Workout Wednesday visit with the defending 4A state boys champions from Viera along with their girls squad currently ranked #7 heading into the season for the 4A classification.
Under the direction of second year head coach Samantha Gerrits, the Viera boys return 3 runners from their top 7 last year including two All-State caliber runners in Cameron Raney (9:24 3200) and Aedan Rendek (4:17 1600) as well as Jack Girard, who broke 16:30 for 5K last fall as a freshman. The question mark will be who can step up to fill the fourth and fifth runner spots to the determine the team's success if will be a rebuild or reload season.
The Viera girls finished 15th in last year's 4A state race and project to finish much higher this year led by seniors Isabella Narvaez and Brooke Gerrits along with the addition of several freshmen girls who solidify their scoring five. Viera could definitely be the best girls cross country team in Brevard County and the Cape Coast Conference this fall.
The workout was the very first one done by the Viera team on their newly resurfaced track surface after training virtually on a bare asphalt track in recent years or nearby turf soccer fields at Viera Regional Park. Their workout was a fairly common one for their team in 1000 meter repeat starting at critical velocity pace (roughly 10K race pace) and finishing up at 5K race pace.
Cam Raney led the boys in the workout with his fastest splits series at 3:06, 3:06, 3:08, 3:07, 3:03, 3:03, and 3:00, while Brooke Gerrits was the fastest girl split at 3:54. After the 1000 meter intervals, they ventured over to a nearby hill to attack with some repeats on as well.
Their whole squad opens their season up this weekend at the Cecil Field Summer Classic on Friday in Jacksonville.