A new year. A new season. And a set of new champions. But some things stay the same as found in the 2A girls race at the 2022 FHSAA State Cross Country Championships with the Bolles girls and Jillian Candelino successfully defending their state team and individual titles from a year ago.
For the Bolles team, it was their third consecutive state title and extends their FHSAA record of overall state titles to 14 in cross country. Their head coach Tony Ryan also breaks a tie for most state girls cross country team titles won by a coach that he had shared with Plant's Roy Harrison last year at 12 in raising his total to 13 between his time at Bolles and Bishop Kenny.
The University of Tennessee commit Candelino came into the race as the favorite and defending champion, but with a legit rising challenger in another sub 18 minute 5K performer in Cardinal Mooney junior Addison Dempsey. Dempsey had run 17:29 at her district meet just two weeks ago.
While Dempsey was always lurking back in striking distance during the race, Candelino never let Dempsey attach herself to her in the last half of the race after moving away from the field after the mile mark that a lead pack hit in 5:32. Candelino made a move after the wall hill to have a 7 second advantage on Dempsey at the two mile mark with a 11:16 split.
Candelino also bested the winning time of the 1A state champion and FL #1 ranked Eliana Black from the 1A race prior as well as the winning times from 3A and 4A races there after when she crossed the line with the fastest clocking of the day at 17:43. Dempsey was just 10 seconds off her with the second sub 18 minute race of the season for likely next year's state title favorite in 2A with a runner-up time of 17:54.
Last spring's 1600 meter state champion over Candelino in Academy of Holy Names sophomore Elizabeth Williamson had her best race of the 2022 cross country season finishing 3rd in the 2A girls race for the second year in a row, but with a new 5K personal best time of 18:04.
A very fast top 10 in the 2A girls race with all runners clocking times under 18:30 with Emma Hencock of St. Brendan, Mackenzie De Lisle of Bishop Verot, Madison Carr of Astronaut, Ella Mickler of Bolles, Brooke Hooper of Pine Crest, Elizabeth Csikai of Bolles, and Avery Fronrath of The King's Academy.
The senior trio of Candelino, Mickler, and Csikai were invaluable to the team's success over the last few years including their 3 year state title streak. The trio had the best 1-2-3 performance of any team in the state of Florida on the day. Securing their team title in the #4 and #5 positions were sophomores Estella Bruneau (17th, 19:08) and Elizabeth McClure (29th, 19:36) who will have a large role next year in taking over as the leaders of the Bolles team attempting to win their fourth straight and stay on top of 2A.
The gap that currently exists between Bolles and the rest of the teams in the 2A classification should certainly shrink some as their final score on Saturday with 56 points put them well ahead of the runner-up squad Episcopal with 149 points.
Episcopal with a very youthful lineup including several seventh graders was able to hold off last year's state runner-up St. Brendan in third with 164 points and familiar Jacksonville area rival Bishop Kenny in fourth place with 166 points to secure their spot on the awards podium with the champions Bolles.
Only 42 seconds separated their top 5 runners and a 19:40 team average elevated the Episcopal of Jacksonville girls to second place in the standings with nearly 5 under 20 minutes in freshman Brooke McCoy (20th, 19:19), sophomore Lucrezia Gowdy (24th, 19:24), seventh grader Kate Brice (30th, 19:36), seventh grader Stella Krueger (46th, 19:58), and junior Hannah Kowkabany (48th, 20:01). Despite not having a single All-State finisher, their team was so well packed immediately after that with finishers stream lining into the chute.
St. Brendan and Bishop Kenny were both competitively close to a podium spot in third and fourth place with St. Brendan led by once again another stellar individual run by Emma Hencock in fourth place at 18:06, while had nearly three others under 19 minutes in Kaycie Aquillino (21st, 19:21), Gabriela Page (37th, 19:48), and Karina Martinez (47th, 20:00). Davis Johnson just missed the podium individually for Bishop Kenny in 16th place at 19:04, while just over a minute separated the rest of her team's top 5 runners from coming across the finish line for fourth place showing by the Kenny girls.
Mount Dora, the 2A Region 2 team champions, were the top finishing public school in the 2A race in fifth place with 246 points as private schools remained historically dominant in the classification taking the top four places.