On Nov. 22, Coral Shores sophomore Ali Wheatley and the Marathon boys cross country team took their marks at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee for the FHSAA Cross Country State Championships. Wheatley secured an individual invitation with a fantastic showing at regionals the week prior, while the Dolphin boys qualified as a team by finishing fifth, making it their 11th consecutive year to make it to the big show.
Wheatley’s time, 20:27, was good for 61st place, and while a bit shy of her personal best, was excellent given the challenging course. Apalachee follows a hilly, two-loop tree-lined course with twists and turns throughout. In addition to the hills, something very difficult to train for in the Keys, Wheatley raced through the early-morning fog in her first appearance at states after narrowly missing a spot last season.
The Dolphins also found the course to be unforgiving. While none of the athletes registered a personal best on the technical terrain, the team ran to a 16th-place finish, right in the middle of the heap. They averaged 18:35, led by freshman Lucian Burns. Burns, fresh off a stress fracture, cruised to a 17:36 finish, claiming 42nd overall in the race.
RICK MACKENZIE/Contributed
Next were a pair of sophomores who paced one another throughout the course as Tony Bursa (18:14) and Allan Taylor (18:16) were 82nd and 83rd, respectively. Senior Caleb Shelar clocked in at 18:39 to finish his cross country career on a high note, and the team’s youngest member, seventh-grader Anthony Vargas, rounded out the scoring five, finishing in 19:51. Junior Landon Anderson and sophomore Thomas Torres finished sixth and seventh for Marathon. The duo earned the trip to states along with the team, though only the top five count for scoring purposes with an occasional sixth-man tie breaker.
With Wheatley and all but one of Marathon’s qualifying gentlemen returning for at least another season, the outlook for 2026 looks promising.
