Amy Ankli of Hagerty broke open a large large margin over second place Reagan Farrow of Lake Howell, after trailing early. Ankli and her teammates scored a 30 point victory over Oviedo--42 to 32--with a 20:40 team average. On the boys side, the Winter Park/Hagerty battle were paraell in both the team and individual races. Billy Anguish of the Park got two seconds on Peter Licari of Hagerty with a huge kick to over take him down the final stretch to get the individual title, while a rather slim 11 points separated those two teams in the team scores.
Todd Grasley and Josh Cohen were on-site for flrunners.com coverage.
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Highlights Video
BY TODD GRASLEY
Race Summary
BY JOSHUA COHEN
Reigning 4A state champion, Bridget Blake of Dr. Phillips High School looked to be the favorite on paper, but the junior decided to sit this race out and focus more on the regular season, thus opening the door for several other runners.
The pace started out strong with a close fight between senior Amy Ankli of Hagerty, Dr. Phillips junior Amber Johnson, and Lake Howell junior Regan Farrow. After the first two miles it seemed that Ankli and Johnson were going to fight it out for first place, until Farrow kicked it into full gear. Farrow passed Johnson during the final mile, but was unable to catch up to Ankli in the end, who won the race with a time of 19:16, nearly 50 seconds better than her 20:01, 3rd place finish last year in the same race. This win combined with a strong performance from her Husky teammates gave Hagerty the team championship for this race. Farrow took second place with a 19:52.
The boys’ race started quickly and stayed that way in the front with a three man race with seniors Otniel Teixeira of Lake Brantley, Peter Licari of Hagerty, and Winter Park’s Billy “the kid” Anguish. After the first mile, Teixeira held a slight lead over Licari and Anguish. Licari, knowing the strength of Anguish and Teixeira’s kicks took over the race and pushed the pace the entire time. Anguish held with him while Teixeira fell back slightly. Heading into the final half mile, Licari gained a lead as he started picking it up early to try and prevent Anguish from outkicking him. With 300 meters left to run, it was clearly a close race between Licari and Anguish. The race went from being a 5k to being just a 300 meter track race as the crowd started cheering in the top two finishers. Anguish’s quick kick gave him the win with a time of 16:17 while Licari came in just seconds later, with a 16:19. Fifty-six points and a 17:33 team average won the team championship.
Following this close finish came the open JV 5k that featured both boys and girls high school runners. This put an end to the interesting day at Lake Mary High School for this Summertime Run. The park part of the race allowed Ankli to separate from the pack in the girls’ race, while the boys’ race proved to be all about the kick with Anguish’s win. This final invitational of the preseason was the last chance for teams to go out and test out new race strategies prior to the start of the upcoming season. Now comes the regular season where teams won’t be playing around anymore and they’ll be all business on their journeys to a state title.
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