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 16^th (15:58.7) and Calum Watson in 39^th (16:27.5) to score 65 points to Nease’s 69. All of Buchholz’s times were personal bests. 

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