There are few runners in the history of Florida high school cross country who have been as dominant as Leon's Patrick Koon.

Holding the record for the fastest time in state championship history, being awarded Gatorade runner of the year in 2022, and winning multiple individual state titles, there isn't much Koon hasn't done and on Friday he added one more achievement to his legacy.

The senior won his third consecutive FHSAA 3A state championship on Friday morning, running a winning time of 15:02.1 to claim a three-peat. Only the sixth runner in FHSAA history to win three straight individual state titles, and the second Leon runner, Koon's name will once again be added to the state's record books.

Joining Leon alumni Matt Mizerick (2007,2008,2009) in winning three straight state cross country titles, Koon credits Lions head coach Andrew Wills for his ability to get the best out of him.

"It's an incredible sense of pride to leave it all out here," Koon said. "Coach Wills has coached two guys to three in a row, so it's pretty spectacular to be able to run for him I wouldn't be here without him in our program."

Despite being sick in the leadup to the state championship race, Koon knew what he needed to run to win the crown.

The senior was focused on pacing himself and making his move at the right time. Keeping his energy for the back end of the course, Koon executed his game plan and beat second-place Marcelo Mantecon from Belen Jesuit by seven seconds.

"Not a great lead-up going into this week, and I knew I might have to kind of take it conservative the first two miles and make my move a little later than I prefer to," Koon said. "I just knew to listen to my body and not a great lead up to this week, was a little bit sick, so I knew that that was probably what was gonna have to happen in order to come away with a win."

Koon has owned the state course at Apalachee Regional Park (ARP), holding the course record with a 14:50.00 run in the 2022 FSU pre-state race. With Friday marking his final high school race on the course, the three-time state champion is grateful for his time competing on the course and is hopeful for an eventual return.

"It was definitely like 'wow, this is it,' it's pretty incredible to have raced so many times here, and to come away with a win in the last race here is pretty special," Koon said. "Hopefully I'll be back here maybe with Stanford in the ACC or maybe one day at the NCAA's, but we'll just have to wait and see. But for now, it's just the last race that I know about."

Maclay's Caroline Couch leads Marauders' top 3 finish

Maclay has been one of the state's most consistent girls cross country teams and a top-three finish in the 1A team standings capped off a great year of growth for the Marauders team.

Sophomore Caroline Couch finished second in a thrilling 1A girls race, running an 18:17.6, placing behind Sienna Audrey from the Community School of Naples, who ran an 18:08.8. Couch has been one of Maclay's top runners this season, winning the 1A Region 1 and 1A District 2 titles, and she feels the team did what it set out to do coming into the state races.

"The mindset for our team was to all do our best and see if we could win the state title as a team," Couch said. "We didn't quite reach the title, but we all did pretty good. We're all happy with how we all just gave it our all. And that's all we wanted from each other."

With the Maclay girls finishing third with 106 points, the Marauders had three top 15 finishers with Couch, Susan Koeppel and Lillian Koeppel the top finishers. Couch feels the growth of the team over the season has come from repetition in practice and the experience of running at the ARP helped the team crack the top three.

"I feel this season we came out to the ARP a lot and trained and worked because we all want the same goal," Couch said. "So we've really worked together to make each other better and just motivate each other and push each other to all get better."

Team results

Girls

Maclay (1A) 3rd place: 106 points

Times: Couch 18:17.6, S. Koeppel 19:24.3; L. Koeppel 19:33.2, Mary Clayton Soto 20:14.4, Payton Thumm 20:49.5, Marguerite Miller 21:55.9, Lilly Bell 21:56.2

Chiles (4A) 6th place: 258 points

Times: Kaia Ables 19:35.6, Haley Heitmeyer 20:03.1, Maddy Morris 20:21.6, Savannah Stanley 20:33.0, London Mellen 21:01.9, Brooke Mcelhenny 21:18.2, Andi Vilardo 22:37.2

Wakulla (2A) 20th: 534 points

Times: Isabella Laughton 19:33.0, Taylor Pfeifer 21:25.1, Analecia Ferrell 21:47.0, Lana Hawkins 21:47.6, Daniella Lewis 23:46.3, Kaylee Sanders 26:04.0, Emmalee Knutson 26:31.6

Florida High (2A) 21st: 541 points

Times: Leah Boutwell 21:06.2, Leah Keller 21:08.6, Madeleine Byrd 21:53.3, Julia Robinson 21:53.9, Elin Quisenberry 22:27.0, Ryleigh Gunter 23:00.2, Miyuki Vos 23:47.5

St. John Paul II (1A) Individaul: Serafina Rietow 21:17.30.

Leon (3A) Individual: Madi Sims 19:36.6

Boys

Maclay (1A) 11th: 365 points

Times: David Barton 16:22.1, Charles Wilson 17:35.1, Logan Phipps 17:55.8, Logan Price 18:10.1, Charles Rust 18:27.4, Gabe Manry 18:35.5, Jack Koon 18:45.4

Community Christian (1A) 28th: 727 points

Times: Luke Meli 17:59.8, Landon Reeves 18:13.3, Caleb Lindsay 19:23.5, Bryan Meli 19:49.2, Joshua Bouck 20:51.6

Chiles (4A) 6th place: 239 points

Times: Jackson Rowe 15:39.5, Josh Hicks 16:23.9, Kasey Mick 16:40.6, Gabriel Edwards 16:45.1, Jonathan Kiros 16:45.7, Jack Fuller 16:52.3, Jonah Blay 17:19.7

Leon (3A) 3rd place: 150 points

Times: Koon 15:02.1, Will Springer 16:37.0, Will Winsor 16:40.9, Cadden Maxwell 16:42.1, Quinn Carrasquilla 17:04.1, Walt Haber 17:14.3, Theo Mcdonald 18:27.0

Lincoln (3A) 19th: 492 points

Times: Matthew Hauser 16:23.6, Enijah Thomas 17:43.5, Connor Aarons 18:02.5, Trent Parsons 18:02.8, Mason Romuald 18:05.7, Olatunde Wright 18:26.3, Grayton Smith 19:40.6

Florida High (2A) Individual 25th: Xavier England 16:48.4

Wakulla (2A) Individual 5th: Henry Lewis 16:04.2

Liam Rooney covers preps sports for the Tallahassee Democrat. Contact him via email at LRooney@gannett.com or on Twitter @__liamrooney

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Leon's Koon wins 3rd straight state title, Maclay's Couch places 2nd