Athlete of the Year - Rafaella Gibbons - Freshman @ Winter Park High School
Only one female in the state of Florida went undefeated this year and that honor belongs to our Runner of the Year Rafaella Gibbons. Gibbons entered her freshman season at Winter Park after a highly touted middle school career and lived up to expectations and then some.
In her first meet of the season, she picked up a win at the Astronaut Invitational and then finished second the following week on a very difficult Georgia state meet course at the Carrollton Orthopedic Invitational. The following race Gibbons and her Wildcat teammates headed to North Carolina for the Great American XC Festival.
The youngster was sixth in the prestigious field with an incredible time of 17:49.14. Not to be out-done she returned to the Sunshine State and broke 18 minutes once again against the top Floridians at the FSU Invitational/Pre-State crossing the line in 17:52.12. The in-state postseason continued with a conference, district, regional, and state championship. Gibbons first place performance helped Winter Park claim the 4A Cross Country Finals team trophy as well.
While Gibbons could have had her pick of post-season meets (Foot Locker South or NXN Southeast) she chose to run with her teammates at Nike. Though the team didn't make it Rafaella's sixth place finish was good enough to send her through as an individual, the first Florida female to ever make Nike Cross Nationals. She set a new personal best in the process of 17:39.40. In Portland, she placed 27th out of 199 girls to cap off a stellar freshman season!