Complete results are in. Lots of exciting races and upsets. Photos are being uploaded as we speak. Race summaries below. Race video footage, video interviews, more photos and much more to come!
Congrats to your 2007 state champions....
Boys Individuals: Kyle Cooke, Joseph Franklin, Matt Mizereck, Brian Atkinson
Girls Individuals: Kayla Hale, Devin Spoerle, Ashley Shiver, Ashley Brasovan
Boys Teams: Trinity Prep, Belen Jesuit, Leon, Melbourne
Girls Teams: Community School of Naples, Episcopal, Satellite, Bartram Trail
Thank you to....
My meet coverage staff: Milton Lyons, Carla Portilla, Anne Delbovo, Barry Jones, and Bob Cooke. To Cyle Sage, Tony, and the rest of the meet crew for doing an awesome job today. Perhaps the best state meet that I remember--flawless from my perspective. To Denarvise and Shannelle of the FHSAA for their support. And to all of the athletes and coaches for all of the great memories made out there at the Ranch today!
Race Summaries
1A Boys - Kyle Cooke wanted to shake off any doubters and proved his mental toughness. He ran this race front to back and finished with an awesome expression of both "dang this hurts but I'm tougher than the pain" and a smile all at once! His ellation after the win was priceless. Howver that elation was tempered by the news that despite a great race, they tied with Trinity Prep and lost in the tie breaker. Doesn't get closer than that! Strickland muscles past Richard Blake, who held on to second for most of the race.
1A Girls - Kayla Hale dominated from the gun as expected. She ran a great, even race and "had fun" to her third state title and a great time. The real drama was for second place. Grace Thomas took it out really hard and maybe paid the price later, but she held on to that runner-up position valiantly despite a hard charging pack lead by Rebecca Spookie Eaves. In the end Spookie, the ever ferocious little 8th grader, did catch Thomas. But the St. Edwards freshman was able to hold off a fast closing Alicia Fenley by a fraction of a second. Community School of Naples pulled of a fairly decisive margin over Holy Trinity by placing their top five in the top 15! Holy Trinity placed 5 in the top 25.
2A Boys - Let's get this out of the way--this was a two man race, plain and simple. It was apparent from about 1000 meters in that neither Joe Franklin nor Guillermo Echarte were going to settle for second place willingly. Franklin ran a very disciplined race and tucked in behind Echarte for most of the race. He made his first move at about the two mile mark and pulled ahead of Echarte by a few feet coming out of the infield. But coming out, Joseph, seeing open an green path, kept going straight and ran maybe 15 meters off course. Although he wasn't off course long he surrendered his lead and momentum and had to expend some extra energy to get back with Echarte. But he did that almost immediately. Coming up the final stretch they both started kicking and Franklin retook the lead. They both charged and Franklin gapped him a little but Echarte would not be broken despite the speed Franklin (1:50 800, 4:08 Mile) obviouslly has. Franklin did win, with Echarte trailing just a few second back. But Guillermo did get his state title too--the team one. His Belen Jesuit ran fantastic--top five under 16:45. They won by 38 points over Naples--which proved underrated going in. Most expected Tampa Jesuit and Bishop Kenny over Naples, so great race for them. Jesuit third, BK four.
2A Girls - This one was pretty exciting. Nicole Carpio showed her fearlessness by going for the gold. The eighth grader lead out of the gate and paced her elders four two miles. The pack that she lead went from eight to five to four to finally three. She had one by one broken them. But she could not shake off Devin Spoerle or Katie Traylor. They stuck to her like glue. After the two mile mark Devin Spoerle took over the pacing, and those front three gapped the chase pack. Devin kept going and seemingly accelerating through the last mile. At some point it became too much for Katie Traylor and she slowly fell off and was swallowed by the chase pac, falling to sixth. Carpio and Spoerle continued to charge hard for the finish going up the final homestretch. Joanne Pierre though lead a determined chase pack who tried to slowly whiddle away the gap. Closer and close to the finish, Carpio looked like she was in trouble. Devin headed home for the win leaving Carpio behind and the brave young Carpio dug deep trying to finish out the race. She fought against her body's desire to collapse long enough to cross the finish line, but Joanne Pierre and Sarah Davis got there a second earlier. Great race all! Episcopal's girls won the race convincingly as expected--as one of the top girls teams in the Southeast or even the nation, NTN hopefuls. They had 5 in the top 20. But Lake Highland Prep had a wonderful showing as well with five in the top 30 and six in the top 40. BK fourth.
