Dustin Fletcher - The XC season is here, and one of the first meets on the schedule is the East Hillsborough Invitational at Plant City High School. Newsome's boys and girls have dominated this Invitational in the past on the team sides, but elite individuals are the theme for Invitational Championships.

On the girl's side, defending 4A State Champion Bailey Hertenstein controlled the race from the start, going out and following the bike alone from the gun. She went out and negative split the race, hitting 5:52, 5:50, 5:48, and closing out her season opener with a FL #1 18:09. The Riverview individuals were not done there as freshman Alyssa Hendrix was a runner-up in 19:57, and taking 4th place was Junior Julia Rohm in 20:35.

Splitting up those 3 in 3rd place was the Newsome girls top finisher, Marcella Benner in 20:20. She was the first of 7, with all 7 in the top 15 from the Newsome girls with a 1-5 split of 52 seconds and a 1-7 split of 72 seconds. Rounding out the top 5 was Cassie Highsmith of Plant City in 20:38.

On the boy's side, the elite top finisher was Haftom Fliegelman of Durant, 4th place at last year's 4A State Finals.  Haftom finished alone at 16:31. Trailing him for the first mile was Bloomingdale's Top 2 of Kyle Perry and Colin Boutin. Also in the lead group, was Fernando Palacios of Bell Creek, Luke Whitmore and Noah Booz of Plant City, and slightly behind all of them was Newsome's top 6.

Newsome, the team Champions had 6 of their top 7 in the Top 15, led by Alex Bugielski, and their captain, Cody Caskey.  Newsome, projected to be 3rd at the 4A state meet this year had a 1-5 split of 18 seconds and 1-6 of 20 seconds. This should play in their favor this season in a pack heavy 4A.

Crossing 2nd individually was Luke Whitmore of Plant City, the runner known for helping another runner who had fallen at last year's state meet; he finished in 16:54.  Plant City also had the 4th place finisher, senior Noah Booz in a personal best of 17:13.  Noah was outkicked by Bloomingdale Senior Collin Boutin's flying track finish in 17:11.

In 5th place was junior Fernando Palacios of Bell Creek in a huge personal best of 17:17. Watch out for him and the Mackenzie twins of Seffner Christian to qualify individually for states in 1A this year, all three, could have a breakout year.

The theme of the night was opportunities, and Newsome seized the team titles on both sides for the 4th straight year.  Riverview girls made huge strides with their 2nd and 3rd runners, and Plant City improved leaps and bounds from last year, showing incredible progress with personal bests for multiple runners. Stay posted this year, because 4A Region 2 could be a tight one.

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