Eliana Black, one of Florida's top distance runners and last year's 1A state cross country champion while at Cambridge Christian, has changed schools to start her tenth grade year.
When entries were posted for this Friday's Cecil Field Summer Classic and the Cambridge Christian roster was missing last year's race champion and course record Black, it led to adding validity of recent rumors or speculation that she had left Cambridge Christian.
On Monday night, Eliana Black announced on her instagram where she will be next.
Black will now be running for IMG Academy in Bradenton. The transfer certainly has a ripple effect with Cambridge Christian losing their top returning runner and individual state champion in a very competitive 1A classification.
Cambridge Christian still has a formidable lineup without Black including the likes of Madeleine Gear, Ava Hendrix, Hannah Kasper, Avery Pham, and Micah Friedman among others to make them still in the hunt for the 1A state title this year with the likes of defending champions Oak Hall, Maclay School, and Pensacola Christian.
But the loss of Black definitely hurts Cambridge Christian's big goals of the ability to compete on a national stage this season at the level that they did two years ago when their star loaded squad including Caroline Lehman and Mary Ellen Eudaly garnered a top 15 finish and posting the fastest top 5 team average in Florida high school history at the RunningLane Championships in Alabama.
This past outdoor season, Eliana Black ran personal bests of 2:10 for 800 meters, 4:48 for 1600 meters, and 10:30 for 3200 meters. Ironically, Black ran her 800 meter PR on the IMG Academy track last spring at the IMG Academy Invite. She is Florida's fastest returning runner and was the state leader this past spring as a freshman in both the 1600 and 3200.
The change to IMG Academy means a different type of racing schedule for Black since IMG can compete in meets during the FHSAA regional season but does not compete in FHSAA state series events, so we will not see her competing in any FHSAA state championship meets for either cross country and track while attending IMG Academy.
However, IMG Academy regularly takes and travels to larger out-of-state national post-season meets in cross country, indoor, and outdoor track including the Penn Relays this past spring.
While Layla Haynes graduated from IMG Academy and is now at the University of Florida, Black will have a solid training partner at IMG Academy for next few years in another sophomore talent in Huntley Buckingham, who like Black has been a FLYRA Middle School state champion and ran 5:00 for the mile during the indoor track season.