3A Boys - Eric Larson went out and ran his race with determination, coming out and leading from about 1000 meters in. A gap formed pretty quickly and Larson was shadowed only by Matt Mizereck and Jonathan Esteban for a time. Going around for the second lap Larson looked really strong and it seemed to be his race, but Mizereck sat back patiently not letting Larson get much leash. A group including Bryan Suarez, Esteban, Culver, Homme, Parrish, and Soto juggled around often but never mounted much of a challenge to the top two during the second half the race. So Larson and Mizereck charged up the hill, both looking strong and determined neither giving up anything. Then with about 100 meters to go, we saw a familiar look on his face. It was one that I had seen last year with Guillermo Echarte. Mizereck who had a bit of a gap to make up that Larson had opened going down the hill was kicking and closing fast while simotaneously Larson began to struggle to keep his forward momentum. It was slow motion and Mizereck zoomed by for the victory just 30 meters from the finish. Thank God, Larson's fatigue set in with 100 to go or this really would have been a replay of the 2A race last year. Larson chugged and fought and stayed on his feet and got his feet across the line to finish. Then collapsed flat. So much guts by Larson and so much patience and strength from Mizereck to bring home the win.... which turned out to be for his team as well. From there Leon cruised to victory over hometown rival Chiles, with Larson's Pensacola Washington in third, and Coach Mike Boza's new team Plant in fourth.
3A Girls - Early on it was a huge pack battle with lead shuffles constant. Freshman Kali Carney was the early leader and paced the pack for about a mile before the pace became more than she could handle. She was swallowed up by the pack but didnt' fall far. It was about that time that Ashley Shiver started to take over. The pack started to thin out a bit until it really contained only Imm, Lawson, Stern, Homme, and Russo with a shot at catching Shiver. But Ashley Shiver was not to be caught. She same through the line with a 19 second win over Tori Lawson, who looked great. Juliana Stern came in under 19 as well and the duo of Shiver and Stern going 1-3 gave Satellite the light point load up front that it needed to secure its second consecutive state title. Satellite's 4 and 5 depth came through for them in this one as well... but what was not expected was the outstanding performance by the younger Shiver, Nicole! She had a fantastic.... no FANTASTIC (caps needed to capture how big) personal best time of 19:24 for the freshman which was 10th place overall (8th in scoring). Without that breakthrough, Chiles probably would have had this one in the bag. Chiles was just 14 points back 83-97.
