It was almost a typical Saturday morning here in South Florida. With rain clouds looming overhead, Wickham Park seemed as though it had already been hit by a large storm as the majority of the course was under water. But what made this day special was the 16th Annual Wickham Park Jamboree, hosted by Satellite High School. 23 schools traveled to the park on the Space Coast, including Key West High School. Let's get into the races!
As the girls approached the inaugural mile, a trio of Nicole Matysak (Key West), Lauren Archer (Ransom Everglades), and Skye Zeller (Space Coast) started to open up a large gap. Not far behind, a pack of St. Brendan girls looked strong.Into the second lap, the trio was still in tact, ominously waiting for someone to take the reins. The pack of St. Brendan girls had been replaced by a pack of Satellite girls who charging.
At the finish line, Nicole Matysak showed us she didn't make the odyssey from Key West for nothing, edging out Lauren Archer 19:20 to 19:21. Lauren Tingle (Ascension Catholic) ran a great race, finishing third in 19:24. Skye Zeller and Chelsea Basford (Satellite) round out the top 5, finishing 19:36 and 20:46, respectively. But the real talk of the race was the Satellite Girls. The pack that moved up heading into the second lap had put all 5 of their scorers finishing in the top 10. (5, 7, 8, 9, 10). A 34 second 1-5 split on a very difficult course shows that Satellite is well positioned early on in the season.
The boys race was no shortage of excitement as Brandon Marquez made an appearance, once again. When he shows up, you know you're in for some fast times!As the boys approached the first mile, a quartet of Brandon Marquez, Joe Granberg (Vero Beach), Mason Jones (Titusville), and John Cacciatore (Satellite) had taken a demanding lead over the field, each looking strong and smooth.
Just short of mile 2, Marquez and Jones started to pull away as Granberg and Cacciatore started to fade. However, in similar fashion to the girls race, Satellite had a couple of surging to catch their competitors. At the finish line, Brandon Marquez had broken Mason Jones to take a huge win, 15:48 to 16:34. Satellite duo, Trevor Kattenberg and John Cacciatore, finished third and fourth in 16:40 and 16:44, respectively. Gabi Correa (Ransom Everglades) rounded out the top 5 in 16:48, with Joe Granberg fading to 7th in 17:04.
Despite far from ideal course conditions, we saw great times and great battles in both races. Satellite's Coach Doug Butler proved, once again, why he is regarded by many as one of the best coaches in Florida. Satellite dominated both races, placing the lowest scorer, in either race, in only 17th place.
Happy cross country season!