Spanish River Invitational Coverage

Spanish River Invitational- 29th Annual
Jason Byrne

Highlights and Summary

Rain, rain, go away! After getting started on time at South County Park, it started to sprinkle and then sprinkling turned into a shower and a shower tunred into a downpour! It eventually became troublesome and threatening enough that the race was delayed before the planned 11:05AM start of the 1A-2A Boys race. It looked like the weather might rob some South Florida kids of a second race in as many weeks, but the show did go on.

After the delay, the last three races went off and all were completed.

3A-4A Girls -- A big contingent of west coast teams came over from the Naples/Ft. Myers area... Caroline Barlow was one of those teams. The sophomore from Gulf Coast High showed those Atlantic Ocean side folks a few tricks. She beat out Lauren Gonzalez of Ferguson 19:31 to 19:39.  The Ferguson team turned in another fantastic race this week, after a surpringly good showing at Deja Vu last week.  They had four in the top ten and #7 crossed in 16th out of 224 finishers... giving them 37 points!  However, St. Thomas Aquinas had just a little more firepower going 3-4-6-9-11-(12)-(35) for 33 points.

3A-4A Boys -- This race was all Elliot Clemente up front as Belen went 1-2 with Clemente and junior Avery Lopez at 15:27 and 15:49. Charles Anderson of Leonard and Danny Fernadez of Columbus also dipped under 16 for third and fourth.  Belen beat out Miami Columbus 36-47 in points and 16:04 to 16:15 team avearge. (watch video clips from the race)

1A-2A Girls -- Joanna McCoy showed off her new Gulliver Prep colors this week in fine fashion with a 19:02 victory. Eight-grader Adair Lyden (Westmisnter Academy) was second in 19:37 and rookie junior Savanna Gornisiewi of Pine Crest was third in 19:51.  Pine Crest put their top five in the top 30 to beat out Carrollton by 10 points... 70 to 80.

1A-2A Boys - After the rain, junior Jims Thimogene of American Heritage wins in 16:52. Pine Crest boys picked up where the girls left off... winning this one 85-93 over Gulliver Prep... both teams with their top five in the top 25.

JV Boys - Belen Jesuit nearly sweeps it with just 18 points and a 17:46 average. Columbus and St. Thomas Aquinas had a bright looking future also with 57 and 77 points (18:34 and 18:56).

JV Girls - Freshman Michelle Fuentes leads St. Thomas Aquinas to the narrow win (23:00) with 47 points over Fertuson (52) and Naples (54).

Freshman Boys -  Bryce Statham (St. Thomas Aqinas) wins in 18:03 over Ryan Rodriguez of Belen Jesuit (18:13). Aquinas beats Spanish River 27-35.

 

Complete Results & Coverage Index...

 

Photo Album (Over 1600 Photos Posted)

BY JOHN CALDERON

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Third Party Coverage