South Florida's Fastest 5 Boys
Deshay Fernandes (Sophomore, Columbus)
Another week of the cross country season is in the books and we have a new list of south Florida's top five performers. Junior Deshay Fernandes, from Christopher Columbus high school, is this week's south Florida top performer. Fernandes opened up his season with a 16:25.17 this past week at the Miami-Dade County Youth Fair HS Championship. There he battled in the beginning of the race with Belen Jesuit's, Joshua Collins. Fernandes ended up passing Collins to take the lead and won the race in the end by 20 seconds.
Here's what Fernandes had to say about the race. "The team and I went out with a positive, positive, positive mindset. For me I knew that I only had one person to focus on and that was Joshua Collins of Belen. I knew he has phenomenal times in the 5k, so I knew if I just stayed with him I'd be good, I'd be solid just riding behind him." Fernandes knew that he would be able to surprise Collins because this was his first race so no one knew how well he would do. Plus, Fernandes became anemic last cross season so he went unnoticed for some time. He was happy with his time and is looking forward to running faster this season.
When it came to the team results, Christopher Columbus high school came in second behind Belen Jesuit. Fernandes is training hard with teammate Alec Cuevas to push him and his self to get under 16 minutes. Their team is also working hard to try to run more as a pack since that's what Fernandes thinks will help improve the team as a whole.
Ryan Szklany (Junior, Highlands Christian Academy)
Junior Ryan Szklany, from Highlands Christian Academy, comes in second this week with a time of 16:30.17. Szklany ran that time coming in first place at the Park Vista Cobra Country XC Invitational this past weekend. His personal best is a 16:13 from last year when he ran at Foot Locker South Regional placing eighth. Szklany is shooting to break 16 minutes this year as well as try to help his team make it to states this year.
Jake Noonan (Senior, Spanish River)
Next up on our south Florida's top five performances is Jake Noonan from Spanish River high school. Noonan ran a time of 16:39.13 at the Park Vista Cobra Country XC Invitational and set a new personal best. Noonan ran 34 seconds faster from last week where he had a time of 17:13.30 at the Fleet Feet invite. Noonan is starting off the season great by getting faster with every race so look out for him this season.
William Shine (Senior, Archbishop McCarthy)
The fourth fastest performance this week comes from William Shine who is a senior at Archbishop McCarthy. Shine ran a 16:42.42, which was the third place finish at the Park Vista Cobra Country XC Invitational. His personal best is a 16:01 which was ran back in 2014 but only running 41 seconds off his PR this early on in the season is a great start for Shine.
Joshua Collins (Junior, Belen Jesuit)
Staying on the list of south Florida's top five performances is last week's top runner Joshua Collins. Collins ran a time of 16:45.90 placing second at the Miami-Dade County Youth Fair HS Championship. Even though Collins placed second, his team came in first place and took home a victory.