The Buchholz boys cross country team won gold Saturday at the FHSAA Cross Country State Championships, claiming the Class 4A state title for the first time since 1994 under legendary Gator coach Mike Holloway.

The girls cross country squad added to the winnings with a second-place finish, and Bobcat senior Gino Palazzolo also claimed the boys individual title with a time of 15 minutes and 23 seconds.

The Bobcat teams flipped places from last year when the girls team finished first and the boys earned second.

Palazzolo led the boys squad in a battle against Hagerty (Oviedo) that came down to both teams’ fifth runner and final points finisher. His state championship run improved his time from last week’s regionals by 10 seconds.

Boys cross country coach Patrick Douma said the team came in with a conservative game plan. He gave each runner a target time, and the teams pulled off the plan without errors.

“We generally run conservative race plans to run well at the end of the race, to feel in control and run well,” Douma said. “But I think we went a little bit more conservative today.”

Buchholz junior Demetrie Meyers, 15:49.0, finished fourth individually and in the third place points finish for the team. Bobcats Samuel Freas and Sam Stone grabbed the 35th and 43rd points spots—16:17.8 and 16:26.8.

With their top four runners finished, Buchholz edged Hagerty 82-86. Senior Calum Watson crossed the line 10 seconds later to give the Bobcats the title.

Douma said he knew the players would be coming from behind because of the plan in place. He told parents to anticipate the team sitting around 10th place after the first mile.

When the splits came in on the screen, the Bobcats sat as the 15th team out of 32 teams. Over the next mile, Buchholz whittled down the leads to get the fourth-place spot. In the final mile, the team passed 74 other runners to claim the top spot.

Douma said it wasn’t a large margin of victory, but the team was confident in the plan and their ability to win.

“A lot of kids put a lot of faith in me, and I put a lot of faith in a lot of kids, and we were just happy to be there for the moment and happy that it worked out,” Douma said.

Douma said the victory shows the value of trusting the program. He started coaching the team four years ago, and this year’s seniors were freshmen when he arrived.

He said the team looked back at their progress over the years.

Palazzolo was ranked 149th among Florida freshmen. Now, he’s the Class 4A champion and fastest senior in Florida. Douma said Palazzolo will head to a tournament next week to match up against out-of-state runners, and he made an official visit to Florida State this weekend after securing gold.

Palazzolo’s vision and trust propelled him to the front, Douma said. At some point, he also just outworked many of his peers.

“In this sport, there’s a lot of jumping you can make if you’re just willing to outwork other people and then be smart about your work,” Douma said.

Douma said cross country differs from some sports where no amount of work will bring you to the top if certain innate characteristics aren’t there. A 5’9″ football player who weighs 140 pounds won’t be a linebacker no matter the amount of work.

But with cross country, he said the work put in shows in the results.

He said the team, while not winning a cross country title in 30 years, found success in track and field. Palazzolo and Calum won the 4 x mile at the Nike Indoor Nationals this year, and Douma said that gave them confidence that cross country is also winnable.

For the girls squad, senior Eleanor Whisler led the way, finishing 11th individually and in 10th place for the team race. She crossed the line in 18:24.0 to improve on her regionals time by just over 20 seconds.

Freshmen Alanna Doyle and Valeria Beaver crossed next. They slotted into the 22nd and 32nd team places with 19:13.9 and 19:21.8. Senior Ashley Hamilton and freshman Maddie Russell rounded out the top five Bobcat runners with 48th and 62nd places—19:31.4 and 19:46.4.

The silver-placed finish for the girls squad comes after a golden streak, winning the last three state championships.

Mike Maren, coach for the girls’ team, said he’s proud of the team and the job they did at the championship.

“They had a great day today; they just pulled it together,” Maren said. “I’m super proud of them.”

It was a tough year overall, he said, as the team searched for cohesion between upper and underclassmen and with injuries. Senior Kaitlyn Goslinga was injured during track and field, Maren said, and only rejoined cross country toward the end of the season.

He said the Bobcats are starting to turn a corner, with Whisler and Goslinga the last of a cohesive unit of girls that started four years ago. That unit won the first championship in 2021, with the other runners graduating over the past couple of years and now playing for colleges—like Kate Drummond for UF and Lucy Voss for UCF.

He said this year’s squad started to find their cohesion, and each runner did their jobs in the championship. But he said Creekside has been practically out of reach.

Creekside won the regionals with a team total a minute and 45 seconds ahead of Buchholz, and the championship by a little less than three minutes.

Even with silver this year, Maren said the squad’s seniors might be the most decorated Bobcats in the school’s history. Three cross country first place finishes and a second-place finish, plus their successes during track and field.

He said the squad has a good foundation for the next season and thinks the players have started to understand the team component. You run for your teammates and to elevate their success as well.

“They’re talented, but it’s just developing them and getting them better,” Maren said. “And it’s all about, to me, it’s a team thing.”