Fort Myers cross country runner goes extra mile Senior's big week defined by good deeds

 

12:14 AM, Oct. 14, 2011  |  

Fort Myers senior runner Brendan Shearman's honesty this week cost him his first victory. / Terry Allen Williams/The News-Press

Fort Myers High cross-country runner Brendan Shearman, who had never won a race in his life, had his chance Saturday.

In a weekend that would more than once show his depth of character, Shearman saw the only runner to beat him at the Manasota Track Club Invite in Sarasota disqualified for cutting a corner of the course.

Ostensibly, the Green Wave senior was the victor. His teammates congratulated him with high-fives and slaps on the back, but for Shearman the praise just didn't feel right.

"The last turn on the course was a little tricky; it was taped off at a weird angle. We were coming up to it really fast and his momentum just kind of took him under the tape," Shearman said of his opponent, Canaa Meester-Kitterman of Bradenton Bayshore.