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Hernando Today

Central, NCT Improve

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By MARTY MILLER

Hernando Today correspondent

Published: September 27, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY - Last week at the Zak Lukas Invitational race in Brooksville that started the season, the Nature Coast Technical High Sharks and Central High Bears finished fourth and fifth in the team standings.
This Saturday at the Mitchell Invitational, the two teams improved their places in the team standings as the Sharks, led by Matt Lambert, came in third in the 18-team race while Central was right behind them in fourth.
Lambert, who also runs track and wrestles for the school, ran the 5K race held at Starkey Wilderness Park in New Port Richey in a time of 17:13.79. His teammates Bruce Federico came in 10th while Tyler Harrison was 21st and David O'Quinn was 23rd.
"I expected another top-five finish," said NCT coach Armen Merjanian. "This was a tough field, Sarasota is ranked in the top five in Class 4A and Largo is a good 3A team. This course is a little slower than the one last week in Hernando and I expected our average time to be a little bit slower. But we did have some people run their personal best today."
Sarasota won the team title with 61 points while Largo was second with 62. NCT scored 90 points for third while Central had 122 points for fourth. Springstead had only three runners in the race and did not have a team score.
Jon Lanning of Sarasota won the race in a time of 16:28.22, with Lambert in fourth and Central junior Mason MacKenzie finishing in seventh with a time of 17:20.73.
Lambert, who last week came in sixth in the Lukas Invitational, said the course this week was a much different one than last week.
"The first third of the course is real sandy, but once I got to the cement part of it, I took off," Lambert said. "I was probably between 30th and 40th place early on, but once I got to the road part, I just took off."
Central coach Eric Milholland said his team showed some improvement from last week.
"I knew we were a top-five team," Milholland said. "Last week we were 32 points behind NCT and this week we were 30 points in back of them. And the spread between our runners was 2:15 last week and this week we've got it down to 1:35."
Like many of the runners and coaches, Milholland said that the Starkey Park course was a good thing for his team.
"One thing we need to be is adaptable," Milholland said. "Whether it's sand, grass or a road course, all those different types of courses will help us come the districts, regional and state meets."
MITCHELL INVITATIONAL
at Starkey Wilderness Park, New Port Richey.
Team scores: 1. Sarasota (SAR), 61; 3. Nature Coast Technical (NCT), 90; 4. Central (CEN), 122; Springstead (SPG), NTS.
Individual places: 1. Jon Lanning, SAR, 16:28.22.
3. NCT (90): 4. Matt Lambert 17:13.79; 10. Bruce Federico 17:31.72; 21. Tyler Harrison 18:06.65; 23. David O'Quinn 18:21.89; 40. Britton Cox 18:53.11; 70. Jacob Harlow 19:44.58; 86. David Simonson 20:22.53.
4. Central (122): 7. Mason MacKenzie 17:20.73; 15. Josh Shannon 17:50.01; 25. Mike Shannon 18:24.39; 42. Jawara Jarrett 18:57.72; 43. Edward D'Angelo 18:58.16; 60. Jacob Stough 19:36.19; 75. Brent Hatley 19:52.58.
Springstead (NTS): 31. Drew Fulcher 18:35.57; 82. Michael Rosenzweig 20:13.62; 87. Craig Brice 20:13.62; 121. David Boylan 21:47.57.

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