(Photo courtesy of Steve Dunn)
The 31-team Don Bishop Invite at Brandon High School ran in the shadow of the FSU Pre-State meet in Tallahassee and on the heels of the Flrunners Invite in Titusville the week before. Yet, even as teams are gathering themselves for the county championship and state series, Saturday's meet at Brandon had several notable performances. Individually, it was sophomore sensation Bailey Hertenstein. Hertenstein already set down her Florida #1 time of 18:02.4 at the Titusville meet and even with no runners within two minutes of her down the final stretch, she found the fuel to kick out for an 18:29.8. That time blows up Hertenstein's previous Don Bishop meet record from 2014 (19:00.7).
"I just want to try and show consistency," Hertenstein said. "I've been under 19 (minutes) this whole season and that's excellent. I hope to get under 18 eventually this season."
A second place battle between host Brandon's Eliana Ochoa and King's Micaela Torres lasted most of the girls varsity race with Ochoa pulling away on the second lap to take second in 20:30.1. Torres was not far behind in third at 20:37.1.
On the team side, it was Newsome, Newsome, Newsome and well, Newsome. In the girls varsity race, Marcella Benner led the way in fourth (20:56.6), with Delsie Borgen in sixth at 21:29.9, Isabelle Guevara in seventh at 21:53.9, Katie Dunn in eighth at 22:05.7, and Juliana Tragakis in ninth at 22:08.8.
Plant City's Hannah Stowe broke up the Wolfpack taking fifth in 21:18.7. The Newsome girls ran away with the team title, scoring 29 to Robinson's 79.
The Newsome boys won with 38 to Robinson's 87. Tristan Vaira led the Wolves in fourth at 17:41.9. Next was Cody Caskey in sixth at 17:49.3, Michael Schram in ninth at 18:09.3, Michael Fuller right behind him at 18:11.8 and then Alex Bugielski sliding into 12th in 18:14.0. The Newsome JV squads dominated, too. The girls won it 26 to Robinson's 44 and the Newsome boys JV scored a perfect 15; all this with Newsome girls holding out four of their top 10 runners.
Dustin Fletcher (18:57.1), Andrew Tucker (19:03.7), Noah Dombroski (19:06.9), Chris Pinedo (19:08.2) and Maxwell Forsyth (19:28.8) were the Newsome JV quintet that tallied the perfect score for the Wolves. Even Forsyth was almost 30 seconds ahead of the sixth-place JV runner.
"This is important for us as we get ready for the big part of the season in the county championships and state series," Newsome boys coach Brian Sears said.
Individually, on the boys varsity side, it was a battle between Durant's Haftom Fliegelman and Middleton's Daniel Dean. Dean led up until about the two-mile mark where Fliegelman surged ahead and didn't look back. Fliegelman raced across in 16:41.5 with Dean in second at 17:12.2. Robinson's Dannys Marrero was third in 17:15.0.
Race Videos/Interviews
Bailey Hertenstein Interview
Haftom Fliegelman Interview
Girls Varsity Race Footage
Don Bishop Boys Varsity Race Footage