They say there's nothing quite like a sunrise on the east coast. How about the sunrise and a fast cross country race? 14 teams converged on the Treasure Coast to participate in the 22nd Annual Sebastian River Shark Invitational. Whether it was your last race as a JV runner or just a tune-up before districts, everyone saw fast times today. Let's get into the action!
Bright and early, the girls Varsity race kicked off the day with the traditional "small" cannon start instead of a normal gun. After the first few turns, Brenna Duncanson (VB) found herself leading the pack, closely followed by teammate Autumn Schutt, Ciera Golliher (SRHS), Jonelle Plahuta (West Shore) and Courtney Barber (Pine School). A little before the mile, Courtney Barber decided she wanted to make it an honest race and surged to the lead, gapping the rest of the runners. As the hard pace continued, Ciera Golliher and Jonelle Plahuta reeled in Barber as she was starting to fade, dropping the rest of the field in their wake. Plahuta pulled away from Ciera in the final mile as the two crossed the line in 20:04 and 20:21, respectively. Autumn Schutt (Vero Beach) finished third in 20:40. Alicia Chavez (Martin County) and Alivia Bienz (Lincoln Park Academy) round out the top 5 in 20:53 and 20:55. Early leader Courtney Barber also dipped under 21, finishing 6th in 20:59. The team title came down to a very close battle between Vero Beach and Martin County as both schools placed their top 5 inside the top 16. Vero Beach took the win 43-50 with their runners placing 3-8-9-11-12 and Martin County finishing 4-7-10-14-16. These two teams will face each other, once again, at the 4A District 9 meet next weekend.
After seeing the times from the girls race, the boys were anxious to start. However, they did not get a cannon start as it was malfunctioning. Nevertheless, the race eventually started. From the start, Joe Granberg (Vero Beach) shot out to an early lead, followed by Chase Hyland (Pine School) and Austin Camps (West shore), as well as a pack of Okechobee runners. Through the mile, Joe Granberg had a decent lead over the other 2, crossing around 4:55 and the others in a more conservative but still fast 5:05-ish. By mile 2, Camps had caught Granberg and was pulling away as Chase Hyland was also close the gap on the early leader. Camps continued the push to become your eventual winner in 16:14. Chase Hyland bested Joe Granberg 16:23 to 16:37. Not to be outdone by his older brother, Jimmy Granberg finished 4th in 17:23. Pablo Luna (Fort Pierce Central) rounds out the top 5 in 17:34. If you were there to witness the runners crossing the finish line, there would be no doubt as to which team won the race as a streak of red and white continued to poor in. Vero Beach placed all 5 scorers in the top 10 and all 7 runners in the top 14! (3-4-6-8-10-11-14) The Fighting Indians take the win 31-78 over district rival Martin County (placing 7-12-16-18-25). To give credit where it's due, Martin County was missing half of its 1-2 duo of Paul Edwards and John-Paulo Clavio (Clavio missing).
The girls JV race was won by Hava Stenn of Vero Beach (22:41) and the Fighting Indians also taking the win with a perfect score of 15 points. Boys JV was won by John Paulo Clavio of Martin County (I believe there was a mess up in the chips and it was a different Martin County runner) in 18:06. The team title, once again, was taken by Vero Beach High School, Scoring 39 points.
At the end of the day, West Shore swept both Varsity Individual Titles and Vero Beach took home all 4 team titles. The majority of the fields either ran a seasons best or a personal best. As always, Coach Perez of Sebastian did very well at running this meet as he does year after year. The Fighting Indians are coming into form well and showing they are going to be a force in the 4A Region 3 meet. Personally speaking, I haven't seen a team click on race day like this since the 2010-2011 era of Vero Beach. Its a great day to be a Fighting Indian!