Donohue, Updike capture titles at 3A-7 meet

EAGLE LAKE — Anika Donohue hit the trifecta.

The Lake Region freshman wanted to qualify for regionals, win her race and set a personal record. Donohue accomplished all three in winning the girls race on Saturday morning at the Class 3A, District 7 girls cross country meet at Lake Region High School.

Lake Wales senior Mac Updike won the boys race in leading Lake Wales to the team title.

In the girls race, Donohue became the first Lake Region girl to win a district title since Julia Soto won in 2014. 

Donohue ran 20:26.81, which was 24 seconds faster than Soto's winning time, and she lowered her personal record by nearly a minutes. Her previous best was 21:18.52, which she ran in the county meet when she finished 10th.

It was a different type of race for Donohue as she normally has faster runners in front of her to pace her.

"It's different because you're the target," she said. "Usually, they're the target because they're faster than me. This time, I just decided to pace the cart. It was kind of painful because you had the worrying feeling that you were going to get passed."

Donohue said both getting a personal record and winning were equally important, along with qualifying for regionals.

"I accomplished all three of my goals," she said.

Hardee ran away with the team competition finishing with 29 points. Sebring was second (43 points) and Auburndale was third (55 points).

Devin Thompson led Auburndale with a seventh-place finish (22:11.25), and Daria Joshway was 10th (22:55.33).

The Auburndale coaches were pleased with the finish as the Bloodhounds were missing No. 3 runner Sammie Pruitt.

"I knew we were just going to get in (regionals)," Auburndale coach Gilbert Jones said. "I knew if the boys or girls were going to get in, we were going to slide in by the skin of our teeth. They did good. The girls, we're finally starting to get in shape."

Lake Wales' Autumn Kloth finished seventh (22:18.62) to qualify for regionals.

Updike cruised to his victory in the boys race. He ran 16:09.74 to beat Lake Region's Michael Collins, who ran 16:31.20.

Lake Wales had four of the top eight runners in Ladarius Tellis (third in 16:37), Landon Morales (17:16.39) and Joseph Cotto (eighth in 17:18.94).

The Highlanders also got a surprise No. 5 finisher in junior Amari Smith. A basketball player who is running cross country for the first time, Smith finished 11th in 17:51.15.

Lake Wales won the team competition with 30 points, seven points ahead of second-place Sebring (37 points). 

"We had some hiccups," Lake Wales coach A.J. Richmond said. "It wasn't our best as a team. It's been like that this year. From our first guy to our sixth guy, two or three will run well and two will have a bad day or vice versa."

Lake Region was third with 95 points and qualified for regionals.