Video Interview: Annabella Tomasic after winning the flrunners.com Invitational Girls Race of Champions
After winning a string of Florida's historically best cross country invitationals over last several weeks between the Katie Caples Invitational in Jacksonville, FSU Pre-State Invitational in Tallahassee, and flrunners.com Invitational in Lakeland against arguably all of the state's very best, Lake Highland seventh grader Annabella Tomasic has solidified herself as the best high school cross country runner in the state of Florida currently.
Yes, calling someone that is in seventh grader as the best in anything high school seems like an oxymoron but in Florida and the FHSAA many of the private schools that compete such as Lake Highland Prep allow middle school athletes to compete on the varsity high school level in virtually all sports including cross country.
She came just a few seconds off setting the meet and course record at Bishop Kenny's 5K course for the Katie Caples Invitational with a 17:48 victory. Tomasic was only was a handful of seconds off the course record held by a two-time Foot Locker Nationals finalist Kelly Parrish at 17:43.
Tomasic then beat all of her top competition that will stand in the way of her winning a 2A state title next month in Tallahassee at the FSU Pre-State Invitational including Cardinal Mooney's Addison Dempsey and Bishop Verot's Mackenzie De Lisle with a cross country 5K personal best run of 17:35.
In her most recent race of the season this past Saturday morning in the Race of Champions at the 24th annual flrunners.com Invitational, Tomasic competed against the top ranked runner in the state for much of the 2022 cross country season and undefeated against in-state competition in sophomore Eliana Black of IMG Academy. Similarly to Tomasic, Black recorded times and performances in seventh and eight grade while at Cambridge Christian that the state had not seen before at that young age.
The matchup was certainly a rare opportunity to see two young distance stars race head to head as the last time that happened was two years ago at the FLYRA Middle School State Championships when the well known star Black came in as the heavy favorite to repeat as a state champion as an eighth grader, but the fifth grader Tomasic unknown to the high school running community that had been dominating local road races in Orlando scored a major upset win over Black.
In their rematch race, Tomasic came into the race sharp and on fire and it showed early on jumping out to an early lead on Black and another one of Florida's top ranked runners in last year's 3A state runner-up Ashley Fitzgerald of American Heritage. For much of the race, Tomasic only continued to build her lead on Black, while Black ultimately had to be concerned with simply holding off Fitzgerald for third place.
The Lake Highland Prep seventh grader crossed the line first in the Race of Champions at the flrunners.com Invitational recording the second fastest time in course history as well as the meet's history since the event moved to Holloway Park with a 17:42 performance. Running 17:42 at Holloway Park ranks more impressive than any of her prior sub 18 minute races this season given the course difficulty and rarity for performances under 18 including her 17:35 season best performance at FSU Pre-State Invitational.
Black, who ran 17:54 earlier in the season at Holloway Park to win the Seffner Invitational, came across the line on Saturday in 18:06 and not far behind was Fitzgerald acquitting herself well in her first race ever at Holloway in third place with a time of 18:10. Just to show the course difficulty between Apalachee Regional Park (FSU Pre-State and FHSAA State meet course), Fitzgerald ran a 17:40 performance last week at FSU Pre-State Invite in a runner-up finish to Tomasic.
For Black, she is certainly going thru a major transition with her running not only changing schools and coaches from Cambridge Christian to IMG Academy suddenly at the start of the her sophomore year but an entire daily life change from being home schooled with her family at home to now living as a boarding school student at IMG. Certainly expect once she finds her footing and gets comfortable in her new surroundings and changes that her talent is so immense that she will rise again to challenge the likes of Tomasic and others as the best distance runner in the state of Florida with still over 2 and half years of high school running left to write her next chapters in her athletics journey.
Meanwhile, it will not be until the spring of 2029 till we part ways from seeing Annabella Tomasic at high school meets winning races left and right as that will be her graduation date. As fast as Tomasic is currently, there is definitely room for more improvement with her as a runner.
