(Photos by Donald Lamb)
Bright House Sports Network honored the top athletes from Osceola county at its 4th annual Breakfast of Champions held Thursday morning at Falcons Fire golf course. The cross country athletes were Karissa Solorzano of St. Cloud High school and Rogelio Araiza of Liberty High School. The track athletes were Amber Jackson of Gateway High School and David Akins of Celebration High School.
Karissa won the OBC cross country championship by a wide margin as she led her team to a conference victory. Her best race of the season came during the 3A Region 2 meet in which she ran 20:01, taking 10th and qualifying her to compete at the state meet. Karissa will be a senior next year, so look for her to build upon the past season’s success this fall.
Rogelio kept us all in suspense at the OBC championships until the last half mile. He made the pass and never looked back on the way to taking the conference title. His Liberty squad also walked away as conference champions. He ran his best time of 16:38 in the Region of Death, taking 20th. That time would have earned him top 6 in two other 4A regional meets. Rogelio is only a sophomore, so look out central Florida.
Amber won multiple titles throughout the season in the triple jump and long jump, including the double at the district and regional meets. She was just a ¼ of an inch way from a conference double as well. The poor weather at the state meet took a toll, but she still walked away with top 10 finishes in 4A. She just recently signed a scholarship to attend LaSalle University.
David was a force to be reckoned with at every meet when it came to the pole vault. More often than not, his first attempt was usually after everyone was close to being finished, including the 3A state meet. Out of the 15 meets he competed in this season, he was always in the top four, with seven wins. Those wins include conference, district, region, and culminated in a win in Jacksonville at the state meet. He hasn’t officially decided on a school yet, but from what I understand, he plans to stay in Florida.