Pics from Friday's Large School Boys and Girls races.
Relive all the photo coverage from the last year's FLRunners.com Invitational.
Welcome to the Flrunners.com Invitational 17 coverage hub, where we look at all the videos, photos, and written content from this weekend.
This Saturday will feature the 16th running of the middle school division at the FLR Invitational. For those of us who grew up in the twentieth century, "middle school distance running" meant watching the better part of your PE class walk 600 yards as part of the Presidential Physical Fitness test. The kids in this race are not those kids. They are fast - not just fast for middle schoolers, but fast for adults. The top finishers would all be varsity-level high school runners, and some would even be in the mix in a state championship. We've come a long way, baby.
If there is one particular race I am looking forward to the most at this year's flrunners.com Invitational 17 it's the girls Race of Champions. The field includes ten of the top fifteen girls in the state, plus two of the top teams in 2014 and 2015 4A state champions Winter Park, and Pine Crest the 2A runner-up the past four years. We take a look at both the individual and team battles.
The main event at flrunners.com Invitational 17 will be both the boys and girls Race of Champions. The girl's race will feature ten of the top 15 ranked girls in the state of Florida including #1 Amanda Beach and #2 Bailey Hertenstein. Beach, a senior at Melbourne Central Catholic, and the state leader will be tested up front by defending 4A state champion and meet champion Hertenstein, as well as 2015 4A state champion Rafaella Gibbons of Winter Park who is making her flrunners.com Invitational debut. However don't count out four South Florida freshmen who are out to shake up the field. Meet Ali Del Re, Tsion Yared, Valerie Lastra, and Natalie Varela.
All eyes are going to be on the championship races at the flrunners invitational, but this huge meet will also be providing some excellent competition in both the small school and large school races. We have some fast individuals ready to take to the course, as well as some team races that could come down to the wire.
We have you covered with everything you need from FLR 17! Follow the live twitter updates under the stream & use #FLR17 in your tweets! You can find live results, schedule, and coverage central below.
Flrunners.com Invitational 17 is going to be off the chain with sweet aqua blue meet t-shirts, an athlete recovery area, BBQ food truck, DJ, and special guest 2012 Olympic silver medalist Leo Manzano! The competition will not only be some of the best and biggest in the state of Florida, but the southeast as well with over 300 teams and more than 3,000 athletes. Here are this year's teams entered in Saturday's Elite Divisions, the Race Of Champions and Invitational races.
This year we are honored to have former Texas Longhorn and 2012 Olympic Silver Medalist as our celebrity guest for the Flrunners.com Invitational 17. We caught up with him to talk about his running career, London, attending FLR 17, and much more!
We're super hyped for this weekend's Flrunners.com Invitational 17 . Don't believe us? Just watch this video!
We've done our girls ROC and boys ROC previews for the Flrunners.com Invitational 17. We've run the virtual meets. Now we know want to know who YOU think is going to win! Our prediction contest will run now through Friday night at midnight. Simply reply in the discussion topic your picks and tune in Saturday morning to see how good you are!
The Flrunners.com Invitational boys Race of Champions will feature sixteen of the top teams and individuals in the state of Florida with 2A power Trinity Prep and 3A power Belen Jesuit leading the way along with Woodstock who makes the trek down from Georgia. On the individual front, only three runners in the field have broken sixteen minutes in Caleb Pottorff, Joshua Collins, and Mason Jones. We take a look at what fans can expect to see on both the team and individual fronts come Saturday morning.
Everyone loves a good head to head match up and we will see plenty of those at Flrunners.com Invitational 17 especially in the race of champions including FL#1 Amanda Beach Vs. FL#2 Bailey Hertenstein and FL#2 Joshua Collins Vs. FL#3 Caleb Pottorff. We take a look at how they've fared in previous match ups on the track and on the cross country as well as strictly by times using our compare athletes feature to see who has the best shot at pulling out the victory this weekend.
Jimmy Clark and Ryan Pickering's epic battle in 2010 produced the top two times ever in meet history, 14:53.29 and 14:55.48, one year after Matt Mizereck and Armando DelValle went 14:56.21 and 14:56.84. That quartet are the only athletes to ever break 15 minutes while 29 have gone under 15:30 in the past 17 years. We take a look at the top 500 all-time best boys times at the flrunners.com Invitational.
