Friday's a great day for cross country

Perhaps the only drama surrounding this year's Bay County cross country meet was when and where to have it.

The annual event originally was scheduled for Saturday, but Ironman Florida takes place the same day. Some of the competitors will volunteer at the triathlon, so a schedule change was needed. Today wasn't viable due to a district swimming meet.

That left Friday at 3:30 p.m., giving athletes and coaches an opportunity to cheer on their teams on the football field later in the day. The venue also was slated to be the Callaway Sports Complex for the second straight year, but county coaches voted to switch back to the familiar confines of Harders Park.

The slight indecision on the time and place may be the only question mark heading into the meet, at least as far as the individual finishers are concerned. Defending champions, Rutherford's Tommy Heikkinen and Arnold's Lauren Vonderharr, are strong contenders to repeat.

Overall, Mosley's boys and girls teams will challenge for the championship, with two of the most experienced squads in the event. Arnold won on the girls side over Mosley last year and Bay held off Mosley for the boys crown.

Mosley's girls will be paced by top runners Chelsey Williams, Erika Klump and Lessie Skiba, among others in a group of talented and improving athletes. Mosley's boys are led by Frankie Menna, who could challenge for the top individual spot.

Rutherford coach Fred Wester expects finishing times to be at or better than personal bests due to the return to Harders Park. He arranged a switch to Callaway last year, but the course proved to be slower.

"Last year I thought we needed a change of pace because we have two meets there," Wester said. "We expected Callaway to be a bit bigger than what we mapped it out to be.

"But to be honest, Harders Park is one of the best courses of all the ones we attend."

Wester hopes the course is kind to Heikkinen, a senior looking to end his career with another county title. Bay's Gabe Holquin is expected to push Heikkinen again. The duo was tight last year before Heikkinen pulled ahead in the final mile.

Heikkinen won by 20 seconds.

"He (Holquin) was and is pretty good," Wester said. "He stayed with Tommy."

Arnold's boys are led by Jacob Slaughter, who was the Marlins' top finisher in the Panhandle Cross Country Championships last weekend.

Bay's girls are paced by Devon Cozart and Savanna Nelson, while the Tornadoes' second-best threat for the boys is Alec Lippmann.

Meagan Thorpe is Rutherford's top girls runner.

The county meet is the last on each teams' schedule heading into the district competition, which begins the weekend of Nov. 7.