Vikings, Eagles enjoy strong team days at regionals

The Fort Walton Beach cross country team picked a good time to have one of its best outings of the year.

Competing at the 1-3A regional in Tallahassee on Saturday, the Vikings qualified both their boys (third, 83 points) and girls (second, 59) teams to the state meet to lead the area on both sides. Both Niceville teams will join them at state, as the boys qualified in fourth with 158 points and the girls finished sixth with 171.

The Navarre boys’ team also qualified for state at the 3A regional with a sixth-place, 181-point showing led by Robert Mann, who finished ninth at 16:07 to lead all area boys runners.

For Fort Walton Beach, Luc Lawrence (11th) and Matt Bevil (12th) finished one-two while Holly Stanton led all area girls with a sixth-place finish. Niceville’s Marsel Mosley was hot on her heels and finished seconds behind, running the third-fastest time in Class 3A for a freshman at 19:02. Niceville’s Cody Skarupa had the best finish for an Eagle boy at 24th.

Choctawhatchee didn’t qualify as a team but Hakeem Tarpley finished 14th individually to punch a ticket to state.

From the 1-2A regional, the South Walton girls team is also headed to state following a fifth-place, 169-point finish led individually by freshman Alex Weiner, who finished 12th with a time of 20:11.

The South Walton boys finished 12th with 288 points led by Jacob Leuze, who just missed out on an individual state berth by finishing 23rd with a time of 17:12.

Freeport missed qualifying as a team at the 1-A regional, but Michael Graziani’s eighth-place individual finish at 17:23 will push him into the state meet as an individual. Baker’s John Scott narrowly missed the same honor with a 22nd-place finish at 18:46. Dannica Mosher was Freeport’s top girl finisher at 65th.

Rocky Bayou Christian freshman Christy Allen just missed out on her bid to make state as an individual at the 1-A regional, coming in 30th at 22:03.