George Steinbrenner (Lutz)

Holloway Park, and they won the Jim Ryun varsity boys race. Converted average 16:52.7, spread 1:26.7. Jack Bronder 16:03.1, Oliver Day 16:34.5, London Paladino 16:57.0, Luke Bronder 17:19.0, Punya Desai 17:29.8.

The preseason returner rankings had them sixth in 4A with a 2:45.1 returning spread. They cut that to 1:26.7 in one summer, mostly because Luke Bronder went from 18:58.1 at state to a 17:19.0 equivalent — a 99-second swing.

It happened despite a bad day from the man who was their No. 2 returner: Max Tschopp, 17:04.0 at state, converted to 19:20.6 and finished seventh on his own team. Steinbrenner is fourth in 4A with their second-best returning runner two minutes off. That is a real cushion.

Jim Ryun, where Holloway Park took 38.2 seconds off everybody. Jack Bronder's 16:41.3 converts to 16:03.1, and a raw team average of 18:07 becomes 16:52.7. They won the meet with 76 points.

If you distrust course conversions, this is the ranking you distrust. It is also the best-supported conversion outside Cecil Field — forty runners raced both Holloway and the state meet — so we are standing behind it.

5-man average 16:52.7 · 1-5 spread 1:26.7 · finished 14-37-58-95-109 · Jim Ryun

Jack Bronder 16:41.3 (16:03.1); Oliver Day 17:12.7 (16:34.5); London Paladino 17:35.2 (16:57.0); Luke Bronder 17:57.2 (17:19.0); Punya Desai 18:08.0 (17:29.8). Then Vincent Nguyen 19:00.7 (18:22.5); Max Tschopp 19:58.8 (19:20.6).