Kick Of The Week: Varela Over Yared In South Florida Showdown

The individual race for girls varsity champion created a lot of excitement as two powerhouse sophomore runners in Natalie Varela and Tsion Yared went head-to-head. Just a little history, Varela was 4th at XC state the past two years, which matches her 4th place finishes in the 1600m and 3200m at track state from last year. Yared was last year's XC state runner-up (champ in 2014), and finished 5th behind Varela last track season in both the 1600m and 3200m at state.

In the competition, Varela took the lead basically from the get-go and she created and kept a sizable lead over Yared throughout the race. However, in the last 200 meters Yared managed to close a 10 meter lead to make an exciting race to the finish as the two girls ran stride for stride. In the end, Varela edged out Yared in the final few meters to win by a margin of less than a half second.