The Fastest Boys To Watch At flrunners.com Invitational

WATCH LIVE: flrunners.com XC Invitational

Fastest boys individuals to watch in the Race of Champions at the 2023 flrunners.com Invitational.

The flrunners.com Invitational will have nearly half of the top 50 fastest high school boys cross country runners currently in the state of Florida racing on Saturday morning at Holloway Park in Lakeland. 

Jonathan Leon of Hagerty will come into the Race of Champions as the pre-race favorite fresh off his top 5 finish and 15:15 personal best performance at the FSU Pre-State Invitational. Leon figures to be the top challenger to Matt Ryan for the 4A state title this fall and two years ago as a sophomore broke 16 minutes at Holloway Park in the 2021 flrunners.com Invitational. Expect him to drop his course PR down from the 15:57 run two years ago.

Another runner experienced in racing at Holloway Park including a runner-up finish earlier this season at the Seffner Christian Invitational is Indian Rocks Christian junior Blake Young. Young rolled to a swift fast new 5K PR of 15:18 two weeks ago in his biggest win to date at the North Port Invitational. Young also finished third to start his season at the Cecil Field Summer Classic with a sub 16 race, which Leon won finishing 20 seconds ahead of Young in 15:38. Young will attempt to close that gap this week and both runners look to push under 16 minutes.

The Spanish River Invitational champion from two weekends ago in Christopher Columbus senior Alejandro Romagosa with his 15:19 5K best will be racing at the flrunners.com Invite with his returning 4A state runner-up squad. Romagosa finished 14th in the elite race at the FSU Pre-State Invitational last weekend with a time of 15:40 and this weekend will be looking to vie for a top 3 showing in Lakeland.

The Sunlake boys saw several of their top runners take advantage of one of the fastest courses in the Southeast at the Alexander Asics Invitational last weekend in Georgia to roll to swift times including the Hindman brothers, Joshua Hindman at 15:19 and Christian Hindman at 15:22. They will have a much tougher course to race fast on this weekend at Holloway Park, but will try to break the 16 minute barrier this weekend and dominate the top 15 to 25 spots with their runners vying for a team title as well. 

Similarly, the ROC field includes many of the top finishers from the speedy North Port Invitational two weeks ago beyond the race champion Blake Young including Hector Toro of Naples, Aidan Griffin of Indian Rocks Christian, Caden Baker of George Jenkins, Joseph Koraya of Fort Myers, Nickolas Forbes of St. Petersburg, and Jonah Berry of Indian Rocks Christian who all went sub 15:45 or faster at North Port. It will be more impressive if all aforementioned runners can break 16 minutes at Holloway Park on Saturday morning.  

While the Belen Jesuit boys are sending their top varsity guys to compete at Great American this weekend in North Carolina in an opportunity to preview the Nike Cross Southeast Regional course, they will be sending their "B" lineup and beyond to flrunners.com Invitational with the one caveat being one of their top runners who might possibly be making a return from injury in Joseph Socarras. Socarres has not raced since his season opener with a 15:40 performance as Belen's #3 runner at the Kowboy Invitational, but is entered on the roster list for Belen this weekend. The 4:12 miler is the top returnee from last year's flrunners.com Invitational when he finished third with a time of 16:03. 

Another runner from South Florida to watch compete this weekend as the lone individual entered from his school in Flanagan High School senior Shamar Henry. Henry had a breakthrough outdoor season last spring running personal bests of 4:24 for 1600 meters and 9:21 for 3200 meters and has kept that momentum into the fall including recently running a 15:38 5K PR in a runner-up finish at the Spanish River Invitational on September 23rd.

South Florida should also be well represented near the front of the pack with Dillard's Joushua Gammage (15:48 5K season best) and Westminster Academy's Jonathan Pena (15:51). Gammage was a top 5 finisher at Spanish River, while Pena has won 3 invitational races this season and finished inside the top 20 in the elite race at FSU Pre-State Invite last Saturday.

William Poe of Zephyrhills was undefeated this cross country season before a 24th place finishing time of 15:55 at the FSU Pre-State Invitational. One of his notable wins prior this season came at Holloway Park in a 16:23 victory at the Jim Ryun FCA Invitational. Poe will look to push for a course PR this weekend and be among the top 5 finishers in the Race of Champions. 

Top Boys Individual Entrants at 2023 flrunners.com Invitational