Meet preview and virtual meet projections for the Jim Ryun FCA Invitational to be held Saturday, August 27th at Holloway Park in Lakeland, Florida.
Virtual Meet Projections: Boys - Girls
The boys race will be intriguing to see how the Hagerty squad responds to the sudden loss and move of their top runner in Brayden Seymour to California. Hagerty will still have two of the top individuals in the race between FL #19 ranked Jonathan Leon (15:54 5K best) and Miguel Pantojas (1:49 800 and 16:34 5K) as well as have a realistic shot as well of winning the team title as well in their opening meet. This will be the first season of Pantojas running cross country at Hagerty after joining the team for track season last spring as a juior.
Cypress Creek's Zack Poekert is the top-ranked runner in the field and kicked off his season last week with a 16:02 win at The Claw Distance Classic. Last year, he opened up at the Jim Ryun FCA Invitational with a runner-up finish of 16:24.
FL #7 ranked Poekert has a 15:14 5K PR from the fall and will interesting to see if he can break 16 minutes on a more difficult Holloway Park course. Last year, he ran 16:09 at Holloway Park in the flrunners.com Invitational and Leon finished ahead of him in the same race breaking 16 minutes at 15:54. They could duel out to both run sub 16 on Saturday.
Top runners from other squads capable of top 3 and top 5 at least finishes will be Joel McConnell (16:04 5K PR) of Dr. Phillips and Noah Musselwhite (16:05) of Apopka. Two of the top runners from Pinellas County in Dylan Bailey of Canterbury School and Nickolas Forbes of St. Petersburg High also are expected for high finishes in the race.
Oviedo won last weekend's Mike Gibson Summertime Run with their pack running and will try to execute the same strategy this week. Dr. Phillips with two 16-minute runners in McConnell and Henson Lis (16:38) should be in the mix for first place as well with Hagerty and Oviedo.
The race for the first girls' individual to cross the line at Jim Ryun FCA Invitational appears to be wide open without a clear standout favorite. A great opportunity for someone to have a breakout victory after a strong summer of training with 8 girls under 20 minutes in the field.
Dr. Phillips senior Hannah Claytor has the fastest PR of the group at 19:26, but plenty of girls right behind her including Keswick Christian senior Ella Beckett at 19:30 and Sickles senior Alexandra Raquet at 19:33.
Both Beckett and Raquet have plenty of momentum coming off their track seasons with Beckett running an 11:34 PR in the 3200 and was an All-State 13th place finisher in last fall's 1A state cross country race, while Raquet just missed the All-State podium in track with a 9th place 5:09 PR showing in the 4A girls 1600 meter race.
The top projected teams for girls at the Jim Ryun Invite appear to be Oviedo and Lakeland Christian with Lakewood Ranch, Hagerty, and The Villages among the next group of teams in contention. Oviedo and Lakeland Christian are the only teams in the field with at least 5 returnees who ran in the 21-minute range or faster for 5K last fall.