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Plant High cross country earns 12th state championship
Andrew Keesee reports
TAMPA, Fla. - Legends don't call themselves legendary, but Plant cross country now has 12 state championships under the guide of Roy Harrison. The most recent came while dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I never knew from week to week," Moore said. "I get a list from our athletic director saying who is quarantined, and I go through the list just praying it's not one of our top girls.
If it wasn't worry over the actual virus, it was wondering if workouts or races would even happen.
"I think it definitely made me just make the most of every run," senior Lily Fitzgerald explained. "Every run that we got to do, I'm like okay this is going to better me for whatever.'"
Once they did get to compete, or even workout, it was as if nothing else mattered.
"Everything that's stressful in my life, when I go to practice, it all melts away with all of my friends," sophomore Avery Hernandez said. "I just get to run without thinking."
"Cross country is the one thing that remains constant," senior Hartley Hill added. "We go out on Bayshore (Boulevard) and it's the same as it was before coronavirus."
All that hard work paid off in the form of a state championship, allowing seniors like Hill to end her high school career on top.
"It's hard to imagine to imagine," Hill said. "I still haven't' fully accepted that we won."
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