Heikkinen top county finisher in Marianna race

MARIANNA - Rutherford's Thomas Heikkinen finished ninth in the Panhandle Cross Country Championships on Saturday, the lone Bay County finisher in the Top 10 in either the boys or girls races.

Heikkinen covered the 5 kilometers in 16 minutes, 35 seconds. He was 40 seconds behind the winner, Whitney Strickland of North Florida High.

Niceville won the team title in the boys race, edging Leon 85-87. Mosley was the top area team, finishing 11th in the 26-team race with 372 points. Arnold finished 14th with 438, Rutherford was 18th with 538 and Bay was 22nd with 600.

Bay's best finisher was Gabe Holquin, who was 23rd in 17:08. Mosley was led by Frankie Menna in 32nd place (17:14). Arnold's Jacob Slaughter set a school record with a time of 17:32, finishing 47th.

Arnold had eight boy runners post personal bests in the meet.

In the girls race, Arnold's Lauren Vonderharr was the top county finisher, placing 20th in a school-record time of 20:30.

Chiles won the team title, with five of the first six finishers, including winner Lily Williams in 18:02. Chiles easily outdistanced sec-ond-place Fort Walton Beach, 19-92.

Mosley led county teams, finishing 10th out of 20 teams, scoring 309. Arnold finished 11th with 343 points and Bay was 20th with 526 points.

Mosley was led by Chelsey Williams, who finished 48th in 22:01, followed by teammate Lessie Skiba with the same time. Another Mosley runner, Anna Bauer, finished 52nd in 22:07.

Meagan Thorpe led Rutherford in 23:26, placing 78th. The Rams did not have enough runners to be counted in team scoring.

Devon Cozart led Bay in 24:31, placing 95th.

The county championships, originally scheduled for next Saturday, likely will be held at 3:30 p.m. Friday at Harders Park because of scheduling issues.

Team scores

• Boys: Niceville 85, Leon 87, Washington 149, Maclay 161, Fort Walton Beach 168, Navarre 170, Pine Forest 175, Chiles 182, Crestview 247, Godby 333, Mosley 372, Lincoln 385, Marianna 390, Arnold 438, Wakulla 440, South Walton 455, North Florida Christian 458, Rutherford 538, Florida High 547, Enterprise 574, Ponte Verde 579, Bay 600, Wewahitchka 616, Bainbridge 647, Aucilla Christian 761, Walton 768.
  Girls: Chiles 19, Fort Walton 92, Maclay 101, Niceville 102, Leon 104, Enterprise 194, South Walton 200, Wakulla 258, Navarre 280, Mosley 309, Arnold 343, Washington 360, Florida High 366, Bainbridge 371, Godby 391, Lincoln 413, Ponte Vedra 419, Aucilla Christian 451, North Florida Christian 485, Bay 526.

Individual times (Bay County)
Boys

• Bay: Gabe Holquin 17:05, Alec Lippmann 18:46, Chris Owen 22:13, Cornelius Booker 24:56, Cody Kennedy 26:09, Adam Kachlein 26:11
  Arnold: Jacob Slaughter 17:32, Morgan Meadows 18:57, Hector Rodriguez 18:59, Chance Mason 19:05, Felipe Madrid 19:37, Jayme At-kins 20:26, Mason Armstrong 20:34, Thor Richardt 19:31, Jordan Carpenter 20:55, Trevor Petski 21:09, Chris Davidson 21:16, , Joel Glass 22:50
  Rutherford: Thomas Heikkinen 16:35, Matthew Hennigan 19:21, Andrew McCabe 21:07, Timothy Roberts 21:18, Mike Dutton 22:02, Mat-thew Smith 22:11, Useohah Nielsen 22:21.
  Mosley: Frankie Menna 17:14, Phil Cochran 17:35, Michael Kiefer 17:57, Tyler Hougton 19:41, Kenneth Guty 20:31, Tim Chappell 21:39, Ronnie Birge 22:17.

Girls

• Bay: Devon Cozart 24:31, Savanna Nelson 25:07, Ginny Hamrick 25:13, Katie Jernigan 26:10, Rachael Perry 31:18, Holly Tatem 31:20, Becca Wanamaker 36:04.
  Arnold: Lauren Vonderharr 20:30, Tyler Cook-Sutherland 23:18, Tori Pettofrezzo 23:37, Katie Randazzo 24:16, Kaitlyn Beckham 24:21, Rachael Mackenzie 25:10, Kaitlyn Girard 25:45, Cristina Benjumea 25:35, Morgan Mackenzie 27:17, Lynn Cromer 32:45, Halee Burnette 36:28.
  Rutherford: Meagan Thorpe 23:36.
  Mosley: Chelsey Williams 22:01, Lessie Skiba 22:01, Anna Bauer 22:07, Erika Klump 23:19, Britn Templeton 24:45, Carly Cottingham 25:08.