Meet preview for the FNU Invitational to be held Friday evening, August 26th at Larry & Penny Thompson Park in Miami.
Virtual Meet Projections: Boys - Girls
The girls race has the potential to be a great early season clash of some of South Florida's fastest between Ashley Fitzgerald of American Heritage, Brooke Hooper of Pine Crest, and Olivia Fraga from Our Lady of Lourdes Academy. All 3 girls ran well into the 18 minute range for 5K in cross country last fall.
FL #16 ranked Hooper actually went head to head with FL #4 ranked Fitzgerald on a relay leg last weekend at the Pine Crest 6 Mile Relay and was able to get ahead of her with a faster split, while FL #21 ranked Fraga opened with a fifth place finish of 19:53 at the Dunbar Tiger Jamboree in Fort Myers. Hooper and Fitzgerald both dipped well under 11 minutes for 3200 meters this past spring.
Fitzgerald won last year's FNU Invitational in a runaway 19:05 win and 1 minute and 43 second margin of victory after the race was rescheduled due to weather. She will have the same margin of error in this year's race to try and repeat as first place with runners of the caliber such as Hooper and Fraga in the competition.
Four squads in the field of 30 schools total entered are projected to score under 100 points with Our Lady of Lourdes Academy, Pine Crest, American Heritage, and Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart. Our Lady of Lourdes has 4 girls back who broke 21 minutes one year ago, Pine Crest and Carrolton both have a trio, and American Heritage has a duo under the time.
The boys race should mark the return of FL #25 ranked Ryan Sarafoglu to racing after being an All-State finisher last year with an 11th place finish and 15:59 5K PR in the 4A race, the Coral Reef senior was rolling at the start of outdoor season running PR's of 4:22 in the 1600 and 9:40 in the 3200 before injuries derailed the last half of his season.
Only Pine Crest junior Jack Gabrielle at 16:57 and Palmer Trinity School senior Henry Stark at 16:57 have run under 17 minutes before in the field, so Sarafoglu should be a heavy favorite to win if he is racing on Saturday at Thompson Park.
Led by Gabrielle and teammates Jaret Rozanski (17:11) and Chris Amster (17:28), 2A squad Pine Crest will be considered the pre-meet favorites for boys. Top schools to challenge them will be 1A squads Palmer Trinity and Ransom Everglades.