Florida's representation at the Carrollton Orthopedic Clinic XC Invitational this year is rather impressive with 5 schools heading to the Peach State to compete against teams from Georgia and Alabama on Georgia's "State Meet Course".

Some of these comments were woven into an excellent preview of the meet by Herb Wills.  You can find Herb's preview HERE.

Coach David Halliday - Flagler Palm Coast

-  Takeaways from your first race of the season and applications for week 2 at Carrollton?

 First two weeks we showed improvement and we are ready to continue to improve.  I think we can make it to the state meet.

-  Changes in course difficulty can be tough to adjust to.  How does your team approach a tough hilly course like Carrollton?

 We do a lot of leg work to get strong for the hills and run what hills we have back home.

-  How does Carrollton fit into your season goals/objectives?

 It allows us to take an over night trip and run on a hard course.

-  Travelling out of State for a big meet like Carrollton has it challenges.  What are yours?

Travel wise there is no issue.  The only challenge is the unknown of the other teams.

Coach Doug Butler - Holy Trinity

-  Takeaways from your first race of the season and applications for week 2 at Carrollton?

I thought most of our kids ran very well at Astronaut, of course times were a little slow due to conditions, but overall a good day. We just need all 7 of our top guys and girls to put it all together this Saturday.

-  Changes in course difficulty can be tough to adjust to.  How does your team approach a tough hilly course like Carrollton?

Carrolton will be tough be we hit the hills pretty hard this summer. We also hit it hard all this week and are racing right thru Carrollton.  We have one goal and that is on Nov 15 so whatever happens this Saturday is just small fry compared to big picture.

-  How does Carrollton fit into your season goals/objectives?

Just a fun trip for a hard summer of training is how we are looking at this weekend.

-  Travelling out of State for a big meet like Carrollton has it challenges.  What are yours?

No big challenges for us.  W e are taking 60 kids from 7-12 grade and if any get out of line I will put them on a Greyhound home : )

Coach Andrew Wills - Leon

-  Takeaways from your first race of the season and applications for week 2 at Carrollton?

The first meet of the season went well, we were just letting the new runners get some race experience and letting the veterans get 1 of their 4 required races in the books.  At the Carrollton meet we will just be looking for improvement from the 1st week.

-  Changes in course difficulty can be tough to adjust to.  How does your team approach a tough hilly course like Carrollton?

The Cougar Challenge was a great tune up for the hilly Carrollton venue, the runners shouldn't have to adjust at all to this course.

-  How does Carrollton fit into your season goals/objectives?

Carrollton has been on our schedule for the past 6 years. Coach Musselwhite does a great job on the meet, it's well run, it's on the Georgia State Meet course and it's a nice break from racing the usual Florida teams every week. The team looks forward to this week every year.

Coach Jim Scmitt - Mandarin

-  Changes in course difficulty can be tough to adjust to...how does your team approach a tough hilly course like Carrollton?

We train and emphasize running the course and the competition that comes at us to the best of our ability. I do not focus on training to any one course. The concern for us is not the nature of the course; it's knowledge of the course. We hope to get there early enough Friday evening to spend some time with the course and get a feel for our running plan. While we have training weaknesses regarding hills and terrain in Jacksonville, our summer training and camp included mountain-like trails at Berry College in Georgia

-  How does Carrollton fit into your season goals/objectives?

Our goals continue to be to be competitive at the end of the season; Carrollton is just another meet on that path. We are transitioning from a very experienced, senior loaded team last year, to a squad with a very young training age. We hope to continue our growth and development through a variety of courses and trails.

-  Travelling out of State for a big meet like Carrollton has it challenges, what are yours? 

We try not to focus on the size of the meet. Travelling in general has its issues. Including overnight trips is part of the teaching process for our program. The athletes need to adjust to the routines of overnight road trips as we head into November. Getting adjusted to it early is part of our training. This is the first time that our program has been allowed to travel outside of the state since 2004 (being a part of Duval County Public Schools has its own issues and challenges), so we are grateful for the opportunity.