Buchholz boys, girls win cross country regional titles

Buchholz's Riley Smith (103) and Evan Fleming (79) finished first and second in the boys 5K cross country race and Eleanor Whisler (136) topped the girls race on Saturday in the Bobcat Classic.
Buchholz's Riley Smith (103) and Evan Fleming (79) finished first and fourth, respectively, in the boys 5K cross country regionals race and Eleanor Whisler (136) finished 11th to lead the first-place Bobcats.
File photos by Seth Johnson

Buchholz senior and Florida commit, Riley Smith blazed to first place at the 4A Region 1 meet on Friday at the New World Golf Course in Jacksonville to win the individual title and lead the Bobcats to an upset win over No. 1 ranked Nease.

Smith’s time of 14 minutes, 57.3 seconds was a hair under the area 5K cross country best run time of 14:57.41 run by former Bobcat Emerson Miller last year at the Asics Alexander Invitational on Oct. 1. Miller is a freshman this year and competes for Florida.

Evan Fleming followed Smith in fourth (15:25.4), Gino Palazzolo in fifth (15:27.0), Samuel Freas in 16th (15:58.7) and Calum Watson in 39th (16:27.5) to score 65 points to Nease’s 69. All of Buchholz’s times were personal bests. 

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Nease had beaten the Bobcats at last week’s District 1 meet 24-126.

The Buchholz girls also won the region title with 81 points over second-place Niceville’s 134.

The Bobcats were led by Eleanor Whisler’s 11th place finish in 18:45.3. Ashley Hamilton came in 16th (19:11.6), Lucy Voss was 20th (19:17.6), Kaitlyn Goslinga took 24th (19:22.3) and Maggie Whisler was 25th (19:25.8). The FHSAA Cross Country Championships will be held next Friday at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee.

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