Bauer breezes into regionals

Sebring senior Connor Bauer ran a comfortable second with a time of 16 minutes, 32 seconds in Friday's Class 3A-District 6 cross country meet at Lehigh Acres to qualify for next week's regional competition in Charlotte.

The Blue Streak boys squad finished 11th in the 15-team field, with only the top eight schools and top-15 individuals advancing to next Friday's regional meet.

Bauer, who finished eighth in last year's Class 2A state finals, kept an even pace over the hilly district course and has plenty of energy left for the rest of the postseason.

"I was pretty happy with my performance," said Bauer. "I didn't have to push myself very hard to finish second and I'm satisfied with my time on a pretty rough course.

"I've run this course before and I ran a smarter race this time and even though I finished 15 seconds behind first place, I know I can run with that guy."

Bauer is disappointed that his team didn't qualify for regionals, but the Blue Streaks speedster is focused on capping his stellar high school career with a trip to the Class 3A state finals.

"I've got to keep training hard because the competition in 3A is pretty tough," Bauer said. "I've been working for this all year and I feel very confident heading into the regional meet."

Sebring ran well in the girls meet with five out of the six posting personal-best times, but the Blue Streaks finished eighth in the 12-team field, with only the top six squads moving on.

"I'm really proud of the girls," said Sebring veteran coach Jeff Shoemaker. "They ran so well and to not qualify for regionals is disappointing, but the depth of the competition in Class 3A is much tougher than in 2A. The girls gave a great effort and if you would have told me before the race what our times were, I would have bet that we would qualify for regionals.

"All of the kids ran their best and as a coach that's all you can ask."

Dragons fall short

ESTERO - The Lake Placid boys and girls cross country teams had some solid performances in Friday's Class 2A-District 6 cross country meet in Estero.

The Green Dragon boys finished 12th in the 17-team field, with senior Jordan Scott leading the way with a personal-best time of 19:57, senior Vicente Ramos ran a 20:09, freshman Benny Aguilar had a 20:52, Josh Pent came in at 21:08 and Dalton Kirby rounded out the team scoring with a time of 25:15.

"We ran pretty well, but the competition was really tough," said Lake Placid coach Scott Morgan. "There were a lot of talented runners competing and I'm real happy to see Jordan finally break the 20-minute mark."

The Green Dragon girls didn't have enough runners to record a team score.

"The kids worked hard to improve and I'm pleased with our season," said Morgan.