Leon’s Koon three-peats, Maclay’s Couch takes second at FHSAA state cross country championships

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) - Leon senior Patrick Koon has done it. The Stanford signee won his third straight state championship Friday morning, becoming just the sixth male ever from the state of Florida to win three straight cross country state titles.

Patrick admitting after the race that he didn’t have a great lead up to the Class 3A state championship. He played it conservative the first two miles, sticking with the pack. He finally made his move a little later than he would have liked, but Koon’s a pro, and his time of 15:02.1 was more than good enough to make history and send Koon out as one of the best to ever do it.

“It’s an incredible sense of pride to leave it all out here,” he said. “Coach (Andrews) Wills, he’s coached two guys to three in a row so it’s pretty spectacular to run for him and I wouldn’t be here without him and in our program. It’s incredible. The guys raced great today. I’m just proud of today in general. Excited as a team and as an individual.”

The Leon boys finished third overall as a team. In the Class 1A girls race, Maclay sophomore Caroline Couch was the one to watch. The Marauder hung with eventual winner Sienna Audrey just about the entire 3.1 miles, but fell a bit back at the end.

Couch, finished second overall. 18:17.6 was her time, helping lead her team to a third place finish.

“The mindset for our team was to do our best and see if we could win the state title as a team. We didn’t quite win the state title, but we all did pretty good and we’re all happy with how we did. We all just give it our all, and that’s all we wanted from each other.”

To stay up to date on all the latest news as it develops, follow WCTV on Facebook and X (Twitter).

Have a news tip or see an error that needs correction? Write us here. Please include the article's headline in your message.

Keep up with all the biggest headlines on the WCTV News app. Click here to download it now.

Copyright 2023 WCTV. All rights reserved.