Pine Crest Sweeps Team Titles At Home Invite

Pine Crest Invitational
Todd Grasley



On-Site Coverage

The hot and humid conditions at the 2nd Annual Pine Crest Invitational proved to be much better than what  most of South Florida experienced earlier in the week. Regardless, it was a great morning of racing on the same course that will be used for this year's District 15-2A and Region 4-2A Championships. Pine Crest dominated the day and showed everyone just how complete a program they run from middle school all the way through high school winning every team race and three of the four individual championships.

Girls Varsity Race


 
For the 2nd week in a row Julia Montgomery took on the Mills Pond course with a similar result, 1st place, but this time she had to do it alone. The previous week she defeated 4A state runner-up, Alexa Cruz, of St. Thomas by 10 seconds. This week she and her teammates ran well enough to finish 1-2-3. Julia cruised to a time of 19:42 as she prepared for next week's FLRunners Invitational. Finishing 2nd was the middle Yared sister, Tsion. Coming off her 10th place finish and 19:51 time at Katie Caples, Tsion made the most of her first time on the course, also with anticipation for next week's FLRunners Invite by running 19:55. Katherine Jovanovic completed the 1-2-3 sweep for Pine Crest with a time of 20:21. Monarch senior Jade Fungquee finished fourth while Gulliver Prep sophomore Alyssa Pujal rounded out the top five. Behind the dominance of Pine Crest's top three, Katarina Stevanovich and Mahlet Yared, Mahdere & Tsion's older sister, finished 6th and 8th respectively to seal the victory for the 2nd year in a row with a score of 20 points. South Florida Heat and Gulliver Prep finished second and third. Next up for the Pine Crest girls team is the Race of Champions at the FLRunners Invitational!
 
Boys Varsity Race


 
Ryan Welch of Pine Crest was hungry for his very first Cross Country individual victory, but he would have to go through Charles Otto of Boca Raton Christian first. The two ran side by side almost the entire race with Welch prevailing in a time of 17:42. Otto was 2nd in 17:44. Gilbert Rodriguez of Mater Academy was 3rd in 18:12 while Haitam Chanti, Keys Gate Charter, finished 4th in 18:23. Haitam's brother also finished in the top ten as he was 9th in 18:48. Welch's teammates helped secure the team championship by placing five other runners in the top 15. Michael Kennedy, who was the runner-up in the 3000 meters at the 2013 Middle School State Championships, was 5th in 18:25, Troy Gonzalez, 7th, Joseph Cabral, 10th, Ron Knezevich, 12th and Alec Gugel, 13th. Mater Academy beat out Gulliver Prep by eight points 127-135 for second and third place in the team chase.

Middle School Girls 3k Race
 
Emma Cavendish, unattached, took things out early and never looked back as the 6th grader cruised to victory in the 3k race and qualified for the middle school state meet. There were also three other qualifiers behind her as Gianna Milan from University School (Ft. Lauderdale) edged out the youngest of the Yared sisters for the runner-up spot with a time of 13:23. Mahdere Yared, who is a 5th grader at Pine Crest, but ran unattached, was just five seconds back in 3rd place with a time of 13:28.  The final individual qualifier of the morning was Katie Bishop of North Broward Prep, 13:35. After that it was a whole slew of Pine Crest runners as Samantha Gonzalez led the charge taking up the next four places to help Pine Crest win the Invitational, 20 points, for the 2nd year in a row and punch their ticket to the November 2nd Middle School State Championships. Last year the Pine Crest middle school girls team finished as the Middle School State Runner-Up.
 
Middle school Boys 3k Race
 
Jack Rizzo, Pine Crest, and Michaiah Beiter, South Florida HEAT, battled the entire race for the lead as they pushed each other throughout the course. But with about 600m to go, Rizzo pulled away winning with a time of 12:11. Beiter finished 2nd, and qualified for the MS State Meet, with a time of 12:22.  Rizzo's Pine Crest teammate, Gabriel Ortega did everything he could to finish 3rd with a time of 12:25, just edging out Ryan Glickman, St. Andrew's, who took 4th place and also qualified. Aidan O'Gorman, unattached, came in at the end of the small pack with a 5th place finish and time of 12:28 and Sergey Golovnev, Pine Crest, was the last individual to qualify finishing 6th with a time of 12:46.  The Pine Crest boys team also won the Invitational for the 2nd year in a row with just 18 points. Last year they finished 7th at the Middle School State Meet.


Elite Performances

Girls Highlights

Boys Highlights