The Flrunners.com Invitational meet record has stood for the last ten years by Wellington's Ashley Brasovan who steamrolled the competition at FLR 7 on the fields of Ed Radice Park in Tampa. Brasovan's time of 16:41.42 is the fastest by nearly 20 seconds. 24 runners have broke 18 minutes in meet history, while the 25th best of all-time is 2015 meet champion Bailey Hertenstein who won in 18:02.40, and is coming off a 17 minute performance this past weekend. We look at the fastest 500 girls in flrunners.com Invitational history.
Titusville senior Mason Jones is one of the top entrants in the boys Race of Champions at this weekend's flrunners.com Invitational 17. Jones finished second at the recent UF Mt. Dew Invitational and placed in the top two in each of his races this season. We caught up with the Terrier who will be making the short trip to Chain of Lakes Park, about this weekend's race.
The fields are set for flrunners Invitational 17. See what race you and your team will be competing in this weekend at Chain of Lakes Park in Titusville!
Melbourne Central Catholic senior Amanda Beach is the the state leader so far this season, so naturally she is one of the favorites to win the Race of Champions at Flrunners.com Invitational 17. She has already broken 18 minutes this season and looks to continue her stellar senior campaign with another win tomorrow. We caught up with Amanda and her coach to talk about this season and the big race.
So it's a couple of days out from the Race of Champions and I can't wait to see how I stack up against the top runners in the state.
Flrunners had a chance to catch up with Troy Smith, a sophomore from Rockledge who has had an impressive season thus far. He came in second at the Wickham Jamboree in a school record time of 16:09.00 and has won his last two races. Smith talks about his 2016 season and preparing for the flrunners.com Invitational this weekend after finishing third last year in the boys invitational race.
Check out all the entry lists, previews and hype video for the 17th annual XC extravaganza in Florida
Check out all the entry lists, previews and hype video for the 17th annual XC extravaganza in Florida!
The Race of Champions is the top event at Flrunners.com Invitational 17, but don't count out the invitational events which will split both the male and female genders of the ROC and showcase some of the top talent in the state of Florida duking it out. Last year's race saw four athletes run under 17 minutes with UNC commit Luke Peterson of Shorecrest Prep winning in 16:26.00. We preview all the team and individual action.
Last year's girls invitational race produced one of the ten best times of the whole weekend by Natalie Varela. These athletes and teams are hungry after just missing the cut off for the Race of Champions. Lemon Bay's Maddison Welch was 20th in last year's Race of Champions and comes in as one of the favorites to win on Saturday in this division. We take a look at the top individuals and teams in the field.
Tom Connor was on-site at the flrunners.com Invitational 17 and captured over 2,000 photos on day one including this shot of Lake Mary's Daniela Urzua who won the girls large school race.
Tyler Copeland was on-site at the flrunners.com Invitational 17 and snapped over 750 photos from day one including this picture of the Ft. Myers boys who dominated the JV team race.
Key West sophomore Nicole Matysik took it easy for the first mile and pulled away from the field after that beating her time from the ROC last year in the girls small school race, crossing the finish in 19:05.70, over a minute faster than her nearest competitor. All eight races from day one as well as interviews.
The Winter Springs girls and boys scored team victories in the large school races at flrunners.com Invitational 17. Freshman Elayna Bahr finished second for the Bears while Matt Doyle and Justin Czurack went 1-2 in the boys race. We merged the results from day one to see who the best individuals and teams were regardless of race!
Riverview junior Bailey "Hurricane" Hertenstein defends her flrunners.com Invitational Race of Champions title with a a time of 17:32.14 while leading four other girls to times at 18:00 or lower.
Lincoln Park Academy senior Caleb Pottorff pulled away from hometown Titusville senior Mason Jones in the final 800m to win the boys Race of Champions title in a new state leading time of 15:30.11
Tyler Copeland was on-site as part of our coverage team for flrunners.com Invitational 17 and captured nearly 2,000 photos from day two including this one of our athletes in the foreground with the perfect cross country course as the backdrop.