A description of the course had the generality of a quarterback calling a play in a seaside touch football game: “Go long to the right, turn around, go past the line, then deep to the left, turn around and come back. Finish up where you started and I’ll hit you with a finish time.” Unfortunately, when Kristin Hanson, who ran the first pattern—I mean race—didn’t get back from the first 1.1 mile until something like 9:30, there was some grumbling in the boys’ huddle.
GIRLS COMBINED RACE
“It is longer,” Hanson surmised afterwards. “It wasn’t a 5K.”
And then, of course, there was also the theme of the event: The Seabreeze Beach Run.
“The first half mile, going out, you had a headwind. The 1 ½ mile stretch in the middle, there was a tail wind coming back (towards the start/finish). And that last mile [plus] was really tough. You had a head wind against you,” added Hanson.
Hanson, a 17 year old Seabreeze High School junior, rose to the challenges, however. Leading a long line of girls this way and that, she won by nine seconds in 25:37. It was about as far away from her 21:15 personal best as, well, the Daytona Beach pier. Finishing nine seconds behind the winner was Jessica
Poncharik, from New Smyrna Beach. She offered that the race was different than what cross country runners usually experience when running inland. With a time of 25:48, the 15 year old sophomore was well off her 22:49 personal best.
“It was hard and it hurt. The good feeling came after it was over and was done,” she reflected after her cool down run. “Now it definitely feels like I accomplished a lot.”
“I went out pretty fast for the first mile, slowed it down in the second mile, and pushed it in the third mile. I was right behind her (Hanson), letting her block the wind. The Mainland girl (Jessica Rodriguez, third in 26:19) was up ahead of me until the last 100 yards and then I sprinted in and passed her.
Rodriguez, known as J-Rod to her fellow Buccaneers, is a “part-time” cross country runner. Her primary sport has been volleyball.
As boys coach, Max Saylor, explained after the meet, “I’ve been trying to get her to come out for cross country for two years. This year, however, she asked her volleyball coach, Sandy Garner, if she could run cross country too. She said yes. She doesn’t run with us on days that the volleyball team travels. On those days she trains with her dad, or runs by herself. Some days her schedule is better than others.”
Saylor hints that her dedication to running has shown immediate results. “Right now, she’s our best runner.”
She certainly hasn’t lost her touch in volleyball, either. “After her first race, she drove back to the school with her mom and competed in a volleyball match. I read in the paper the next day that she had ten or twelve kills,” he added.
Jessie’s leadership has been especially important to her running team, as Max explained.
“She and Aryana Downs got these girls together—Amanda Rudd (a sophomore soccer player), Julie Brown (a soccer player and a surfer), Schylar Howard (track)—and organized little pre-season practices three or four days a week for thirty to forty-five minutes. You could tell at the beginning of the cross country season that they had been working at it. I am impressed. These girls could finish in the top five in the conference, and that hasn’t happened in years.
Rodriguez finished in third place (26:19) ahead of 73 other girls, and paid a price for her effort. Collapsing after finishing, she was attended by members of the beach patrol. Hers, obviously, was a total effort.
The New Smyrna Beach girls, with 29 points, (unofficially) won the team race in which 76 girls ran for six teams.
BOYS COMBINED RACE
The winner of the Boys combined varsity/JV race was 16-year-old Andrew Epifanio, from Deland. Andrew is no stranger to this stretch of The World’s Most Famous Beach, having competed in the annual Easter Beach Run several times. In 2007, he was first in the 14 & under age group, and in 2009 (having missed the 2008 race for a track meet the same day) was the first finisher in the 15-19 age group.
“I went out a little slower than usual, because it was a beach run, but I tried to keep the pace going for a while. Since we [the boys] heard the course was off, I was just planning on pushing my pace on the sand and trying to win. I’m glad Tager was there to push me the whole way; he helped me to keep up a consistent pace. He ran a great race.”
Jordan Tager (17), who competes for New Smyrna Beach High School, is also no stranger to running on hard-packed sand. On September 29th, the previous week, he was the winner of the New Smyrna Beach Run (18:08).
“This race was harder for sure…the fact that it was not measured accurately. It’s always harder to race on the beach because you don’t know where to run…which section of the beach; high or low. The wind wasn’t really strong, but steady and in your face.”
Both seniors, Tager and Epifanio have raced against each other many times over the past four years, and that familiarity allowed for some strategy on Jordan’s part.
“I just sat back behind him a little bit. Two times I went ahead of him, then backed off. We were running the same pace.”
A stronger finishing kick by Epifanio proved to be the difference, as he won in 19:31. Tager finished second in 19:52.
Seabreeze runner Jimmy Blasco, who stayed right on their shoulders for most of the race, finished third in 20:15. Next came foreign exchange student Hiro Tsuchido and the top area runner, Chris Rudloff (who backed off his usual pace to run with him) in fourth and fifth, respectively. Both were timed in 20:16.
Unofficially, the New Smyrna Beach boys won the meet with 40 points; 96 boys ran for the six teams.
TOP 20 GIRLS SCHOOL TIME TOP 20 BOYS SCHOOL TIME
1) Kristin Hanson Seabreeze 25:37 1) Andrew Epifanio Deland 19:31
2) Jessica Poncharik NSB 25:48 2) Jordan Tager NSB 19:52
3) Jessica Rodriguez Mainland 26:19 3) Jimmy Blasco Seabreeze 20:15
4) Alisa Kalmar NSB 26:22 4) Hiro Tsuchida Mainland 20:16
5) Amanda Rudd Mainland 27:29 5) Chris Rudloff Mainland 20:16
6) Jacque Moreau NSB 27:53 6) Chris Acevedo Pine Ridge 20:23
7) Juli Brown Mainland 27:59 7) James Pandy NSB 20:47
8) Lauren Blanchette NSB 28:00 8) Sean Jones NSB 21:01
9) Sarah Frost NSB 28:24 9) Paul Rice Seabreeze 21:21
10) Hailey Swanson Seabreeze 28:25 10) Jordan Patsch Seabreeze 21:;30
11) Kyrsten Stearns Deland 28:44 11) Christopher Anderson NSB 21:34
12) Kylene Hill Deland 28:45 12) Chris Harris NSB 21:40
13) Tawney Lott Mainland 29:19 13) Brandon Guire Deland 21:47
14) Cherith Rickels Deland 29:31 14) Larry Wolfe Deltona 21:51
15) Alexis Marron Seabreeze 29:38 15) Joe Nichols Mainland 21:53
16) Rose Pierce Deland 29:58 16) Spencer Alevisatos Seabreeze 21:58
17) Emily Underhill Deland 30:02 17)Brody Lanigan NSB 22:02
18) Julie VanderWerf Deltona 30:02 18) Dylan Fisher Mainland 22:11
19) Kylie Hagler Deland 30:17 19) Lee Mock Mainland 22:13
20) Alix Lehring NSB 30:33 20) Taylor Gunderson Deland 22:46
Photo Album by Ralph Epifanio