TKA Lions Invitational Recap

TKA Lions Invitational
Bill Fay



On-Site Coverage

The TKA Lions Cross Country Invitational is quickly becoming a major early season invitational meet for the area. A well-deserved reputation for a well-run meet has begun to draw schools from around the area. The last two years over 20 schools have competed, including many traveling from Broward County. The beautiful campus, and well laid out course with the start and finish on the track allows for good spectator experience, with the runners passing by the start/finish area multiple times during the race. A hospitality table for the runners near the finish provides water, sports drinks and fruit for after –race recovery. The rains from the night before rendered the course muddy, but that’s cross country!
 
The rains of the night before held off, but cloud cover kept things cool and as usual, the competition was good. In the first race, Ilio Sanchez of John I Leonard led the charge with last year’s 4A region 4l champ Anthony Deleva covering every move. The duo quickly separated themselves from the pack and stayed together the entire race till the finish with Sanchez starting his kick first, and Deleva hot on his heels, Sanchez holding on for the win in 16:58.62 to Deleva’s 16:58.94. There was also a contest for 3rd place, with Matthew Guinazu holding on for third in 17:42, with Josiah McLaughlin of Doctor’s Charter School (17:45) and Brandon Hessler of Wellington (17:49) rounding out the top 5.
 
In the girl’s race, cloud cover still prevailed, allowing for good morning racing conditions as Palm Beach Central’s Morgan Hull ran a solo 19:39.61 national elite effort, over a minute ahead of Monarch’s Jade Fungquee’s 20:40. Rounding out the top five were Ella Wright of Palmer Trinity (20:49), Ann Vallace of Dwyer,( 21:05) and Jenna Evans of South Florida Heat (21:09). 
 
In the team results it was John I. Leonard with 82 points narrowly taking the boys title from Coral Springs with 86 points. Palm Beach Central followed closely with 94 points, with Cardinal Newman (148 points) narrowly overtaking Wellington (149 points) for 4th. On the girl’s side it was South Florida Heat (53 points) a clear winner over Dwyer’s 77 points and The King’s Academy with 83 points. The battle for 5th place went to the tiebreaker as Palmer Trinity and Palm Beach Central each scored 103 points. The nod went to Palmer Trinity on the 6th runner, as Palm Beach Central had only fielded 5 runners. 
 
The boys and girls JV races went off later as the sun came out and the humidity rose and next year’s heroes ran untimed and unscored.By this time some areas of the course were pretty muddy from the previous races. It was a good opportunity for many to run their first race as the varsity looked on and were glad they had the chance to run under better conditions. 

Kudos to The Kings Academy staff for a well-run race and we are looking forward to a good season and next year’s race.    
 

Elite Performances

Girls Highlights

Boys Highlights