P.K. Yonge Cross Country Teams Compete at Bobcats Classic

P.K. Yonge’s boys cross country team finished 16th out of 25 teams with 486 points Saturday in the Buchholz Bobcats Classic at Santa Fe College. The P.K. Yonge girls team finished eighth out of 19 teams with 263 points.

Jacksonville Bishop Kenny swept the meet by winning the boys and girls races, with 138 and 29 points, respectively.

Freshman Aaron Bertrand finished first on P.K. Yonge’s boys team with a time of 18:06.1. He placed 56th overall out of 203 runners. He also finished first on his team in 18:01.30 at the Whispering Pines Invitational on Aug. 29.

“This race, it was like really hard,” Bertrand said. “So I was like talking to myself a lot. Have you ever heard like a college football halftime speech? That’s what was going on in my head like the whole time.” 

Bertrand is looking ahead to the next race. 

“It’s like, if you don’t run what you want to run, you forget it and focus on the next race,” he said.

Eighth-grader Aadi Gondhalekar finished behind Bertrand in 118th with a time of 19:50.7. 

At 119th was freshman Landon Marchman in 19:55 and sophomore Ellis Sweeting was at 120th in 19:55.7.

“Last week, I hurt my hip, so I didn’t get to practice that much this week,” Sweeting said. “So I wasn’t going all out this race, but it still felt a little bit bad today.”

P.K. Yonge coach Conor Given was happy with the results considering the injuries.

“They ran incredible. Our No. 2  and No. 3  are both coming off about a week-and-a-half of injuries, but they show up everyday,” Given said. “All I gotta do is tell them what to do, and they’re dedicated.” 

Seventh-grader Evelyn George finished first on P.K. Yonge’s girls team with a personal best 20:50.8. She placed 21st out of 163 runners. George’s shoe fell off just before the halfway mark, but she completed the race without it. 

George did not compete in the first race of the season for health reasons, but watched her younger sister, Evette George, run.

“t was hard for me to watch, because I really wanted to be out there, too,” George said. “But I guess maybe if I ran that one, I wouldn’t have done as well this time because I was recovering.” 

P.K. Yonge’s cross country teams have several middle schoolers competing on varsity, despite having a junior varsity team. The girls team competed with seven middle schoolers on varsity. Seventh-grader Cali Brophy finished in 28:45.4. 

“I thought it was pretty good, because I got not a great score last time and I think I’m just building back up,” Brophy said.

Given was enthusiastic about the girls performance. 

“The girls team, absolutely impeccable today,” Given said. “Huge improvement from two weeks ago at Whispering Pines.” 

P.K. Yonge will race in the Run Florida XC Invitational on Sept. 26 in Lake City. 

“It’s just all going to be about week-by-week,” Given said. “I like not to look too far ahead. It’s just block-by-block, week-by-week.”

Category: High School Sports, PK Yonge High School