HISTORY - This is the 17th edition of the Wickham Park Jamboree contested at Wickham Park in Melbourne, Florida.  Wickham Park is adjacent to Eastern Florida State University and is a sprawling 391 acre County Park home to a good many runners who use the facilities trails and roads for year-round conditioning.

Coach Doug Butler is the Meet Director.

This year the meet is an out of season meet presented by Coach Butler's "Set Goals Not Limits" Running Camps and Running Zone, one of America's best retail outlets offering brand-name shoes & fitting services, plus sportswear & accessories.  For 15 of the contested years, Coach Butler was the coach at Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy.  Coach Butler is now at Satellite High School, home to the Scorpions in Satellite Beach.

MEET RECORDS - Holy Trinity's Kayla Hale, 3 Time Foot Locker Finalist and 4 Time FHSAA Class 1A State Cross Country Champion and Duke Blue Devil alum, "scorched" the course back in 2007 going 17:46.  That meet record will likely be around for awhile.

Brandon Marquez, former Timber Creek athlete and now a freshman harrier for the Ivy League Columbia Lions in New York City holds the record for the boys.  Back in 2014 Brandon went 15:23 and subsequently finished 11th at Foot Locker South in the fall.

THE COURSE - Over the years we've seen some changes to the course layout but the biggest factor over the years has been water.  Some years the course has been deluged by heavy rainfall leading up to the meet.  That won't be the case this year.  The course is in outstanding shape and should run fast even though it's length has been increased by roughly 75 meters.

Timing will be chip timed with D-Tags.

WEATHER FORECAST - Outstanding.  Virtually no chance of rain with high humidity and light winds.

OFFICIAL #HASHTAG - For those using social media, please tag the meet with the official hashtag 

#WPJXC2016

Follow DyeStat Florida on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram

MEET T-SHIRTS/CONCESSIONS - 150 Meet T-Shirts with entered schools printed on the back will be available for sale.  Price is $15. Checks should be made out to "Satellite Distance Runners".  There will also be a concession stand of various sundry items for sale.

MEET ENTRIES - 586 Athletes from 25 teams are scheduled to compete

SEE the list of entered athletes HERE

RUBBER RUNDOWN - Take a look at the 2015 XC best times for returners in the Athletic.net database as an indication of what to expect as we head into the 2016 XC season.

SEE the RUBBER RUNDOWN's HERE

RACE PREVIEW - Girls 

With Gulliver Prep's Natalie Varela and Melbourne's sensational Natalie Bress a late scratch, the meet is now wide open for the Girls.  Expect to see a tight grouping at the front that should include these top returners:

With this being an out of season meet, it will be a challenge to place athletes with their respective teams on the course.

We don't really see this race being broke open early and the end result may very well be a sign of who has put in the work over the summer months and is ready to take their game to the next level.  There are always newcomers and middle school athletes moving up to make it even more intriguing. 

Holy Trinity's Samantha Folio is the odds on favorite to claim the 2016 title.  With 2016 track bests of 5:18 and 11:28, the senior from Holy Trinity who is very familiar with the Wickham Park course should be able to go Sub 19 for the win.

RACE PREVIEW - Boys

The Boys race is also wide-open in our opinion and should be a contrast in styles.  With returning front runners like Titusville's Mason Jones and The Pine School's Chase Hyland, it will be interesting to see who lays off the pace early hoping to make their move in the second half of the race. 

The Top 10 XC times/returner's from last year:

We've seeen some great track results this past Spring that makes this early season Jamboree match-up mightily tantalizing as well.

Last year, Titusville's Mason Jones went 16:34 and was slightly better than the Satellite trio of Trevor Kattenburg, John Cacciatore and Egan Kattenburg.  But that was a year ago.  This race up front will be senior-laden and Chase Hyland's front running style makes it an early season dandy.

This race could very well be won by a handful of guys so we'll just have to wait and see who wants it most.

Let's get ready to Rumble.