2A Meet Preview: Bolles Girls, Trinity Prep Boys Bound For More Team Titles

Florida XC 2015: FHSAA Cross Country Finals
Todd Grasley


(Photo by Albert Wieringa)

The culmination of the Florida cross country season will take place Saturday November 7th at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee with state championship titles for both individuals and teams on the line. Leading up to the meet we will preview each classification with in-depth analysis as well as by seeing how our virtual meets think the races will play out. Today, we look at the 2A classification who will compete in the 6th (9:35 a.m.) and 8th and final (10.25a.m.) races of the morning with the girls and boys respectively.

Girls Individual Preview


(Photos by Chris Tucker & Jeff Adams)

FIFTEEN of the top sixteen individuals from the 2014 Cross Country Finals return lead by defending champion Tsion Yared. Yared did not compete, but at the regional meet. If she is ready for state you can't count her out of the mix to repeat. The top two entrants in the race are Yared's teammate Alyssa Pujals and Bolles sophomore Caitlyn Collier. Pujals, who has won a state championship in tennis, has finished fifth or better in every race she's run in and is coming off a district and regional championship. Her season best time of 18:05.90 at Pre-State is third behind only Amanda Beach of Melbourne Central Catholic and Collier's 17:58.20 at Pre-State. Comparing the two athletes, Pujals was nine seconds better at the state meet last year, but it is clear Collier has the top end track speed if this race comes down to a sprint. Mackenzie Wilson of Bolles was second at regionals behind Collier and has three top four finishes in the last year including a runner-up showing in 2012. As a middle schooler, she was 15th, 11th, and 30th making her by far the most experienced runner in the field.

Others to watch include a slew of athletes out of 2A Region 4 which includes 8th grader Natalie Varela of Gulliver Prep who was the regional runner-up, Amanda Beach of MCC, Lauren Archer and Beatriz Ruan of Ransom Everglades, 2013 state champion Julia Montgomery, Nicole Matysik of Key West, recent UNF commit Skye Zeller, and North Broward Prep's Katie Pinnell. 2A Region 2 champion Leigha Torino and runner-up Maggie Rice of Newberry will also look for top ten finishes.

Girls Team Preview


(Photo by Sue Hajda)

At the beginning of the year, the team battle was the same storyline as it has been for the past three. Bolles vs. Pine Crest. The Bulldogs own the Panthers in the Cross Country Finals finishing first the past three seasons. However, with the addition of Gulliver Prep senior Alyssa Pujals, Coach Baur's squad looked to have that missing piece of the puzzle. At Pre-State they picked up their first win EVER over Bolles and cemented themselves as the top team in Florida and were on the bubble of our Flo 50 National Rankings. Without the services of Mahdere Yared and sister Tsion at the 2A Region 4 Championship they were able to finish first. Bolles has a potent roster with potential top ten finishers Caitlyn Collier, Mackenzie Wilson, Ally Hajda, and Suzanne Danheim. The temperatures for this weekend definitely favor the South Florida school, but my pick is with the three time champions. If either team falters watch out for Eastside High School in Gainesville who won their respective regional as well as Ransom Everglades who was runner-up behind Pine Crest at 2A-4.

Boys Individual Preview

Hernando sophomore Trevor Foley was in the driver's seat to contend for a state title Saturday, but instead will be forced to watch his teammates compete after finding out about a swollen left ventricle (complete story). Including Foley only six other runners have broken sixteen minutes on the year in class 2A. Chas Cook has been the front runner for a LOADED Trinity Prep squad and has placed in the top ten at the flrunners.com Invitational and Pre-State in addition to winning the Disney Cross Country Classic, and last week's regional championship. Any one of Trinity Prep's top five runners has the potential to win at state. Trent Mandato was 4th last year while senior Jesse Millson was 7th. Trevor Kattenberg (5th), Egan Kattenberg (15th) have experience at the 1A Cross Country Finals while running for Holy Trinity last year, but will compete for Satellite in 2015.

Boys Team Preview

Trinity Prep has been on fire this year and coach Ken Vinal says this group might be the best ever including the state championship team from 2010 which saw four of the top five runners go onto run at the D1 level. What have the Saint's done in 2015? They've won every meet and won convincingly. They beat a nationally ranked St. Anthony's team out of New York and powerhouse Belen Jesuit at the flrunners.com Invitational, topped Florida's best and Georgia's best at Pre-State, and scored a perfect 15 points at districts and regionals. The Saints won the 2A Cross Country Finals in 2013 and 2014 by 30 and 65 points respectively, the question for this year is how low of a score can they tally for their third straight title. Challenging for the runner-up title will be Bolles who are coming off their strongest district and regional performances as a team in a while and have perhaps the best a nice 1-2 punch with Charles Hicks one of the top freshman in the country and Chase Rivera. Satellite and new Coach Doug Butler looks to add another podium finish to his resume as the winningest coach in Florida, while LaBelle who finished fourth at the 2A Cross Country Finals has been quietly under the radar in Southwest Florida.

2A Virtual Meet:

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Relive all the coverage from the 2014 Cross Country Finals