Cross Country State Qualifiers: Niceville, FWB, Choctaw, SoWal advance both teams

Seth Stringer, Northwest Florida Daily News

November 1, 2022 at 3:52 PM·3 min read

Long-distance running has been strong on the Emerald Coast over the last decade.

Credit the depth. Credit the coaching. Credit the Okaloosa County rivalries fueling parity. Regardless, the formula has worked.

The latest success story comes from this past weekend's region meets, where Choctaw, Fort Walton, Niceville and South Walton each qualified both their girls and boys teams for Saturday's respective state meets at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee.

In the Region 1-3A meet, Fort Walton placed third for the girls and fourth the boys. Choctaw followed in sixth in both races.

Fort Walton Beach High School's Belicia O'Grady took first place in the girls varsity division the Okaloosa County Cross Country Championships held Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022 at the Howard Hill Soccer Complex in Niceville.

The Viking girls were of course led by reigning Daily News Runner of the Year and sophomore Belicia O'Grady, who ran a 5K personal record 18:31.6 to finish third behind Ponte Vedra's Lily White (18:24.8) and Leon's Lillee Tang (18:07.5). Rounding out the Vikings, senior Tilda Brewer followed in 10th (19:34.4), senior Grace Hebson in 21st (20:15), senior Madison Deroussel in 26th (20:39.1) and sophomore Charity Lobzun in 32nd (21:06.3).

Choctaw was led by senior Brylie Kilgore (20:19.7) in 22nd, followed by freshman Isabel Harter (20:47.4) in 27th, senior Giavanna Paone (21:48.2) in 42nd, senior Chi Medina (21:59.3) in 44th and junior Lauren Bage (23:11.1) in 71st.

Fort Walton Beach High School's Grant Chastain took second place in the varsity boys division of the Okaloosa County Cross Country Championships held Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022 at the Howard Hill Soccer Complex in Niceville.

The Vikings boys were led by junior Grant Chastain (16:14.8) in fourth, followed by junior Curran O'Grady (17:08) in 21st, senior Luke Endt (17:16.9) in 27th, sophomore Connor Rising (17:43.4) in 44th and Landon Burbidge (17:55.6) in 48th.

Choctaw was led by senior Kaleb Hollins (16:14.1) in third, followed by senior Matyas Baca (17:19.3) in 29th, freshman Brendan Cutler (18:05) in 52nd, sophomore Zachary Smith (18:34.4) in 73rd and junior Nicholas Brown (18:36.2) in 75th.

Choctawhatchee High School's Kaleb Hollins took first place in the boys varsity division of the Okaloosa County Cross Country Championships held Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022 at the Howard Hill Soccer Complex in Niceville.

In the 4A meet, the Niceville girls finished second to only Buchholz and the boys placed fifth.

Niceville High School's Trinity Holland took second place in varsity girls division the Okaloosa County Cross Country Championships, held Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022 at the Howard Hill Soccer Complex in Niceville.

Senior Trinity Holland led the Eagles in 10th with a time of 19:23.7, followed by junior Rayne Mendez (19:40.7) in 14th, junior Hailey Holtery (20:01.2) in 18th, junior Lauryn Cooper (20:07.5) in 21st and and junior Victoria Roberts (21:01.1) in 56th.

Junior Seamus Hodge led the boys with a time of 16:20 to finish 14th, followed by senior Will Jetton (16:36.8) in 26th, senior Gehrig Gesch (16:44.7) in 30th, senior Noah Hunter (16:51.1) in 35th and junior Alexander Buena (16:59.3) in 43rd.

Niceville High School's Seamus Hodge took fourth place in varsity boys division of the Okaloosa County Cross Country Championships held Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022 at the Howard Hill Soccer Complex in Niceville.

In the 2A meet, the South Walton boys finished second behind only Bolles and the girls placed fifth.

Junior Jonah Kirspel was fifth in 16:14.1, followed by sophomore Matthew Minton (16:48.2) in 13th, senior Cayll Craig (17:02.5) in 16th, sophomore William Burgess (17:29.9) in 29th and junior Hudson Railton (17:32) in 30th.

Junior Reece Knowlton led the girls with an 11th-place finish of 19:33.3, followed by freshman Grace Petty (19:55.9) in 19th, senior Kristina Hankinson (20:34.3) in 27th, senior Dafne Lucero (20:36.1) in 28th and freshman Diana Garcia (21:18.3) in 40th.

In the Region 1-1A meet, Baker also qualified for state with a fourth-place finish and Paxton is moving on in sixth.

Baker was led by seventh-grader Danielle Davis with a 16th-place finish in 20:48.5, followed by senior Eliana Butler (21:44.9) in 22nd, junior Jayden Harvey (23:16.8) in 41st, sixth-grader Elzabeth Merritt (23:25.6) in 44th and Addisson Merritt (23:30.9) in 45th.

Follow sports editor Seth Stringer on twitter at @SethSnwfdn.

This article originally appeared on Northwest Florida Daily News: Cross Country State Qualifiers: Niceville, FWB, Choctaw, SoWal shine

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