(Photos By Donald Lamb)
Bright House Sports Networks has begun a tradition of honoring athletes in each county along the I-4 corridor with its annual “Breakfast of Champions”. The 5th annual edition for Osceola County was Wednesday morning at Falcon’s Fire Golf Club, just outside of the Walt Disney World Resort.
The honoree for girls cross country was Grace Miller of St. Cloud High School. From the 3rd meet of the season all the way to Tallahassee in November, Grace led her squad hitting her best time of 19:17 at the Cross Country Finals, good enough for 15th in 4A. She narrowly missed out on the conference crown at Poinciana High when teammate Karissa Solorzano nipped her at the line to steal it away. Only a junior, Grace will become the leader Coach Harkema needs to continue his county dominance in cross country and in the distance events for track.
The honoree for girls track was the afore mentioned Karissa Solorazno of St. Cloud High School. Karissa was the cross country winner the previous year and while she improved upon everything she did this school year, her teammate Grace took the reigns and never looked back. Solozano ran the 4x800, 1600, and 3200 this season, She went to regionals for two of them and qualified for state in the 3200 (PR of 11:47), finishing 12th earlier this month. She will continue her running career at West Alabama where she will do both cross country and track.
The Boys cross country honoree was a repeat winner also, Rogelio Araiza of Liberty High School. He started off the season with wins at the Harmony Invitational and Edgewater Invitational. He led his squad to another cross country conference championship and nearly had a district title as well. Araiza had his best race of the year during regionals at Lake Nona when he went up against the Land O Lake power trio, and ultimately took 3rd with a PR of 16:16. He made the trek to state and finished 34th in arguably the best division (3A) for this season. Only a junior, we could possibly see a 3–peat for XC, and after going to state for four events in track, a double honoree is within his grasp.