West Orange Invitational On-Site Coverage

 

The girl's varsity looked to pit a strong Lake Brantley one-two punch of Maite Moscoso and Samantha McCann against Wekiva's Jacoy Hutto.  As the race approached, there was no McCann and Hutto watching and cheering on her Mustang teammates. McCann's absence was due to a Saturday SAT date that also had most of the home squad West Orange Warriors out as well.  Hutto was out for different circumstances: nursing an injury, she said she hopes to have back to 100 percent in time for Metros.

 

Moscoso, one of the top racewalkers in the nation showed that her dedication to that sport translated on the cross country course as well. The sophomore won easily with a time of 20:12.12.

 

Much of Boone's varsity squad was absent, including Phil Duncan and JL Hines. Duncan, who was coming off an impressive fifth place finish at last week’s Florida Runners Invitational (15:25.90), was in New York competing at the famous Manhattan Invitational.  He won his race there, one of eight varsity divisions, with a time of 13:04 on the 4K course at Van Courtlandt Park.  Hines was out due to an illness.

 

That paved the way for Celebration's Quincy O'Connor to put his name on the cross country radar. A relative unknown after moving to Central Florida this year from Buffalo, New York, the senior crossed the line in 16:00.74.  He posted a PR of 15:29 earlier in the week at Poinciana. His previous best before that was at the Florida Runners Invitational where he clocked a 15:49.29.

 

Lake Brantley continued their dominance of the meet, this time in the JV races taking home gold in both the girls and boys divisions. The Patriots also won the team title in the Boys Varsity, Girls Varsity, and Girls JV divisions.