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The Sunlake High varsity cross-country program swept the Oct. 10 Sunshine Athletic Conference East Championship East meet, claiming top team finishes and individual champions in both the boys and girls 5K races. The Seahawks girls tallied a perfect 15 points (school’s top five runners place one through five), paced by top individual finisher senior Shannon Gordy (21:16.40), while the boys registered 21 points behind race champion, junior Colby Robbins (16:27.40). Sunlake en route defeated six other East Pasco County high schools, including Wiregrass Ranch, Land O’ Lakes, Cypress Creek, Zephyrhills, Pasco and Wesley Chapel. The meet was hosted by Wesley Chapel High.

Academy at the Lakes senior McKenna Smith was recently named to the 2019-2020 National Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association (NISCA) High School All-American team, for her marks in the 50 and 100 girls freestyle events. Her 50 free (23.05 seconds) ranks 32nd best in the nation, while her 100 free (50.11) is tied for 34th best nationwide. It marks the second consecutive year that Smith’s been selected to the All-American list. Last November, Smith earned bronze medals in both events at the Class 1A Florida High School Athletic Association state swimming and diving championships in Stuart.

Carrollwood Day School junior libero Jessie Golden last month surpassed the 1,000 career dig mark, in a regular season game against Wharton High School. The 5-foot-6 team captain has been playing varsity volleyball with the Patriots since the eighth grade. In addition to 300-plus digs and counting this year, Golden registered 360 digs as a sophomore, 190 as a freshman and 246 as an eighth grader, respectively.

Bishop McLaughlin Catholic High senior libero Adriana Lopez surpassed the 1,000 mark in career digs, during a Sept. 12 team victory against Central Clearwater Catholic. Lopez, a four-year varsity standout, entered the 2020 season with 944 digs — 309 in 2019; 444 in 2018; and, 191 in 2017. Lopez is a Rollins College verbal commit.

Hillsborough County has moved a step closer to resuming baseball and softball at county-owned facilities — creating a process for youth and adult leagues to begin playing games and tournaments.
To receive permission to resume games on county maintained fields, each league now can submit a plan to be approved by Hillsborough County Parks & Recreation. The plan must outline what social distancing, sanitation, scheduling, and other measures the leagues will use to assure the safety of players, volunteers and fans.
Effective immediately, baseball and softball leagues can submit the plans for review to Parks & Recreation at . Parks officials will review the plans quickly and will get them back to the league with changes or approval.

Baseball and softball leagues have been allowed to use county fields for practices and conditioning for several weeks, but games and tournaments have not been permitted since late March because of COVID-19 coronavirus concerns.

County leaders made the decision to allow the resumption of baseball and softball games, and tournaments after extensive consultation with local health officials, emergency managers, Parks & Recreation staff, league officials and others.

For more information, visit HillsboroughCounty.org, or call (813) 744-5595.

The Pasco-Hernando State College (PHSC) women’s cross-country team will have its first race of the 2020 season on Sept. 4, competing at the Florida Horse Park Invitational in Ocala.

This is the only PHSC fall sport undergoing an official season, due to COVID-19.

The Bobcats cross-country program — which has won four straight regional titles — began practices in mid-August.

The college’s volleyball, basketball, baseball and softball teams will entertain a fall schedule where they will play scrimmages only. Official seasons for these sports are delayed until spring term 2021.

The 2020-2021 cross-country roster features several athletes who attended local high schools  — freshman Miranda Coffey (Steinbrenner High), Emily Jenkins (Sunlake High), Gabrielle Marshall (Gaither High), Addison Paul (Land O’ Lakes native, home-schooled), Jessica Perez (Wharton High) and Sydney Stoltzfoos (Gaither High).

Dade City native Mike Penix Jr., a rising redshirt sophomore quarterback at Indiana University (IU), earned a spot on the preseason watch list for the 84th Maxwell Award, presented annually to the most outstanding player in college football. He is one of 90 college football players nationally selected to the watch list.

Penix won’t be seen in action until next year. His school’s member conference, the Big Ten, announced earlier this month it postponed its upcoming fall season to spring 2021, due to COVID-19.

The lefty thrower played his freshman and sophomore prep seasons at Pasco High School, before transferring to Tampa Bay Technical High School for his junior and senior seasons.

As a redshirt college freshman in 2019, the 6-foot-3 Penix set IU’s single-season completion percentage mark (68.8%), which also ranks sixth in Big Ten history. He completed 110 of 160 passes for 1,394 yards with 10 touchdowns and four interceptions, and he posted a 157.56 pass-efficiency rating. He also rushed for 118 yards on 22 attempts (5.4 average) with two touchdowns.

A two-time Big Ten Freshman of the Week selection, Penix averaged 232.3 passing yards and 252.2 total yards per game in six games.

Penix’s promising redshirt freshman season was cut short after he suffered a clavicle injury in an early November contest against Northwestern.

The Maxwell Award has been presented to the College Player of the Year since 1937 and is named in honor of Robert “Tiny” Maxwell, a former standout at Swarthmore College, who went on to become a renowned sportswriter and football official.

Also notable, Penix’s father was an All-State tailback/defensive back at Pasco High in the early ’90s; his uncle starred there, too.

Odessa native/Bishop McLaughlin Catholic High School product Nate Pearson made his MLB (Major League Baseball) debut for the Toronto Blue Jays late last month.

On July 29, the 6-foot-6, 250-pound hard-throwing righthander pitched five scoreless innings against the defending World Series champion Washington Nationals at National Park, striking out five batters, while allowing two hits and two walks in a 4-0 loss.

The 23-year-old has been regarded as one of baseball’s top prospects since becoming a first round draft pick in 2017, out of Ocala’s College of Central Florida.

Pearson rose through the minor league ranks over the past three seasons, posting a combined 2.17 ERA, 0.87 WHIP and 146 strikeouts in 123.1 innings from rookie ball through Triple-A.

Pearson is regarded for a fastball that touches 100 mph, along with a slider, changeup and curveball.

Pearson graduated from Bishop McLaughlin in 2015, where he guided the program to the Class 3A state semifinals.

He spent a portion of the leaguewide COVID-19 shutdown in Tampa, training with other professional athletes at Yo Murphy Performance.