Bears Just Miss

In talking during the week about his team's chances this Saturday in the Class 3A, Region II race held at Polk Community College in Winter Haven, Central coach Eric Milholland said his team had to at least beat George Jenkins High School to have a chance of making the state meet.
In a region that was said by some coaches to be one of the toughest in the state, the Bears came up short.
With the top six schools and top 15 runners moving on to Little Everglades Park in Dade City for the state race, Central finished in seventh place (196), 72 points behind fourth-place George Jenkins and 71 behind sixth-place Wharton.
Tampa-Chamberlain won the team title (80) while Plant was second (91) and Newsome third (102).
Even though the Bears failed in their main goal of qualifying for next week's finals, both junior Mason MacKenzie and Josh Shannon improved greatly on their finishes from last year's meet.
In 2007, MacKenzie came in 90th and Shannon was 54th.
Saturday, MacKenzie, who finished 15th in the district race, placed 27th with a time of 17:48.73.
Meanwhile, Josh Shannon, who was 17th last week, was right behind MacKenize in 28th with a time of 17:49.27.
Other Central runners were Ed D'Angelo (51st), Jawara Jarrett (52nd) and Mike Shannon (53rd). Brandon Malone finished 85th while Brent Hatley was 89th.

Class 3A, Region II Meet
at Polk Community College

Team scores (top six advanced to states)
1. Chamberlain, (CHA) 80; 2. Plant, (PLN) 91; 3. Newsome, (NEW) 102; 4. George Jenkins, (GJ) 124; 5. Land O' Lakes, (LOL) 125; 6. Wharton, (WHA) 125; 7. Central, (CEN) 196; 8. South lake, (SL) 202; 9. Ocala-Vanguard, (OV) 206; 10. Hillsborough, (HIL) 236.

Top 15 runners (top 15 advanced to states)
1. Trenor Wilkins, (PLN) 16:25.41; 2. Felix Soto, (LOL) 16:31.32; 3. John Grellner, (WHA) 16:35.25; 4. Alex Foss, (GJ) 16:41.31; 5. Mark Parrish, (CHA) 16:42.19; 6. Keegan Bixler, (NEW) 16:43.28; 7. Gilberto Vazquez, (Armwood) 16:49.02; 8. Joshua Wolfe, (SL) 16:51.23; 9. Robert Campbell, (PLN) 16:55.74; 10. Charles Toledo, (CHA) 17:01.13; 11. Matthew Schwartz, (LOL) 17:02.75; 12. Bo Nalsen, (PLN) 17:08.40; 13. Thomas Loudermilk, (NEW) 17:09.95; 14. Clinton Bell, (Belleview) 17:10.73; 15. James Slack, (OV) 17:11.48.

7. Central (196): 27. Mason MacKenzie, 17:48.73; 28. Josh Shannon, 17:49.27; 51. Ed D'Angelo, 18:17.50; 52. Jawara Jarrett, 18:18.75; 53. Mike Shannon, 18:19.35; 85. Brandon Malone, 19:24.52; 89. Brent Hatley, 19:35.12.