Michael Toppi 14:41 State's Fastest 5K Ever At RunningLane

Viera senior Michael Toppi recorded the fastest 5K cross country time in Florida high school cross country history with his 14:41 effort to finish 31st in the championship gold division race at the Garmin RunningLane National Cross Country Championships in Huntsville, Alabama.

Part of a historically deep field on an incredible fast course in ideal conditions, Toppi seized the opportunity to move ahead of Rheinhardt Harrison's 14:45 performance earlier in the season at the New World Fall Spectacular. Toppi had finished 10 seconds off Harrison as a runner-up in that race with a 14:55 effort as his prior 5K best before today at RunningLane.

A reasonable 14-second season best improvement for Toppi after 2 months of training and racing against a field so deep and fast that he might not see even the same level next week when he travels to San Diego to Eastbay XC Nationals and might have to wait until he qualifies for a NCAA Division 1 Cross Country Nationals next at Florida State University.

Next week, Toppi will finish out his high school career in cross country in San Diego, California for the Eastbay Nationals (formerly Foot Locker) and hopes for a top 20 finish and potentially top 15 All-American finish. 

The next fastest Florida boys performance came from Cypress Creek junior Zack Poekert as his 15:17 clocking placed him 123rd remarkably in the championship gold race and only a few seconds off his season best time from his conference meet. Poekert had run 15:32 on the track just weeks ago at the West Orange Distance Carnival.

In the silver division race, Berkeley Prep senior Ethan Lipham was the state's top finisher with a 5K personal best time of 15:22 for 38th place and just head a trio of Florida runners also ending their season with their fastest times ever under 15:30 in IMG Academy's Joshua Bergers (49th, 15:25), Buchholz's Emerson Miller (5th, 15:27), and HB Plant's Ryan Maney (59th, 15:28). 

A total of 16 runners from Florida broke 16 minutes on the day at the 2021 Garmin RunningLane Championships to conclude a historically deep and fast year for the state with 54 runners over the course of the season also going sub 16 minutes for the 5K distance.