Meet Recap: Cape Coast Conference Championships


After Hurricane Ian put virtually the whole state on hold this past weekend, we got to see cross country racing again in Florida on Monday morning with the rescheduled Cape Coast Conference Championship meet including the very best of Brevard County. 

The girls race featured three individual stars battling for the conference title between last year's champion in Astronaut sophomore Madison Carr, Rockledge junior Malinda Underwood, and Merritt Island junior Brooke Yates. All 3 had a realistic shot of winning coming into the race.


Carr being the defending champion trying to repeat had plenty of motivation to win. Underwood had won earlier at Wickham Park Jamboree to start the season over Carr and the fastest season best among the group. Yates defeated both runners at the Astronaut Invitational a few weeks ago. 

Yates led early on in the race with Carr and Underwood running right behind her along with Underwood's teammate Ava Quattrocchi.


By the second loop around the course at Wickham Park, Carr and Underwood had separated from the rest and it was not until the final straightaway that Underwood sped away with her kick for a 18:47 victory. Carr nearly matched her winning time from the 2021 Cape Coast Conference meet of 18:53 with her runner-up season best performance of 18:54.

The Satellite girls successfully remained as the Cape Coast Conference team champions for the the third straight year with Viera as their closest competition and runner-up squad for the third straight year. 

Braelyn Wahy (7th, 19:54) and Mackenzie Thompson (8th, 19:56) led the Satellite girls with their sub 20 minute and top 10 finishes. Sierra Markle (10th, 20:21) and Reagan Cancro (11th, 20:37) were not far behind their teammates as Satellite's #3 and #4 runners. Nia Singleton completed the team's scoring at a total of 57 points in 21st place at 21:20. 

While the 3A team competition should come down between last year's podium squads in Ponte Vedra and Osceola, Satellite girls could certainly finish as high as 3rd in the classification at the state meet if they race as well as they did on Monday. 

The runner-up squad Viera with 75 points was able to get their top 5 spread under 60 seconds for the first time this season with freshman Addison Elwell (9th, 20:20), senior Brooke Gerrits (13th, 20:39), freshman Celina Coryell (14th, 20:45), senior Isabella Narvaez (19th, 21:16), and sophomore Maddie Helms (20th, 21:20). 


Meanwhile, the Viera boys achieved a program first in winning their first ever Cape Coast Conference cross country team title. Despite being a state runner-up squad in 4A in 2020 and a state champion squad in 4A in 2021, Viera had to settle for being a conference runner-up in both races behind Satellite.


They finally got over the hump this year thanks to a dominant showing up front with a 2-3-4 finish from a trio of seniors Aedan Rendek (2nd, 15:51 PR), Cameron Raney (3rd, 15:53), and Aidan Carroll (4th, 16:15). Besides race winner Devin Makousky of Rockledge, Viera put 3 runners ahead of the top runner for all the teams in the Cape Coast Conference.

Then the Girard brothers Jack Girard (11th, 16:55) and Michael Girard (23rd, 17:26) wrapped up the team win for Viera as their team's fourth and fifth runners. The younger Girard in the freshman Michael with a PR performance has been a big boost as of late on the back end of Viera's top 5 that was questionable and vulnerable despite their strong front running at the start of the season to make last year's state champion squad capable of another state meet podium finish as we enter the month of October. 

The Cape Coast Conference has a handful of boys teams that have been highly ranked in their respective classifications this season and the depth was showcased when looking at the top 5 teams behind Viera with Rockledge in second place with 64 points, Melbourne in third place with 79 points, last year's champions Satellite in fourth place with 83 points, and Astronaut in fifth place with 105 points. 

Devin Makousky did his part in helping the Rockledge boys to their best finish in recent years as the runner-up squad. Makousky holding back a bit early on in the race from a hot pace with the FSU Pre-State Invitational on Saturday in the back of his mind was ultimately able to pull away from the trio from Viera for a 15:44 victory. Rockledge had two more sub 17 minute performers and among the top 10 finishers overall in Logan Chapman (5th, 16:24) and Cristian Calderon (7th, 16:39). 


Makousky is certainly looking ahead at the chance to match up this weekend against the best in 3A this weekend at the FSU Pre-State Invitational between defending champion Patrick Koon of Leon and last year's runner-up Joshua Ruiz of Belen Jesuit. Makousky arguably has to be considered right now the 3rd best runner in the classification behind those two.