- April 16, 2024
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For 11 straight years, Dave Halliday has brought trophies to the Spikes and Spurs cross country meet. This was the first year the Flagler Palm Coast coach got to take a couple of those trophies back to school.
The FPC boys finished second and the girls finished third at the Aug. 27 meet at the Flagler County Fairgrounds.
"In all the years that we've had it, we've had some pretty good teams, but we've never on the boys side or the girls side finished in the top three and taken home a trophy," said Halliday, the Bulldogs longtime cross country and track coach.
The boys finished just two points behind first-place Nease, which is ranked fifth in the state among Class 4A teams by Flrunners.com. The girls finished third behind Ponte Vedra and North Gwinnett (Georgia), despite missing three runners who were taking their SATs.
Seabreeze's Ariana Roy finished sixth on the muddy course in the girls race with a time of 21:16.0. The sophomore ran without her twin sister, Mackenzie, who was not feeling well. Normally, Mackenzie sets the pace for the identical twins. This time, Ariana had to set her own pace.
"The race was muddy, exactly like last year," Ariana Roy said. "It rained all last night. I thought it might be canceled."
Mackenzie, who was a spectator on this day, said her sister ran well under the circumstances.
"I thought she did good for me not being there," Mackenzie Roy said. "I wish I could have run."
"The race was muddy, exactly like last year."
— ARIANA ROY, Seabreeze runner
FPC's Justin Gilliam was not able to run in the Spikes and Spurs last year after getting hit by a car when he was running on the side of a road. Gilliam, who broke his arm in the accident, missed only one race. This year, he was able to run in the season opening meet and finished 14th.
"It feels like redemption a little bit," the junior said.
Sophomore Braedyn Wormeck led FPC's boys team with a sixth-place finish. His time of 17:42.3 was more than two minutes better than his previous personal record of 19:50.
"That's a pretty crazy jump," he said. "I've been working so hard this summer, making big gains."
FPC's next four finishers crossed the line within eight seconds of each other: Barak Olago (13th place, 18:10.6), Gilliam (14th, 18:11.6), Hayden Herndon (15th, 18:15.8) and Peyton Woodward (16th, 18:18.9).
"I think (the FPC boys) have a chance to at least be a top 10 team in the state if not better. I've been trying to convince them all summer that they have a chance to be a pretty special team this year."
DAVE HALLIDAY, FPC coach
"I'd say our top four or five runners are interchangeable," Halliday said. "The fact that we beat Ponte Vedra and North Gwinnett and almost beat Nease, the boys are pretty excited, as they should be. I think they have a chance to at least be a top 10 team in the state if not better. I've been trying to convince them all summer that they have a chance to be a pretty special team this year."
The FPC girls were led by freshman Arianna Slaughter, who finished 19th (22:43.4). Junior Lexie Shupe was 26th (23:15.1), and sophomores Cassidy De Young (30th, 23:40.5), Bella Tarsitano (32nd, 23:45.1) and Anabelle Moore (39th, 24:06.3) also finished among the top 40.
"We definitely pushed each other to the finish line," Shupe said.
There were 17 teams and 300 runners in the boys race and 18 teams and 253 runners in the girls race. The FPC runners practiced on the course for a week leading up to the race.
"The course got a lot worse over the week," De Young said.
"I like it," said Tarsitano. "I like the mud. It's like a challenge to me. I feel like I can do it, I can go through it."
