Anderson Charles, John I. Leonard both finish fifth at state cross-country meet

Saturday, November 19, 2011
by Dave Heeren

Anderson Charles of John I. Leonard once told his former teammate, Ryan Pickering, that he could beat him and Saturday Charles did a pretty good imitation of the 2010 Class 4A individual title winner at the state cross-country finals.

Charles, a senior, led the Lancers to fifth place by finishing in fifth place individually with a time of 15:51.54.

Leonard's top four runners finished among the top 42 individuals. The other three were juniors Salvador Medrano (19th ), Charlie Bengston (26th) and Jorge Rodriquez (42nd).

"Last year when we were running as teammates, I told Ryan I could beat him," Charles said. "I did beat him in the half-mile and everything lower.

"But he was a great runner. I picked up some little things from him."

Charles' time of 15:51.54 wasn't quite up to Pickering's 2010 championship time of 15:03.01. But it was good enough to solidify Leonard's team finish.

"I wanted to finish in the top 10, so it was an overall good race for me," Charles said.

With a Miami-Columbus runner standing nearby, Charles said, "Our goal was to steal second place from Columbus, but I don't think we made it."

Columbus did place second, behind team champion Orlando-Colonial.

Charles praised Leonard coach Al Jordan for motivating the Lancers. Jordan said when Pickering and another key senior graduated last spring, he tried to convince the rest of the Lancers that they had to work harder.

"They saw what they had to do and we reached our team goals to win all through the playoffs - district, county, conference and regionals," Jordan said. "We wanted a fourth-place finish or higher at state, but we didn't run our best."

Senior Ryan White of Park Vista finished in 12th place individually in the Class 4A boys race, and Park Vista's team also finished 12th.

In Class 4A girls, the highest Palm Beach County finisher was Jupiter freshman Courteney Zboyan in 22nd place. The Jupiter team finished 12th.

Scott Simpson of King's Academy took 12th place in the boys Class 1A race. The King's Academy team finished 15th.

St. Andrew's wound up in 13th place in the Class 2A boys team standings. The Scots' first finisher was eighth-grader Nicolas Jacobsen in 23rd place individually.