Weekend Recap - Week Three by Herb Wills for DyeStat Florida
As busy as the past weekend was in Florida high school cross country, some of the state’s teams still felt compelled to travel to Georgia looking for competition. The Winter Park girls, arguably the best girls’ team in Florida, went to Atlanta on 12 September 2015 for Marist High’s 18th annual Benson Double Dip Invitational. Another Orlando-area girls' squad, Dr. Phillips High, also made the trip north to tangle with some of Georgia's best at Double Dip. Winter Park brought home the title, though, scoring a winning 76 points ahead of host Marist (2nd, 121 points) and South Forsyth (3rd, 127 points). Dr. Phillips was fourth with 142 points. Winter Park's ace sophomore, 2014 FHSAA champion Rafaella Gibbons, placed third in 18:43.71, finishing behind two 2014 Georgia state champs--Northview High senior Lindsay Billings (1st, 18:16.68) and Fellowship Christian senior Emma Grace Hurley (2nd, 18:29.60).
Winter Park had also traveled to Georgia during the 2014 season, winning the girls’ team title at the Carrollton Orthopedic Invitational, Georgia’s pre-state meet. This year the Wildcats passed up racing Carrollton to go to Atlanta, but Leon High was in Carrollton for the sixth year in a row. 2014 was a high water mark at Carrollton for Leon; the boys had placed second in the team standings while Leon’s Sukhi Khosla had won the race for the second year in a row. Khosla had graduated in the spring, though, and this year the Lions were 11th in the boys' team standings with 281 points. The Lions were led by junior Matt Cashin, who finished fifth in 16:49.37. Marietta senior Carlos Torres won the boys' race in 16:23.45 while St. Pius X took top team honors with 109 points.
Winter Park Girls won the Benson Double Dip Invitational in Georgia (by K. McWilliams)
Back in Lakeland, Florida, seniors Adam Bradtmueller of Sarasota and Noah Perkins of Seffner Christian went head-to-head in the boys 5K at the Seffner Christian Invitational. Bradtmueller stepped across the finish line just ahead of Perkins, winning the race 15:54.10 to 15:57.50.
If you wanted to see an even closer finish, though, you needed to be in Orlando for Lake Nona High's Lions Prowl 2. There, in the boys’ 5K race, Dr. Phillips senior Jean D'Haiti had a hairbreadth victory over Freedom sophomore Timothy Doyle, 16:00.40 to 16:00.80. A few more races like that and Doyle will be glad to see D'Haiti graduate--and D'Haiti will be no less relieved.
By contrast, the girls' race at Lions Prowl 2 wasn't close at all. Lake Mary junior Daniela Urzua won by more than half a kilometer, running 17:43.30. Urzua, who was eighth in the 2014 4A State Final, suddenly looks like a contender. I’ll always be the first person to insist that times don’t mean much in cross country, but Urzua is so far the only girl in Florida to go sub-18:00 this season.
The only other Florida girl to come even close to cracking 18:00 in 2015 is Mount Dora Christian frosh, Rebecca Clark. Clark went 18:06.94 at the Hagerty Invitational at the University of Central Florida in Orlando on 12 September 2015, a win where she was so far ahead that it looked like a solo effort. Clark was runner-up to Sarah Candiano in the 2014 1A State Final. Now that Candiano has graduated and taken her game to Florida State University, Clark has to be looking to move up. 18:06.94 at the Hagerty Invitational says that she just might.
Kayley DeLay went sub-18:00 at ARPXC in 2014, but she didn't have to run that fast to win the Elite Girls' 5K at the Katie Caples Invitational in Jacksonville on 12 September 2015. The Fletcher junior ran 18:44, finishing nearly 100 meters ahead of the next runner, Caitlyn Collier of Bolles. In fact, the next five runners after DeLay were from Bolles, giving them a monstrous total of 20 points and the team title. Bolles teams also won the varsity girls race and the junior varsity girls race. Their middle school team was second, though, demonstrating that you can beat Bolles without resorting to explosives or chemical weapons.
Hernando sophomore Trevor Foley won the Elite Boys' 5K at Katie Caples, running 16:23. Foley was the only Hernando entry, though, so he didn’t affect the team competition. There, top honors went to Trinity Prep with 38 points--a frighteningly low total considering there were 18 teams in the race.
Pine Crest eighth-grader and class 2A girls defending state champion Tsion Yared raced the second annual Florida Horse Park Invitational in Ocala, as did Chiles senior and Class 3A contender Emma Tucker. But it was North Marion junior Leigha Torino who won the girls' 5K in Ocala, clocking 18:46.80. Yared was second in 18:49.50 and Tucker third in 19:07.10. Torino was tenth in the 2A State Final in 2014, but this is 2015. In the team standings, though, Pine Crest won with 29 points, just two points away from a mathematically unbeatable 27. The Pine Crest girls' chances of winning a team State title look to have only one hindrance, Bolles, as they look for 4 straight.
Top 10 Individual Girls at the 2015 Florida Horse Park Invitational (Courtesy B3R Promotions)
It was the Florida Horse Park Invitational, so we'll say that in the boys' 5K Pine Crest junior Michael Kennedy beat Chiles senior Austin Dodson by a nose, 16:20.40 to 16:20.98. In the team competition, though, it was the 2014 class 3A champions from Chiles who prevailed 56 to 79 over second-place Pine Crest. After graduating six seniors, not many people have given Chiles a chance to repeat in Class 3A, but the Timberwolves aren’t running like they believe that.
While Florida teams were visiting Atlanta and Carrollton in Georgia, Georgia's Bleckley County High Royals were visiting the Florida Panhandle for the 14th annual Bay Invitational in Panama City. Junior Carl Corley won the boys' 5K in 16:56.69 for Bleckley County as the Royal took the first three places, put their first five runners in the top eight, and scored 21 points for their third straight Bay Invitational win. Fort Walton Beach was even more dominant in the girls’ 5K; Senior Maddie Fulmer won the race in 20:04.17, one of seven Fort Walton Beach athletes in the top ten. The Lady Vikings ended up with a near-perfect 17 points and the 2015 Bay Invitational team title.
This is a lot of cross country, but still only a few of the highlights from 12 September 2015. Much more happened this past weekend, with even more scheduled up through the State Final on 7 November 2015. You can’t get enough cross country, but this is almost enough.
Charlotte's Marshall Dillon en route to winning the Boys Varsity 5K at the 2015 Ft Myers Optimist Invitational (by Twangster)
