The Land O' Lakes boys cross country team opened its season in style, winning the overall championship at the Seffner Christian Open last weekend.
Travis Nichols, a Gator sophomore, also came on top individually. Nichols outdueled his only competition at race's end, beating Armwood's Brandon Duncan by seven seconds.
Nichols ran the three-mile course in 16:45. The race was held the morning of Sept. 10 at Sydney Dover Trails in eastern Hillsborough County.
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The Gators' top five runners averaged a 6:15 mile pace, with Tyler Stahl (fourth, 17:30) and Jake Poore (10th, 18:32) giving them three top-10 finishers, as many as Admiral Farragut.
But Land O' Lakes showed the key ingredient in team performance is depth, as Dillon Oergel (16th) and Trevor Nichols (33rd) both had strong runs as well.
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None of the Gators' top five are seniors; in fact, all are sophomores but Oergel, an 11th-grader.
Mount Dora Bible School supplied the toughest competition with 94 points compared to the Gators' 64. The host school was third (100), while other larger schools like Brandon, Bloomingdale, Wesley Chapel (ninth) and Armwood finished further down in the field of 15 squads.
In the girls race, Land O' Lakes was 13th out of 17 teams. Louisa Cestone led the way individually with a 24:57 time, good for 49th place.
