Leon Gets Best Of Edwards, Bennett Beats Field At Fort Myers Optimist Invitational

Fort Myers Optimist Invitational
Todd Grasley

It was a hot humid morning at Veterans Park in Lehigh Acres for the Fort Myers Optimist Invitational. A new and improved course saw athletes starting on soccer fields, running on baseball fields, up and down hills, and ultimately through the finish. When the tough course was completed Estero's Araceli Leon and Fort Myer's Tyler Bennett came out victorious. Al "JJ" Delgalo was on-site with over 1000 awesome photos to recap all the action.

On-Site Coverage



The girls race started out with a pack of about five runners including Araceli Leon and Bethany Jenkins of Estero, Emily Edwards of Ft. Myers, Grace Casagrande of Cardinal Mooney, and Sarah Candiano of Evangelical Christian. That group dissolved to three by the mile and a half mark with Leon, Edwards, and Casagrande all fighting for the top spot. It stayed that way until about 400 meters left when Devin Molloy of Barron Collier came from behind. Leon sprinted past and crossed the line in 19:28.40. Edwards fell back to fourth, but didn't throw in the towel, fighting through to place second in 19:32.70. Molloy was third with Casagrande fourth. Jenkins and teammate Daley Cline finished fifth and sixth respectively. Edwards outran Leon last week at the DDD Invitational, but this week belonged to the Estero transfer. Also a great job by Devin Molloy the freshman who has really shined this year. She has finished third in back to back meets. Estero showed once again why they will be tough to beat in 3A winning the team trophy 52-89 over Sarasota High School.
 


 

In the boys race, it was the Tyler Bennett show. Running on his home course and the teams' featured meet, he took it out strong from the gun and never looked back. He was followed by the Sarasota duo of Zackery Summerall and Adam Bradtmueller for a majority of the race along with Alex Pedraza of Golden Gate. Bennett crossed the line in an impressive 16:03.70 with Summerall 13 seconds back in 16:16.1. Bradtmueller and Pedraza sprinted to the finish with the Sarasota sophomore just edging out the 2012 2A state champion by .6 seconds. Sarasota placed six in the top 48 spots to win 101-110 over Estero. Fort Myers beat out Immokalee by one point 34-35 to finish third and fourth.
 

Elite Performances

Girls Highlights

Boys Highlights