My name is Olivia Ortiz and I am a junior at Lakewood Ranch. First, I want to say thank you to flrunners for letting me contribute to their incredible website! What a great opportunity and honor to be apart of.
What an amazing start to the 2011 season with the first two races having intense competition, forcing everyone to get into race mode. Opening race last week was the Déjà vu Invitational in Tampa also know as the “mudfest”. The weather conditions making the course extremely muddy and wet while being a night race made the course have a little different feel from the rest. I thought it was a really fun, first race to get our race legs under us while competing with the best teams and runners in the state. And the second race today was the Fort Meyers Optimist Invitational… and the momentum continues to build. Never running this course before I didn’t know what to truly expect just from what I heard, “there is a difficult hill you have to go up twice.” Quickly, from the start we faced the steep hill followed by a loopy course. I thought the momentum coming down the hill was even harder to deal with than going up. With some quick turns, and small markings as a team I thought we ran strong and could not have asked for anything more. I am so proud and grateful for my team! We always know we can support and count on each other. Overall, as a team we took second to Estero. I am happy with the results, compared to our fourth place finish last week. We just have to continue to improve and work hard and know Estero will always be pushing us. Estero is a phenomenal, talented team that will only make us better all around runners in each and every race we face.
Right now, my number one goal is to take one race at a time and never stop training hard. Each course throughout the season is different by making it a fresh, new race every weekend (that’s why I love cross country). I am so excited for this season and cannot wait to see what the rest will hold! Can’t wait for the Mountain Dew Invitational at UF next weekend. As a team, it will be our third year competing and always know it is a challenging race, being on a golf course while facing some of the best competitors.
Olivia Ortiz pulls off upset over Kacy Smith and Sarah Candiano. Carolos Miranda edges Aaron Rojas for the win. Estero sweeps team titles. - 2011-09-17 12:05:00
Buchholz senior Chris Godwin and Lakewood Ranch junior Olivia Ortiz are this week's Warrior of the Week. Godwin won the Ridgeview Bob Hans Invitational in a season best time of 15:48.77. Ortiz ran a gutsy performance at the 2011 Deja Vu Invitational on a mud soaked course. She finished just three-tenths of a second behind winner Kacy Smith in 18:26.30. - 2011-09-13 19:13:00
My name is Olivia Ortiz and I am a junior at Lakewood Ranch. First, I want to say thank you to flrunners for letting me contribute to their incredible website! What a great opportunity and honor to be apart of.
