Plant squads cruise into 4A state meet

Plant junior Julia Rodriguez, center, got knocked down during Saturday's regional meet but got up to win the race.

SARASOTA --

The Plant High cross country teams got the results they expected at Saturday's Class 4A-Region 2 meet -- first place for both the boys and girls -- but everything didn’t go exactly as projected at McIntosh Middle School.

Yes, the Panthers rolled to an easy win in the girls meet. They took five of the top six places and had just 18 points, three away from the perfect score they registered at last week's district.

But Plant’s No. 1 runner, Julia Rodriguez, got knocked to the ground midway through the 5-kilometer (3.1 mile) race and for just a moment, she considered using it as an excuse to not run well. Instead, Rodriguez picked herself up, darted to the front of the pack and went on to win in 19 minutes, 7 seconds.