TAVARES—Gray Middle School’s John Profit emerged from the forest, burst through a crowd of fifty or so spectators, and sprinted towards the finish line in a clearing 100 yards away.  Only then did he look back.  Not that anyone was behind him.  There never is.  Profit will go down as the best boys cross-country runner Lake County has ever seen, posting first place finishes in every race over his three-year middle school career.

On Wednesday, October 21^st, Hickory Point Sports Complex in Tavares hosted the 2009 Lake County Cross-Country Championships which featured nine schools.  Profit won the individual boys championship and Windy Hill Middle’s Austen Eckhart won the individual girls championship.  But the real story was Tavares Middle School’s sweep of the boys, girls, and JV championships, giving all three teams their third championship in as many years.

For the past two seasons, Tavares, which boasts 97 runners, had won most of their meets with a comfortable cushion, but this season was different.  Although the TMS boys had won all of their regular season meets, the margin of victory over the second place team had shrunk to a mere six points; the Lady Patriots had won only one regular season meet after having their county-record 13-race win streak broken by East Ridge at the Gray Middle Invitational. 

“I told them I thought we could win,” said Tavares coach Kevin Von Maxey, “but we would need to run the perfect race.”  Von Maxey prepared the girls varsity team by giving them cards with individual goals such as the place in the race they needed to finish to score points.  Everyone had the same team goal—to win the championship.

“It really motivated me,” said TMS varsity runner Michelle Zamperlini, who placed 25^th out of 63 runners.  “I think it made [us] focus not just on who was in front of [us], but what place [we] needed to do to help our team win.”

Von Maxey said that the by analyzing the team scores throughout the year, the key was for the fifth scoring runner to place in 17^th position or better.  Ally Person, who was chosen to run on the varsity for the first time all season, was Tavares’ fifth scorer.  Her place?  Seventeenth.

Overall, the TMS girls won the meet with 58 points, edging out East Ridge (63) and Windy Hill (70) in points.  Mount Dora (103), South Lake Charter (124), and Gray (127) followed, with three other schools not scoring.  Besides the strong finishes by Zamperlini and Person, Chelsea Spears (7^th), Savannah Guenther (10^th), team captain Emily Imboden (11^th), Brooke Boynton (13^th), and Kaley Smith (29^th) all dominated for the Lady Patriots. 

The TMS boys varsity race was the closest championship in Lake County cross-country’s four-year history.  Last year, Tavares defeated Windy Hill by a single point.  This year, the race was a tie and the final outcome decided on a tiebreaker which included the place of each team’s sixth runner. 

Both Tavares and Gray scored 49 points but Tavares’ sixth scoring runner, Damon Arnett, placed 20^th, and Gray’s sixth runner placed 22^nd, giving Tavares the championship.  Windy Hill followed with 61 points and Mount Dora (103), Eustis (111), East Ridge (123), Clermont (135), Carver (185), and South Lake Charter (267) rounded out the meet.

There were also several heroic efforts from the boys team.  The Patriots’ top runner, Brian Buckner, who usually places in the top five, was sick but still decided to run in the race.  He finished in 11^th while battling flu-like symptoms, earning critical points for his team.  Team captain Cole Higginbotham (6^th) and David Buckner (7^th) picked up the slack running in the top ten and Shunta Nafield placed 13^th.  The most important event turned out to be Cristo Silva’s 21^st place finish.  He accelerated past two Gray runners at the finish line; without his effort, there would not have been a tie.

“At the time, I did not know how important it was.  I had it stuck in my head Coach telling me to make sure I beat the green guys (Gray) so I sprinted past them,” said Silva.

Von Maxey said next year’s varsity has a bright future as the TMS JV team won by over 50 points.  Five Tavares runners finished in the top 10.

“[In the pre-game speech] I brought up last season’s championship where we won by a single point.  I told them that today, I felt like someone was ready to step up.”

Tavares ran two perfect races and the result is a team of champions.  Ninety-seven strong.