Popik Races to All-Region honors, 10 PR’s and the fastest average times for both men and women’s teams in BlueWave History.
The men's 8,000m was the 1st race of the day and the BlueWave men were led for the 7th time this season by sophomore Brennan Popik in a new personal record on 27:27. This performance placed 7th overall winning Brennan All-Region 8 honors. Adrian Figueroa was 33 seconds back with a PR of 28:00.1 and only 18 seconds ahead on freshman Luke Williams who picked a great day to slice 1:30 of his previous best to cross the line at 28:18. Jaxon McKim 28:33 and Noe Benitez in 29:29 (another new PR) completed the Top 5 scoring positions and an average time of 28:21 which placed the team in 4th place only 3 points behind the 15th place nationally ranked team from Pasco-Hernando State College. Also racing to new PR's were Corey Rhoads (30:29) and Nicholas Terry (30:57).
The women's team also captured the 4th spot and were led by freshman Zandi Pienaar with a time of 21:11. Lynn Winkler and Meghan Bonser were next in 21:52 and 21:54 with Kayleigh McWatters just 22 seconds back in 22:16. All 4 athletes posted new Personal records in this event. Rounding out the top 5 was Whitney Mathis in a season's best of 23:12. Sophomore Abigail Gray cut over a minute from her previous RP with a 25:46.
"10 PR's, the fastest average times ever, we finished 1 spot behind the 15th ranked men's team (nationally) and Brennan sporting that huge medal, yep, I'd say it was a good day!" commented Head Coach Jody Hale when asked about the team's performance. "Super excited to be back here next month for the Nationals. With only 2 returning athletes from last year's teams, we thought this would be a rebuilding years but these athletes have built our 2 fastest team ever!"
Athletes from 18 teams competed in Friday's FCSSA/NJCAA Region 8 Cross-Country Championships held at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee Florida. Apalachee Regional Park will host the 2022 NJCAA National Cross-Country Championships on November 12th, 2022 and will be the location of the IAAF World Cross-Country Championships in 2026. The A.R.P. has previously hosted the USATF National Championships, the NCAA DI Championships, ACC Championships, the FSU Invitational and is the location of the FHSAA State XC Championships.