This week marked the start of the state series as Osceola County teams competed in district competition. We take a look at how they fared as well as what else has been happening around Osceola in the recent weeks.
2A-9: The Poinciana boys took 5th as a team, but Junior Matthew Luzi will advance to the regional round. He took 8th place with a time of 18:47. The ladies did not have enough to score as a team.
3A-6: The Harmony ladies will advance to regionals with a 3rd place showing. They were without top runner Adalyn Gaston for the day, but should be back to full strength for regionals. The guys took 5th as a team, but Canyon Huff will move on with his 5th place run of 17:11.
3A-8: The Liberty Chargers made school history twice by taking the team trophy with 25 team points. This is the first district championship in XC for Liberty. Rogelio Araiza won the race with a PR of 16:06 as he continues to add to his legacy in becoming the schools most decorated athlete. On the ladies side, JealyshaRamos took 6th and will move on to regionals as well. The boys team will go up against Ocala Vanguard, which on paper looks to be a great battle.
4A-5: St. Cloud, Gateway, Celebration and Osceola all competed in Davenport on Saturday. St Cloud and Gateway took 2nd and 4th respectively. Grace Miller took 3rd, as St Cloud put five runners in the top 12 spots. On the individual side, Celebration’s Christine Infantolino and Alejandra Bahena finish 8th and 11th to advance.
For the guys, St Cloud and Gateway went 2nd as 4th as well. Samuel Espada of Gateway was runner-up, coming in at 17:28. St Cloud freshamn Tristen Montalvo was 4th with a 17:50. On the individual side, Celebration put three runners in the top 15 with Ayoub Mahdar (6th), Luis Perez (10th), and Austin Bruner (11th). Osceola will also be represented as sophmore Paul McCrimon took 13th.
Mill Creek Invitational – November 1st
Osceola county has several elementary school that participate in cross country meets as hosted by a few schools. Mill Creek (just a mile away from Gateway HS) hosted this weekend. Over 300 runners participated from 12 different local elementary schools. Runners 8 and under ran a ¾ mile course. All athletes 9 and older ran a 1.1 mile course. The top time for the ladies was home course runner Soley Sanchez of Mill Creek with a time of 7:45. A huge thank you to Adalyn Gaston, Ethan Shuttera, and Rebecaa Ouelette of Harmony XC who paced the youth runners and led them around the course.
(Photo by Jramirez of Ethan Shuttera at his district meet Thursday)
OBC Championships - October 22
As predicted here first, Liberty’s boys and St. Cloud girls won the OBC championships. This marks the 4th consecutive title for Coach Robert Pauley at Liberty, and the 5th for Coach Kevin Harkema at his alma mater St Cloud. Here are some of the highlights.
The ladies race was set perfectly for Grace Miller to finally get that win she lost at the line last year to her teammate, and West Alabama runner Karissa Solorzano. Grace thwarted the field at her home course and cruised to victory with a 19:53. Her closest rival was teammate Devin Montalvo who came in at 21:05. The STC ladies took six of the top 7 places. Christine Infantolino of Celebration played spoiler running her best race all season to take 3rd. Second place team honors went to Harmony.
The boys race was the swan song for senior Rogelio Araiza. The two time defending champion has never lost a team OBC title in XC or track. The individual win gives him nine OBC runnng titles to date and there is still a track season to be ran. Araiza won with a time of 16:46, eight seconds ahead of the nearest competitor and teammate Justin Corinealdi. The LHS boys scored 17 points, not the perfect score they had hoped for, but a very nice number regardless. The St Cloud boys took second with 88 points over Harmony’s 91 points. Led by Freshman Tristen Montalvo who took 8th, the St Cloud team has all underclassmen. Harmony’s Canyon Huff came in 4th.
West Orange Invite – October 18
Gateway, Osceola, Celebration and Liberty competed at the last big meet before the postseason began. The course was flat and fast. Many runners hit a PR here, including race winner Franco Martins of Windermere Prep who came rolling in at 15:20. The team winner was Liberty with 4 of the 5 runners coming in under 17 minutes.
Love it or leave it, Donald Lamb is a regular contibutor to Flrunners.com as a photographer, videographer & blogger. He is a devoted area coach, who is working hard to help the local running community.