FACA Senior All-Star Classic Boys Preview

(Photo by Cedric Gillette)

The 2015 FACA Senior-All Star Classic returns to Tallahassee after a one year hiatus in Orlando. Apalachee Regional Park hosted the event from 2009-2013 and will once again welcome runners to the "cross country playground" of Florida.  The meet record of 15:18.80 set by Ryder Leary of Bishop Kenny in 2003 will not likely be broken, but the ARP meet record of 15:38.35 set by St. Thomas Aquinas' Manny Velasquez in 2014 has the potential to go down. We take a look at the top individuals, top teams, and preview all the action! As always, stay tuned to flrunners.com throughout the weekend for photos, race videos, interviews, recaps, and results of all the action!

University of Florida signee Justin Pacifico used to play football before buying into Coach Dave Halliday's running philosophy and joining the track and cross country programs. Pacifico is glad he bought in having a state runner-up medal in the 800m and recently at the Cross Country Finals where he finished behind Adam Bradtmueller of Sarasota in 15:50.54, the second fastest time of his career. He will be the front runner in this race and with Halliday as the coach of the North should be close to Velasquez's 15:38.35. A majority of this field saw each other at the Cross Country Finals. Including Pacifico, thirteen of the top 25 runner and 17 in the top 45 runners in 4A will be running on Saturday.  That's more than half the field!

One runner not in 4A with a chance to win it all is 1A runner-up Luke Peterson of Shorecrest Prep. Peterson has been consistent all season running in the mid 16's, but has run his two fastest times of the year at Apalachee Regional Park with a 16:02.30 at Pre-State and 16:02.55 at the state meet. The forecast this year for both meets was pretty warm and with cooler temperatures and a 30 percent chance of rain expected for Saturday morning the chance to dip under sixteen minutes is definitely there.

East team member Jan Figueroa of Lake Howell doesn't get as many headlines as others in his area, but has been running some of his best races as of late. He finished 11th in the 4A-1 Region of Death and came back one week later to place 8th at the Cross Country Finals in 16:03.86, the second fastest time in his high school career. 

The North have a strong 1-2 punch in Pacifico and  Dominic Williams, but will have to improve their 4-5 to have a chance to contend with the East and the West who will battle it out. The East squad is coached by Ryan Lowe of Lake Nona and will have Figueroa in the front followed by Hagerty's Andrew Stivers, John Lyons of Lake Mary, and Joel Santiago of Winter Springs who are making the four hour trek together. They could use that familiarity to run as a pack and wreak havoc on the competition.

Speaking of familiarity, the west boasts 1A runner-up Peterson at the top of their line up, but behind him sits the Plant duo of Rob Leverone and Quasan "Q" Markowski who were 10th and 12th two weeks ago at state and finished four seconds apart which should make for an interesting fight for the team title! The South will rely on John I. Leonard's Ilio Sanchez who has a personal best best of 15:59.22, only one of four in the field to run sub 16.

Boys Virtual Meet (Based On Personal Bests)