She is clearly aerobically very strong, but speed development is still plenty of years for her to drop her times at the shorter distances when she steps on the track. As well as learning to race using different strategies to win. Typically, she shoots out fast in races and holds on or outlasts her opponents. She will definitely have some bigger races down the road against national level competition where she will have to race in larger packets and learn to conserve her energy to make a timely late move or kick for the win.
Unfortunately since she is so good at such a young age, some national meets will not allow her to compete in their meets due to keeping their events strictly for 9th to 12th grade levels. One event that particularly has that hard rule is the Foot Locker Nationals Championships, which historically has been the most well known individual national championships at the high school level. So even if Tomasic raced at the Foot Locker South Regional in Charlotte, she would not be allowed to qualify and advance to the national race in San Diego in December.
However, Nike Cross Nationals which is a national championship formatted meet for both teams and individuals does allow for middle school grade level athletes to compete and qualify in their high school nationals as long as the athlete comes from a state that allows athletes in those grades to compete at the high school level as is the case in Florida with the FHSAA and a such as Lake Highland Prep with Tomasic running on the varsity cross country team.
So if Tomasic had plans or desire to compete at a national meet, she has the option of racing at the NXN Southeast Regional that is unfortunately this year two days after the FHSAA State Championships on Friday, November 17th in Tallahassee. Due to scheduling conflicts and desire to get the meet off the Thanksgiving weekend, NXN Southeast Regional qualifier in Cary, North Carolina was moved to Sunday, November 19th.
It was originally going to be on Saturday, November 18th but when NXN officials learned that the FHSAA and the Florida state meet would be a week later than normal due to conflicts with FSU home football games, the NXN officials moved the event back a day to Sunday to at least give Florida teams and athletes at least one day to rest and travel in still an incredibly difficult task to race two hard 5K's over a 3 day period. The NXN Southeast Regional could not be moved back a week later to the normal Thanksgiving weekend slot as the venue at WakeMed Soccer Complex in Cary had already booked and rented out the venue for another event when NXN gave up that weekend last fall.
So clearly Florida national caliber teams like Belen Jesuit and individuals like Tomasic are stuck in a predicament and asked to complete a tall task to try and compete for a state title on a Friday and then try to race again and qualify 48 hours later against the some of very best in the Southeast Region at the NXN Southeast Regional.
Another easier route or opportunity for Tomasic to show herself on the national level would be racing in Huntsville, Alabama at the RunningLane National Championships on Saturday, December 2nd. If Tomasic got an opportunity to race on that lightning fast but legit 5K course at John Hunt Running Park in Huntsville, could see the young phenom challenge for a sub 17 minute race and become only the 10th runner in Florida high school history to join the sub 17 club. Caroline Wells of Winter Springs has the fastest recorded 5K cross country time in Florida high school history at 16:40 from the 2021 Hagerty Invitational.
She will have plenty of time to chase times and records though and the statewide running community should be excited for her quick rise to stardom and celebrate her current success, but also patiently support the long term development and process including any bumps in the road as well.
There might be another phenomenal young runner like Tomasic come thru the state in a few years and knock her off as the top runner for the time being similar to what witnessed this past weekend with Tomasic taking over the throne from Eliana Black as Florida's best at the moment.
Success does not always need to be measured by who wins the race or is the current #1 ranked runner in the state. Each individual runner can measure success and improvement just as easily independently as an individuals rather than against their peers in this sport. Only one person can win every race or be the current top ranked runner for an entire state, but does not mean others are failures or lesser runners especially if they are use to being the ones always winning races or being the top ranked runner.
Sometimes runners as they get older can struggle with trying to match their quick success as a youth and go backwards in their performances quickly when discouraged in self esteem in the constant comparisons internally and externally to their former selves and against their peers and competition.
Its a cycle need to figure out how to break in our sport especially when it comes to young female distance runners as it not as prevalent in other sports where athletes seem to only thrive and continue to improve and develop as they get stronger, more experience, better training and step up facing new increased competition at the middle school, high school, collegiate and pro levels. Hopefully for Tomasic (and other young talented runners like her) will be rooting for her to thrive and enjoy the process from now till the day she graduates in the destination point that seems so far away now in the spring of 2029.