Congrats to the Belen Jesuit boys competing under the club name of Miami Havana on their 14th place finish with 347 points and a 37 second top 5 spread at the Team Nationals on Saturday in Portland, Oregon.
This was the second time that a Belen Jesuit squad has qualified for nationals while bettering their 20th place showing from their first team nationals appearance in 2011.
The 6-time defending 3A state champions were led by an 8th grader too in Marcelo Mantecon (68th, 15:58) with a stellar individual race. Mantecon was followed in by teammates junior Joshua Ruiz (99th, 16:14), sophomore Tiago Socarras (109th, 16:19), senior Matthew Calero (133rd, 16:33), junior Joseph Ruiz (137th, 16:35), junior Evan Torres (157th, 16:46), and senior Alec Torricella (195th, 17:45) into finish.
With 5 of these runners back for 2023 plus much more depth left at home in Miami, expect a strong push to finish well inside the top 10 nationally next year from Belen Jesuit.
Brayden Seymour, a FHSAA 4A state champion last spring in the 1600 meter run while formerly running for Hagerty High School in Oviedo, won a national team title in Portland on his new squad in Newbury Park after moving to California for his senior year while finishing 24th overall in the race as their team's #3 runner with a time of 15:25.