(Photo by Jeff Adams)
Full 2011 Florida State Meet Results & Coverage
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Colonial Wins First Championship in School History
Earlier this year, Todd wrote an article about Colonial’s mission to win their first ever state championship—in any sport. The school first opened its doors in 1958 and had yet to be able to hang a state title banner in its halls. This year the cross country team, powered by Andres Arroyo and a deep group behind him, were to be that hope.
Mission accomplished.
Arroyo led off strong for the Grenadiers. He broke open a lead early, much the way Clemente did in the previous race, and no one dared try to go with him. He never relented. He finished with a 15:13.74, which was about 15 seconds slower than his winning time from Pre-State but almost 25 seconds better than Chris Godwin of Buchholz, his nearest competitor.
Cody Decker (16:08), John Proffit (16:18), and Caleb Licht (16:18) finished in the top 25. And Raul Ramirez (16:35) made it a done deal, as Colonial pulled off the 86-103 win over the defending champs from Miami Columbus.
Congrats to the team, to Coach Plasencia, and the whole CHS community.
Following in Dad’s Foot Steps
I bet Coral Reef freshman Kurt Convey hopes that at some point in her career, people will stop comparing him to his dad. Today’s not the day, but maybe over the next four years we’ll get sick of bringing it up!
No, in seriousness Kurt came through big time all on his own this weekend. He finished the competitive 4A race in the top ten (9th to be exact) with a 15:58 performance.
It was the best freshman performance on the day by over 30 seconds, with Joe Guidry of Ft. Walton Beach being the next best ninth grader with a 16:32.30.
In an interview after the race, Kurt said that he was satisfied with his performance even if he perhaps gassed the first mile a little too hard. Next week he is headed up to Foot Locker South to face off in the Freshman Boys race. He has a good shot to possibly win that one. He also has in mind the school record, which is certainly within striking distance on the legendarily fast McAlpine Park course.
Race Video
Top 25