Like cross country, school seems to be getting into full stride too.The past few weeks have been pretty busy and demanding, trying to manage practice and lots of AP work to do afterwards.The life of a student-athlete, like all of us are, is grueling sometimes, but like a race you have to keep moving along.
This past weekend the entire Timber Creek program headed to the Overbay-Monte Carlo Invitational in Winter Springs, where we had the chance to race against some solid teams head to head for our third meet of the season. It was nice to come back to the meet I started my high school career on, almost exactly a year ago. The girls varsity took off at 7:30, while the sun was still down and the dew was still floating around. Again, while warming with our boys varsity team for our race minutes away, I couldn't catch most of the girls race but congrats to all the girls who ran the first race of the day. A special congratulations goes to our girls team who had a solid team performance finishing fifth, led by our freshmen Briana Burnett who took fifth individually for another PR.
The boys varsity race followed, as 152 athletes made their way towards the first hill at the sound of the gun. I decided to take the lead from the gun, and found myself solo by the half mile mark. By the time I hit the mile marker I found myself in such a good position with a feeling of control and relaxation, and at that point I decided that I felt good enough to basically "go for it." I realized I was on PR pace by the two mile and heading up the hill on the far side of the course one last time, I was feeling confident on finishing the race with a new PR. When I reached the final turn where I saw the clock, all I could do was smile because it felt evident that all the hard work is starting to pay off. I knew it was also starting to pay off for my teammates too as many of them PR'd, we finished second to 2A favorite and one of the top teams in the state, Trinity Prep, and our freshmen group is really starting to fire on all cylinders.
I give a TON of credit especially to my teammate Michael Nazareth who really went for it that race and hit a 16:15 for 8th. He finished behind some very solid runners including three from the Trinity Prep pack (who absolutely dominated... finishing six runners under 16:30, and another under 17:00). Not only was that another PR for Michael, but that helps our team a whole lot knowing we have three guys (senior Carlos Ramos and I) with personal bests of under 16:20 now.
The JV races followed and our JV boys pulled out another win going 9-10-11-12-13; lead by Austin Logan, Jordan Chatman, and Keegan Brockman who finished within five tenths of each other. The 1-5 spread was 10.5 seconds, that's solid regardless of any class and considering the fact all of them are either freshmen or sophomores. Our JV girls finished a strong second led by Allison Mason's second place finish.
I cannot explain how proud of this team I am from top to bottom. I cannot wait to continue the season, and begin the state series soon. Congratulations to everyone in the state that ran this past weekend, and good luck to all participating at Flrunners 14. This year Florida is really showing promise by having four guys early under 15:30, as compared to only one at this point last year. Till next time.
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