Cambridge Christian Rocks 18:06 Team Average At RunningLane

The Cambridge Christian girls finally got the opportunity to match up with the nation's best high school cross country programs at the Garmin RunningLane National Championships including many that were ranked ahead of them in various top 25 lists throughout the season. They ended up knocking off quite a few of those teams with a very solid 15th place finish in the 30 team championship gold field and in the process posted the fastest top 5 team average by any school in Florida high school history with their 18:06 average.

Cambridge Christian was led up front as always by their star duo of Mary Ellen Eudaly and Caroline Lehman. The two runners just missed qualifying for Eastbay Nationals last week with Lehman finishing 11th and Eudaly finishing 12th at the South Regional in Charlotte, North Carolina while running season best times.

The pair lowered their times again at RunningLane with Eudaly earning All-American honors with a 17th place showing and her first sub 17 minute performance at a PR of 16:55, while Lehman was only 10 seconds off her 16:53 5K PR from the track in an adidas Indoor Nationals 5K title with a 24th place finish of 17:03. Eudaly's time is the 7th fastest 5K cross country time in state history, while Lehman now ranks 10th fastest all-time.

Keeping their team average threatening at an unheard of sub 18 minutes was their team's third finisher and eighth grader Eliana Black who actually ran 17:56 in a Turkey Trot road 5K race on Thanksgiving day last Thursday and did it again in a cross country race posting a 17:51 personal best time and finishing just outside the top 100 in the loaded championship field in 103rd place.

Rounding out the top 5 scoring for Cambridge Christian to give them a total score of 405 points was sophomore Madeleine Gear (215th, 18:47) and junior Madelyn Spadaro (278th, 19:56). 

4A state cross country champion Penelope Sosa had the best individual performance among Florida girls beyond the top two from Cambridge Christian with her 3rd place finish in the silver division race with a personal best time of 17:47 to break 18 minutes for the first time. The senior from Miami Coral Park was in contention and challenging first place for the first half of the race.

Rockledge sophomore Malinda Underwood continued her breakout cross country season on an even higher note finishing 16th in the silver race with a 18:11 clocking after breaking 19 minutes twice this season and both times only just under in 18:59. No doubt about sub 19 in this race for Underwood, who also ran a 11:37 3200 PR on the track in the post-season.

A trio of sophomores from South Florida were the next fastest finishers from Florida in the silver race behind Underwood in G. Holmes Braddock's Annabella Cardona (27th, 18:25), Pine Crest's Brooke Hooper (45th, 18:39), The King's Academy's Avery Fronrath (60th, 18:53).

Circle Christian senior Sarah Rudolph had the second highest finish in a race behind only Sosa as she garnered a 4th place showing in the bronze division girls race with her 18:49 personal best clocking. A nice consolation prize to end her season after just missing the state meet top 15 finishers podium in 1A, while helping the Circle Christian girls to a state runner-up team finish. 

Buchholz sophomore Lucy Voss (12th, 19:00) and First Baptist Academy junior Katie Beam (14th, 19:01) just missed sub 19-minute races with their top 15 finishes in the bronze division races.