Sophomores Torino, Fox Emerge Victorious At VHS Buffalo Invitational

VHS Buffalo Invitational
Todd Grasley
 

On-Site Coverage

 
The polo grounds in The Villages, a golf cart community of more the 75,000 retirees, welcomed 20+ local teams Thursday afternoon for the VHS Buffaloes Invitational. The charter school, for the employess of the thriving community, played host school for what the Coach Chris Murray remembers as “at least the 9th or 10th meet here”. This course is also home to the Lake/Sumter county championships, and will host the 2A district 6 meet this year as well. 
 
The massive starting line allowed for a perfect clean start and didn’t close up for nearly 1/3 of a mile before the ladies began separating themselves. The course leads directly up a paved hill to the back fields and makes a large loop before coming back on the main fields and Pavilion area. Leigha Torino, a sophmore from North Marion (Ocala) HS, was the first to emerge and never looked back  She led from the ½ mile mark and won by a nice margin (20:08.30) over Anita Green of East Ridge (21.30.80), and Ciara Hopkins of Montverde Academy (21:36.60). 8th grader Cadi Rowe was fourth with a time of 21:47.90The hometown Villages' girls won the team trophy with 83 points. East Ridge beat out Trinity Catholic by ONE point 100-101 to claim second place.

 
 
The boys races had a little more drama than the girls race. While eventual winner Kyle Fox, of host school The Villages, won by a wide margin (as predicted by his coach prior to the meet), Belleview High School had a different game plan coming in. BHS coach Jason Pfriender wanted to improve his 2-6 runners and had them run as a pack before he let lead runner, and eventual second place finisher Redondo Beauplan, go for the win. At the 2 mile point, Fox led by a comfortable margin, but Beauplan was on the move.  Fox, a sophomore, won his first race of the season in 17:19.70 with Beauplan crossing the line in 17:36.90. Belleview took 1st place as a team over Lecanto by 8 points.
 

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