Tiger Shark runners picking up the pace
According to Coach Keion McNair, Port St. Joe’s cross country teams are already showing improvements over last year’s season.
At the 2023 Dolphin Dash Invitational at Bay Dunes Golf Course in Panama City Sept. 2, Port St. Joe’s boys and girls varsity cross country runners turned in times that were faster, on average, than those McNair was seeing from them at this time last year.
“We had a pretty productive summer, and coming off that summer, everybody on the team ran faster than the time that they opened up the season with a year ago,” he said. “That’s a big positive sign going forward into this year.”
Two runners set personal records at the meet in the 5,000 meter run — Farrah Spring at 26:31.9 and Celie White at 28:13.9.
In the coming weeks, McNair said his runners would be shifting their training away from endurance and towards exercises designed to help improve their speed.
“We’re jumping to a different phase of our training,” he said. “They love this phase because they actually get to run fast and not just focus on mileage… I’m getting my cross country kids to be sprinters, to run as sprinters.”
“If they’re going to improve their times, they’ve got to be able to run fast. We’ve got the distance in. Now we’ve got to improve the speed.”
Port St. Joe’s cross country runners next compete in Marlin Mayhem meet in Panama City on Oct. 7.
2023 Dolphin Dash Invitational Results
5000 METER RUN BOYS
20:58.8 Nathan Lipford 56th
21:22.5 Jude Fosshage 62nd
24:42.0 Preston Beckwith 107th
25:10.8 Chase Ford 113th
30:09.2 Rhys Bennefield 132nd
30:39.7 Dane Fosshage 133rd
5000 METER RUN GIRLS
23:55.5 Molly Partin 23rd
24:43.0 Kate Patrick 29th
25:05.0 Hannah DaCosta 31st
25:14.6 Libby White 35th
25:40.9 Arlena Gleichner 38th
26:31.9 Farrah Spring 42nd
28:13.9 Celie White 53rd
30:02.7 Kaylee Schweikert 63rd
Meet the Editor
Wendy Weitzel, The Star’s digital editor, joined the news outlet in August 2021, as a reporter covering primarily Gulf County.
Prior to then, she interned for Oklahoma-based news wire service Gaylord News and for Oklahoma City-based online newspaper NonDoc.com during her four years at the University of Oklahoma, from which she graduated in May with degrees in online journalism and political science.
While at OU, Weitzel was selected as Carnegie-Knight News21 Investigative Fellow among 30 top journalism students from around the country. She also was senior editor managing a 12-person newsroom in coordination with Oklahoma Watch, a non-profit news organization in eastern Oklahoma.