On-Site Coverage
- FEATURED PHOTO ALBUM BY DONALD LAMB (764 Photos)
- Race Video/Interviews By Donald Lamb/Zach Arguello
- 2013 OBC Meet Page (Individual results posted. We have not received team scores.)
Poinciana High school played host the 2013 edition of the OBC championship. Bragging rights are on the line as a precursor to the state series begin for most teams next week. The weather was perfect and the course was finally dry enough to see quality racing.
The JV races were a good warm up for the fans as they watched Liberty almost get a perfect score for the boys, and St. Cloud almost doing the same for the girls. They ran the JV races together in an effort to save daylight.
The biggest question coming in for the girls race was could St. Cloud run up a perfect score? Would defending champion Karissa Solorzano reign supreme for a 2nd year? The trio of Solorzano, Gonzalez and Miller came out fast and set the pace for the first mile, putting everyone behind by almost 20 seconds. The trio became two as Gonzalez got left behind. Solorzano and Miller ran side by side for the next 1.5 miles until they came onto the track, Miller had a decent lead with a little less than 100 to go until Solorzano went into high gear and passed her teammate with less than two meters to go. An exciting race until the very last second!
As a team, they did not get a perfect score, Yazmizel Haase (Liberty) and Christine Infanoltino (Celebration) spoiled the party and took 5th and 6th respectively. St. Cloud did put its top five on the All- conference team.
The boy’s race finished off the evening and it was expected to come down to the wire team wise. Rogelio Araiza won his 2nd OBC title as fought off a pack of challengers. He was not expecting so many runners to keep up with him throughout the race, and quite frankly neither did I. The first two miles saw a crowd of runners stay within seconds of Araiza step for step. They included Ferriera (St. Cloud), Corinealdi (Celebration) and Gilbert (Harmony). As they hit the 2nd mile, Araiza and Gilbert started to pull away just a bit and make a serious race of it, again totally unexpected by me. With about 300m to go, they came onto the track with Gilbert in the lead until Araiza took off with 150m to go. They finished just three seconds apart.
With Gilbert taking 2nd, it put Harmony (54 points) into a great spot team wise, with Huff and Loredo just a few places behind. Liberty (47 points) however took places 10 thru 13 to seal the deal and win its 3rd consecutive conference title. St Cloud took 3rd on the day with a score of 73.
Afterwards Coach Pauley had this to share “I’m really proud of our team today. Hard work pays off! Our JV team won to set the tone for the day. Our girl’s team took 3rd in their first race together! That’s great! Our boys didn’t have the best race strategy wise, but it was enough to win, so it worked itself out. Araiza has been the team leader all season long, so it obviously nice to see him win and watch this puzzle come together. This is a great confidence builder as we head into districts and the remainder of our season.”
In what has become customary for myself at the meets I attend, many thanks to Zach Arguello of Liberty High School for taking time to help out with pictures after his race.
