Daniel Moore New CR at Great American

 

Complete Great American Results and Coverage...



Florida Summary

BY TODD GRASLEY


Several Central Florida teams made the trip to Cary, North Carolina for the Great American Cross Country Festival and several came home with new personal bests.

The Boys Race of Champions featured a battle between Holy Trinity senior Daniel Moore and nationally ranked Jacob Bucham of Cabell Midland High School in West Virginia. Before the cross country season, Coach Doug Butler said Moore had the potential to re-write the Holy Trinity record books and be one of the best in school history.

This weekend he made his mark on Great American history winning the event in a course record 14:57.61 beating the likes of Alan Webb (14:59.10) in 2001, and former Sunshine State standouts Armando Del-Valle (15:00.20) in 2010, Ryan Deak of Maclay (15:11.70) in 2004, and Brian Atkinson of Melbourne (15:13.00) in 2010.

According to Butler, Moore was ten meters behind Bucham at the three-mile mark before kicking it in on what Butler said were perfect racing conditions. His time was a new PR by nearly thirty-five seconds and breaks the school record set by Colorado freshman David Kilgore.

Other impressive performances include Colonial junior Andres Arroyo who set a new personal best time of 15:12.13 which was good enough for fourth place. Mitchell Moore of Olympia finished 20th in 15:43.82. The Holy Trinity boys were sixth with a 16:18 average, Colonial and Olympia had a 16:18 and 16:30 average respectively.



Photo of Colonial boys courtesy of Raul Ramirez Sr.


Florida girls also represented the state well.  Two weeks after being crowned Warrior of the Week, Melbourne senior Vanessa Valentine proved she was worthy of the award finishing in fourth with a new personal best of 17:43.00. Sticking with her in the race was Holy Trinity freshman Julie Wollrath. Wollrath was running in Great American for her third consecutive year and like last year she finished fifth. Her time of 17:51.50 was a new season best, but nearly five seconds slower than she ran at this course last year.

Other top Florida girls include Olympia freshman Emily Headley (24th- 18:28.62), Oak Hall sophomore Britney Olinger, (34th- 18:42.53) Olympia senior Kaitlyn Campo (42nd-18:49.33), and Oak Hall seventh-grader Lauren Perry (50th - 19:07.25).

Congratulations to all of our Florida runners on an impressive weekend in the Tarheel State.

 

Daniel Moore Interview

Moore ran a calm and controlled race by hanging back for the first 4K before making his move. He then had to fight off nationally ranked Jacob Burcham of West Virginia to win, becoming the first athlete to break 15 at that meet since Alan Webb.

 

Boys Race of Champions Video

BY DEAN HEADLEY

 

Girls Race of Champions Video

BY DEAN HEADLEY