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:
