In His Own Words: Blake Riley - Putting My Name In The Record Books



Hey FLRunners! My name is Blake Riley and I go to Riverview High School in Sarasota, Florida. First off I just wanted to thank Todd Grasley and FLRunners for allowing me to share my meet experiences with you. Before I get into my meet, I just wanted to congratulate any runners who obtained a PR this past meet and a job well done to all the teams who had a successful meet.
 
This past weekend my team and I went to the great North Port XC invitational. Overall the meet was one of the best meets I have ever been to! The awards ceremony was awesome and there were clocks at every mile-markers and the kilometer markers were spray painted on the ground. The NP invitational was definitely the most competitive meet my team has been to this season. There were teams like Fort Myers, Sarasota High school, Estero, HB Plant, and Flagler Palm Coast, Land O Lakes, and many more.
 
There was definitely a lot of competition individually, with great runners like Tyler Bennett, Emily Edwards, Zackery Summerall, Adam Bradtmueller, Leonel Delacruz, and Araceli Leon. Overall our team came 2nd behind Estero. We beat Fort Myers and Sarasota which was a big accomplishment for our team. I would like to give a shoutout to Tyler Bennett for doing great and also zack Summerall and Adam bradtmueller, along with my teammates Bryce Vokus and Warran Grajalez for getting HUGE PR's!
 
For the girls side congrats to all the great runners and to Estero for taking home the gold. Also I would like to give a shoutout to Coach Stevenson of Sarasota High and the Sarasota girls who placed 2nd! They have some great runners like Angelina Grebe, Amber Kerry and freshman Sage Lyons and Mackenzie Brown! In addition to all the great performances I obtained a personal best and a new school record by eight seconds.I ran a 16:00 coming right behind Land O Lakes' Travis Nichols.
 
Our team average was right around a 16:42 which is a school record team average wise. I would like to thank my coaches Jason Means and Paul Opitz for all the great coaching they have done for me. I would again like to congratulate any runners who received a PR and as for my team we will be going to our home meet called the Manasota Track Club Invitational. Good luck to all the runners  at their next meet! Until next time.........

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