Breaking Out The Brooms: A Weekend Full of Sweeps


Teams all over the state cleaned house this weekend. Three plus teams won both the girls and boys team championships in their Invitationals.

Creekside at UNF Invitational:


The Creekside girls team won the UNF invitational with 25 points…55 points ahead from second place, Mandarin HS!

Claire Openshaw had her junior year debut, finishing second overall with a time of 19:06. Claire led her team to victory with the help of Elizabeth Iliff (19:16), Blake Petrick (19:52), Lauren Bolnick (20:37), and Hannah Jacobbe (20:46).

On the boys side, Creekside had a 39 point lead over second place, Fleming Island. Creekside freshman, Jesse Benavides, ran a PR to lead his team to victory. Benavides had his first cross country race at the Cecil Field Pre-Season Classic where he ran a time of 17:30. At spikes and spurs, Benavides dropped his 17:30 time by 16 seconds. His steady improvements make Benavides a key component to this team.

Seniors, Matthew Ortiz, Preston Rose, Todd Nichols, and Spencer Lee rounded out the top 5 and gave Creekside the advantage for the win.

Chiles at Buffalo Invitational:


If you want to talk about pack running, talk to the Chiles girls team. Chiles had five girls sub 19:55 and only two of them are seniors! Emily Culley led the team with her 18:21 performance.

Juniors, Caitlin Wilkey and Alyson Churchill also broke the 19 minute barrier, with 18:40 and 18:51 performances.

Senior, Olivia Miller, really stepped it up, running a 19:55 to round out the top 5 for Chiles. Chiles won the meet with a total of 30 points, 28 points ahead of Circle Christian.

Connor Phillips ran a stellar PR of 16:32 at the Buffalo Invitational to lead his team to victory.

The Chiles senior won the varsity boys race and was followed by teammates: Ben Kirbo (17:12), Samuel Mountin (17:24), Spencer Amsellem (17:44), and Hawthorne Hay (17:48) to give Chiles the the 38 point victory.

Sarasota at Seffner Christian Invitational:

Ben Hartvigsen led the Sarasota boys to victory with his 16:05 senior year debut on the Holloway Park course.

Alan Romero (17:07), Orlando Cicilioni (17:26), and Adrien Zambaux (17:45) had fantastic races that led Sarasota to a 50 point team win, beating Robinson HS by 14 points.

The Sarasota girls won the Seffner Invitational with 54 points, 59 points ahead of the Robinson girls. With a 21:11 team average, the Sarasota girls had nearly minute faster of a team average than the rest of the field.  

Isabelle Jester (20:13), Carolina Titus (21:04), Marissa Kempf (21:05), Kasumi Wade (21:32), and Camryn Wigglesworth (22:02) led the team to victory with all of them top 25.

Meet Coverage: