All of our local teams were in action this week, most of them at the St. Cloud invitational. There were 25 teams who competed at St. Cloud this weekend, mostly schools from Orange, Osceola, and Brevard counties, but a team from Georgia joined in the fun as well.
Osceola County also had representatives at the Don Bishop Invitational (Osceola) and the Mt Dora Bible Invitational (Celebration). Unfortunately, there was no coverage there, which means no photos to share.
News & Notes
St Cloud’s girls are traveling to Tallahassee for the Pre-State FSU invitational. They are in the 3rd race.
Gateway, Liberty, and Harmony’s Girls will be at the WDW Wide World of Sports for the Disney Invitational.
Osceola, Gateway, & Celebration have a small meet at Celebration High School Wednesday afternoon.
Poinciana is not in action this weekend.
OBC Preview
Next week’s article will be a full preview of the OBC championships taking place on Wednesday, October 16 at Poinciana High school.
State Series Preview:
District Level – Team – St Cloud’s girls will have their hands full with George Jenkins (Polk Country) for the 4A D2 crown. St. Cloud ran this weekend against their district foes without top runner Karissa Solozano, but let’s says she wins the race just for arguments sake. George Jenkins would have still likely won the meet by a very slim margin. Liberty’s boys are going to have a tough task in 3A D8. They will face off against Sebring (Highlands County).
District Level – Individual – Araiza (LIB) has the best shot to win a district title for the boys. The top girls from St. Cloud will be running each step with George Jenkins for every spot. It is really a matter of who is having the best day to win an individual district title.
Harmony:
Harmony ran this weekend at the St. Cloud Invitational. Two of their top five runners were out this week due to SAT testing. They were led by Canyon Huff, his first time as the #1 runner this season. The boys took 10th as a team. The girls were led by Virginia Liu this week and took 9th as a team.
Coach Shasta Edwards had this to say “Even on a challenging and unfamiliar course, some of our girls managed to earn season best times. With most of our top runners taking the SAT on Saturday, our JV runners filled in on varsity and earned their stripes: quote of the morning: "Whoa! Everyone was so fast!"
When asked about their expectation for the upcoming week… “Only our girls’ team is going to Disney this weekend since they sat out the UF meet earlier in the season. Though we don't expect great times on this hilly course, we do expect to have a lot of fun and experience some Disney Magic. The boys will have a tough week of practice as we tune up for the championship season.”
St Cloud:
St. Cloud ran at its home course this weekend in the St. Cloud Invitational. As mentioned above, the girls were without Karissa, and managed to take second as a team. Even with a full squad, they would have had a tough task to take the trophy away from George Jenkins. Grace Mille assumed the role of #1 runner and ended up finishing 2nd. This was her chance to shine and she took full advantage of it. The boys wound up 4th behind the lead of Harvey Ferriera again. He is now consistently in the 17’s and he told me he thinks he can hit 16:30 if the conditions were right.
From Coach Harkema: “I am glad our invitational is over. To be honest I did not get to watch much of the race because I was so busy. Looking at the results and don't think we did too bad. Grace Miller ran great and led our team which is a great sign for the future since Karissa Solorzano was out at the SATs. Octavia Gonzalez was tripped and trampled at about 100m and tried to recover as much as possible. When I was watching the start at about 200 meters I was wondering where she was, she was my last girl to pass and was way back and spent quite a bit of energy trying to catch back up. Overall I think she did well. Devin Montalvo ran descent and so did Kim Napolean. On the boys side, it was nice to race Liberty head to head and I think it is a race between the two schools for OBC with Liberty holding the edge. They beat us by seven points today. Coach Pauley is doing a great job as usual. I hope both teams, along with Harmony, run great races at conference next week. It is nice when it is competitive. Our girls are going to FSU this weekend and I am a little disappointed they put us in the third girls race, when I think we should at least be in the select race.”
Gateway:
Gateway ran this weekend at the St. Cloud Invitational. Jose Alvarado led his team to a 9th place finish for the guys, Stephanie Rosado led the girls.
From coach Branch “I think we are learning as a team to compete against the good competition in our county. We have to work harder in practice to compete against the better teams at our OBC championship.”
Celebration:
Celebration ran this weekend at the Mt Dora Bible Invitational. They were led by Justin Corinealdi for the guys and took 8th as a team. The girls welcomed back Christine Infantolino, after a nagging toe injury forced her out for a few weeks. She is only a junior, so she has time for recovery.
Liberty:
Liberty ran this weekend at the St. Cloud Invitational. The boys ran well enough to get 3rd place as a team. Araiza posted a 17:10, considering the toughness of the course, his times are getting better. You can see frustration as he finishes each time just looking for something in the 16’s… they will come. The girls and JV boys all ran a PR.
From Coach Pauley: “Coach Harkema did an excellent job at the St. Cloud Invitational this weekend. Everything was organized and ran very nicely. He always does a good job in putting meets together. Our team ran well this weekend. Yazmizel Haase ran a great PR for the season running 22:51. She has been playing golf three times a week along with cross country so to run a PR was great. She has put herself in position to get out of the Districts. Samantha Toledo also ran a good race as her last race she ran was 30 minutes. Toledo is a track sprinter, so she is running cross country to prepare for her outdoor season, to see her run hard was a good sight. “
“The men’s team had a good day at St. Cloud, even though some men had a rough race. Finishing 3rd was a great accomplishment when we didn’t put together a great race in my opinion. Araiza is still racing ok, but he has not put an entire race together yet. Once he does that, I know he will be ok when it comes to regionals. We have been adjusting a few things during the week and I like the progress. The biggest highlight of the day was watch freshman Jose Cruz run a huge PR in 18:52. He is a freshman basketball player who has been conditioning with us and to see him run like that on so little work is awesome and a great asset as he finished 4th for our team. Our top seven will be competitive, and time is running out for some guys to get into that group. It is good to have competition among our team which will make our team stronger come to the championships. This weekend we are running at Disney and then we are onto the OBC championships at Poinciana H.S. The men have put themselves in position as a team that will compete for the title. A month ago I would have laughed if our name was in the conversation, but now we are in right in the middle of it. Whoever has the best day wins, it is really that simple.
Poinciana:
Poinciana ran this weekend at the St. Cloud Invitational. This was the one of the few larger meets Poinciana scheduled this year. They are a young team building up for the future. Monica Rouse led for the girls, Jay Daniel led for the guys.
Osceola:
Osceola ran at the Don Bishop Invitational this past weekend. Edwin Estrella had an awesome day and improved his PR to 18:02. As the season progresses, he is becoming a contender for the All OBC team.
Here are some thoughts from Coach Maldonado: “We had a good weekend of running and I am most excited about how our team keeps improving their times from our top runners to our first year runners.
I am excited for OBCs and to see how my team can compete with all the good teams and runners that are in Osceola County. All the hard work we have put in is all for the next couple races. It is time to have fun and compete.”
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