4A Boys - This was a really spectacular pack battle with too many lead changes to mention... at one point Wehunt, Atkinson, Castillo, Gulesian, and others lead. Early on it was Gulesian of Columbus, who showed courage to run for the win but perhaps at this point in his career a bit overmatched. He ended with a good time though. Wehunt and Atkinson lead a huge pack that charged into the lead at about 1200 meters. William Schannen, Cameron Dickerson, Jon Manning, and Phillip Wise were major factors for the next couple of miles leading a chase pack along with Wehunt for the next mile. Wehunt started to fall back at this point from the second place he held much of the race. And as he fell Daniel Manco and Sebastian Castillo started to move up around two miles. Coming out of the infield Atkinson had a good lead, and Castillo battled with Schannen for the lead and eventually got it. Manco was in tow a bit back--note there was some confusion of Manco vs. Castillo in the blog and announcing because both were "Falcons". Coming up the homestretch, Atkinson steadily increased his padding. Battle for second was heating up between Castillo, Manco, Schannen, and to some extent Dickerson. Manco pulled into second coming up the hill and got a bit of a gap. Schannen and Dickerson started to drop off but Castillo would not surrender. Coming up down the final 50 meters it was Manco looking to take it in, but Castillo would not give up hope. And good thing he didn't, in a photo finish over the line it was Castillo pulling in over Manco's shoulder for the runner-up position. Schannen, Dickerson, Wehunt holding on, and Lanning closing hard. Melbourne with probably the best team showing of the day--everyone under 16:38--had the victory over Ferguson. Manco-led Ferguson had a great pack showing for their top five, but Melbourne was just too too powerful with four in the top 15 and five in the top 25. Columbus was third, with Winter Park close behind.
4A Girls - Even if I were a gambler (which I am not), I don't think I could have gotten anyone to take my bet over this top three. It was seemingly written in stone and throughout the race from about 400 meters onward the top three did not change. The one potential surprise for me with the top three, which I shouldn't admit to because Emilie Amaro rocks, is that Amaro really really challenged Brasovan! She certainly did not make it easy for Brasovan, who is favored by many to be a potential winner of a NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP. Brasovan was really impressive, but Amaro would not give up and for a while it looked like she might just get Ashley. We know Amaro has speed and took Ashley out in the mile in track. But it didn't come down to that. Brasovan did win with a very impressive 17:04 to Amaro's 17:12. Koziara ran very tough and shadowed the front two for a lot of the race, but with a bit of a tough day at the races finished a bit back in third with a very respectable 17:31, which is a new PR. She is a solider. Let's rewind the tape a bit. So besides the top three... it was a great chase pack battle after that. Alyssa Burkert took charge of that chase pack and did not surrender that "lead" the entire race, but Lindsey Lucas probably gave her a bit of a scare running in Burkert's wake for much of the race. Nowack of Bartram Trail, Lauren Lapointe of Vero, Syndey Devore of Lakeland, and Amanda Perkins also mixed it up for a while. Burkert turned it on, while the pack suffered from the early pace. Alyssa, the Ocoee sophomore, ran like a champion and ended up with a 33 second lead over the chasers... and came oh so close to joining the 17 minute club that has been so ellusive to her this year. So close! 18:03. Amanda Perkins came on strong late making up quite a bit of ground to get fourth, followed by Lucas. For the team battle it really looked like Lourdes had it. Through the halfway pad it was theirs and early on they had a very imposing pack of five in the top 15. But it takes 5000 meters to win this thing and Bartram Trail's girls were on a mission as they picked people off and moved up through the pack. Our Lady of Lourdes had five runners cross in the top 25. In fact, Lourdes put five across before Bartram leading me on the live blog from my cell phone to call Lourdes the likely winner. But as the scores were calculated Bartram, with great strength from the front lead by Nowack and Callie Cooper in the top ten, pulled off the big upset victory. 68-85. Melbourne's girls also mixed it up very well and finished just three points behind Lourdes. Check this out... the top three girls teams here all had their top five in the top 30!!!
Looking back...
This is a very very good year for Florida girls teams a whole---I think this is the deepest year for girls teams that we have had in Florida possibly ever, at least in my "young" 26-year old memory. We have had Episcopal way out front, but Holy Trinity and Our Lady of Lourdes each vying for national or at least Southeast rankings at one point or another in the season. Upsets of nationally ranked Lake Braddock VA by Lourdes and Elanor Roosevent MD by Episcopal. And when just when we thought that Lourdes and Holy Trinity were the clear cut next tier behind Episcopal's dominance.... here comes Community School of Naples and Bishop Kenny and Melbourne and Bartram Trail and Lake Highland and Satellite! I think it's fantastic and they should all be really proud.