(Maggie Parrish of Chamberlain is one of the top girls entered in the Hillsborough County Championships. Photo by Jeff Adams)
As a MileSplit Insider you have the capability to run a virtual meet/scenario of every meet. With conference and county championships across the state this week we wanted to utilize this feature to give you insight on how we think each event will play out. Combine that with our meet preview and you're ready to go! Let's take a look at the Tuesday meets which include the Hillsborough County Conference, Lee County Athletic Conference Collier County Athletic Conference, and St. Lucie County Championships.
Hillsborough County Conference
Riverview sophomore Bailey Hertenstein is unbeaten in 2015 and has won seven of eight races in her high school career. Hertenstein's last race was the Don Bishop Invitational coming a week after her impressive 18:02.40 to win the flrunners.com Race of Champions. She's had a week to rest after not running in the Hillsborough freshman/sophomore meet. She skipped this meet last year, but if she runs she is definitely the favorite at Al Lopez Park in Tampa. Maggie Parrish of Chamberlain (pictured above) is the only other runner in the field to have dipped under 19 minutes. Parrish ran 18:56.90 at FLR16 and a new personal best of 18:52.90. She is getting better and better every week. Other runners to watch include Hillsborough County freshman/sophomore champion Josie Garba of Tampa Prep and Wharton's 1-2 punch of Alisha Deschenas and Rania Samhouri. The Wildcats are the top team in the field, but should be pushed by a deep Plant squad as well as Newsome.
Much like the girls race, the boys race has a clear cut favorite in Noah Perkins of Seffner Christian. The senior hasn't finished worse than 4th in any meet this year and is the boys race of champions winner at FLR16, a win he called the most impressive of his high school career. Look for him to run a conservative race, but still manage to get the win. The battle for second will be a three headed monster. Berkeleys Leo Ochoa has the second fastest time in the field, but that was from over a month ago at the Indian Rocks Christian Open. He's only run two meets this year. On the other hand, Plant's duo of Rob Leverone and Quasan Markowski have run together all year. Last year, the duo was 29th and 31st at Pre-State and separated by 40 seconds. Other names to watch include Steinbrenner's Andrew Meyers and Ian Campbell, Walker Thomas of Plant, and Haftom Fliegelman of Durant. Plant and Steinbrenner have battled it out many times this season and this one could come down to both team's fifth runner for the team title.
- Girls Virtual Meet l Boys Virtual Meet
- Race Videos/Interviews By Todd Grasley (Coming Tuesday evening)
- Photos By Andy Warrener (Coming Tuesday evening)
- Race Recap By Andy Warrener (Coming Tuesday evening)
Lee County Athletic Conference Championship
(Photo by Rob Strong)
Highlights:
- Fort Myers sweeps the individual and team competition. Junior Krissy Gear gets the win in 19:54 while junior Josh Kennedy wins the boys race in 17:05. Both victories were improvements from last year where Gear was second in 20:24 and Kennedy was third in 17:29.00.
- The boys and girls Green Wave teams defended their titles over Estero. The girls scored 24 points to the Wildcats 42, while the boys were a narrow 8 points better than the home team.
- Girls Virtual Meet l Boys Virtual Meet
Collier County Athletic Conference
(Photo by Teri Bernhardt-Rodriguez)
Southwest Florida is incredibly talented in cross country and nobody knows that more than Rosie Poling of Lely. Poling didn't advance out of districts or regionals in her first two seasons, but will start the road to state at the conference championship as the favorite. Poling is coming off of a season best time of 20:16.90 at the Disney Cross Country Classic and is on her way to returning to her bests of last year in the 19's. Immokalee senior Selena Velasquez has also run in the mid 20's this year and should give Poling a test at the front of the pack.
The team race will be tight between Palmetto Ridge, Lely, Immokalee, and Naples.
Immokalee senior Alejandro Ruiz is one of three runners in the boys field to have run under 17 minutes this season joining Jack Matute of Palmetto Ridge and teammate Erasmo Cortes. Ruiz has run 16:52 and his personal best 16:33 at Pre-State and FLR16. He was 17th at the 2A Cross Country Finals last year and was the runner-up at the conference meet last year behind former Immokalee Indian Urias Velasquez.
Ruiz and Cortes provide a dangerous 1-2 punch for the team in red and white which is the top team in the meet. Gulf Coast led by freshman Nick Karmen and sophomore John Amaya will battle a talented Naples squad for the runner-up spot.