross country meets—the Millard Shumate Invitational at Tampa’s Picnic Island and the Gator Invitational in Land O’Lakes—hosted several of the area’s top individuals and teams Saturday.

At the Gator Invitational, Wharton’s girls, led by the top-10 finishes of Alyssa Franks (sixth) and Erin Bailey (eighth), posted a relatively comfortable victory 61-138 over Lakeland Lake Region. Land O’ Lakes, missing two varsity runners suffering form a stomach virus, was fifth, Wiregrass Ranch, paced by fourth-place Ariel Gray, took sixth, Gaither, led by 10th-place Julissa Lopez, was seventh and the Academy of Holy Names took eighth place.

Individually, Jessica Furst of Wesley Chapel was second in a 5-kilometer time of 20 minutes, 2 seconds and Alyssa Brandt of Land O’ Lakes finished third in 20:06. Lake Region’s Sydney Devore ran a course-record time of 18:52 to win the girls race.

In the boys race, Estero’s Erick Montoya ran 16:05 to beat Felix Soto of Land O’ Lakes by nine seconds. Chamberlain’s Mark Parrish earned third in 16:27. Wharton’s John Grellner took fifth in 17:06. In the team standings, Orlando Timber Creek won with 86 points, Estero (121) was second, Chamberlain (130) took third, Cape Coral Baker (144) fourth, Land O’ Lakes (185) fifth and Wharton (212) sixth.

At Millard Shumate, host Robinson won the boys meet while King took the girls crown. It was the first victory of the season for both squads.

Robinson was paced by Bryan Garcia (16:57), who was second overall to Class 4A state 1,600-meter champion John Mitchell (16:53) of Durant. Luis Prado (11th) and Stephen Peterson (12th) led Brandon to second place in the team standings. The Knights also got a solid outing from eighth-place finisher Josh Epperson (17:53).

In the girls race, Seminole star Katie Homme, fourth at last year’s Class 3A state finals, handed King’s Hilary White her first loss of the season. Homme broke away early and White was unable to close the gap. Homme went 20:19 on the challenging 5k course and White, who has won three other invitationals this fall, ran 20:46.

White did get to carry the first-place team trophy. The Lions, who also boasted sixth-place Dayna Cline, edged Plant 65-68. The Panthers, however, rested their top four runners and used a squad composed mostly of JV runners.