Port St. Joe girls cross country places at invitational

Port St. Joe’s girls cross country runners earned silver at the Thomas University NightHawk Invitational held at the Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee on Saturday, September 17.

Tiger Sharks finished with a total of 56 points, paced by R.J. Gerlach’s time of 24.33, followed closely by Molly Partin with a 24.48.

Katie Trochessett (25.56), Hannah DaCosta (27.09), and Celie White (27.13) rounded out the Shark scoring.

St. Joe runners finished 8th, 9th, 10th, 14th, and 15th in the race.

Farrah Spring and Madelyn Shoaf also ran for the Sharks, but only the first five finishers qualify for the team scores at cross country events.

With only four boys racing, Port St. Joe missed out on an official team score. However, Dylan Davis finished with a 21.32, with Nathan Lipford on his heels at 21.44.

Jackson Touchston (24.48) and Britt White (26.00) were the other Tiger Shark runners in the boys race.

At the event, St. Joe coaches Keion McNair and Kenny Parker presented Shark alumnus and current

Thomas University hurdler Darian Mills with his state championship ring from this spring when he won gold in both the 1A 110- and 300 hurdles. Centennial Bank donated the championship ring.

Also in attendance for the ceremony was Maddie Gortemoller, another 2022 St. Joe graduate who now runs for the University of Mobile, and who raced at the Pre-NAIA Nationals the same morning in Tallahassee.

In her three cross country events with Mobile, Maddie has steadily improved her times, and has finished first among her teammates at each race. On September 2, she ran a 22.06, and improved to a 21.51 last Saturday, September 9, finishing in seventh place overall.

At the Pre-NAIA race, Maddie finished 46th out of 113 runners with a time of 21.08. 

Wewa runners compete in Bay County

Wewahitchka runners participated in the Buccaneer Bash, hosted by North Bay Haven and held at the Bay Dunes golf course in Panama City.

In boys action, Aiden Evans finished 13th overall with a time of 18.52. David Rich and Kaden Brooks had a photo finish with times of 20.52.5 and 20.52.9, respectively.

Calvin Carpenter (25.16) and Jaxon Sweat (27.14) rounded out the Gator team scoring, with Spencer Tucker (27.48) and Camden Winder (27.51) narrowly missing the top five.

Eli Evans, Bryce Ethridge, and Travis Archibald also ran for the Gators, who came in seventh out of the nine teams.

Arianna Myers and Cameron Easter were the only Gator girls who entered the race, so Wewa did not have a team score.
North Bay Haven won both the boys and the girls races.