South Florida's Fastest 5 Girls
Gulliver Prep High School's, Natalie Varela, is back in first with this week's top performance for south Florida. Varela ran a time of 17:46.53 at the flrunners.com invitational, where for the first time this year she didn't win the race. What she did do though was run one of the fastest times this year in Florida and set a new personal best, breaking her old best time of 18:29.16. Varela has had an awesome start to this cross country season by winning three out of the four races she's ran this year. At the flrunner's.com invite she placed second in the race of champions which was a better performance than when she won last year's invite race.
Here's what Varela had to say about the race. "Well the race was great. There was a lot of competition. I took out a little too fast the first mile, like I was dying at the end but I pushed through and broke 18 which was my goal". Varela felt great running the race and really enjoys the course. She has some big goals this year to break 17:30 at the state meet and is something Varela has a good chance of doing. So definitely pay attention to her cause she's a top performer.
Tsion Yared (Freshman, Pine Crest)
Our last week's top performer, Tsion Yared, from Pine Crest makes the list again. Yared has the second best performance this week for south Florida with a time of 17:52.84. She placed fourth at the flrunner.com invitational but set a new personal best which is her first time of ever running in the 17's. She had a great race last week at the Pine Crest Cross Country invite where she had to run by herself and won the race in 18:11.18. Yared is a great competitor and is a top runner to watch as the state meet comes closer.
Valerie Lastra (Freshman, Mater Academy)
Next up on the top five performances this week for south Florida is, Valerie Lastra, from Mater Academy. Lastra came so close the breaking 18 minutes but ended up running 18:00.64. She came in fifth place at the flrunners.com invitational and set a new personal best. Lastra is just a freshman and has been dropping times in every race this season.
Alexandra Del Re (Freshman, Jupiter)
Alexandra Del Re, from Jupiter high school, makes the top five performances this week for south Florida by running a time of 18:04.38. She placed sixth in the race of champions at the flrunners.com invitational. Not on the record books, Del Re ran a time of 17:03 earlier this year and ran 18:11.05 at Spanish River where she won. Unfortunately for Del Re she hurt her ankle a little at the Spanish River meet but plans to be ready to go for the rest of the year.
Maya Beleznay (Freshman, Pine Crest)
The fifth place for this week's top five performances for south Florida is, Maya Beleznay, from Pine Crest. She is also the fifth freshman to make the list this week. That's right, for this week all of our top performers are freshmen. Beleznay came in tenth place at the flrunners.com invitational and ran a time of 18:53.89. Running this time set a new personal best.