On-Site Coverage:
- Complete Results & Coverage
- Photo Album by John Calderon - Over 1500 Photos!
- Awards Photos by Ryan Raposo
Middle School Recap:
It was a fairly good weather day at Larry & Penny Thompson Park as the 7th Annual Ferguson Falcons Cross Country Invitational got under way even though most of the rest of Southeast Florida was dealing with bad rain and thunderstorms. The middle school races got underway right at 10:30am starting with the smaller junior varsity divisions before a small precautionary delay, due to some lightning in the distance, only to jump right back into competition for the varsity divisions, followed by the individuals and teams awards presentation.
For an early season middle school meet the numbers of teams and competitors were low, as is usually expected, but there were still a few memorable performances in this smaller event. Most notably was the dominance exhibited by the Ransom Everglades MS varsity girl's team, especially their #1 finisher: Beatriz Ruan who gapped the rest of the field by 1 minute and 45 seconds as she led her team to a dominant victory; her teammates came in 2-4-5-7-8-9 behind her. Ruan's official time was 12 minutes and 39 seconds. This was the third time in four years that the Ransom girls brought home the team championship.
Middle School Team & Individual Award Winners:
Girls Junior Varsity Team Champions: Hammocks MS - 15 points
Boys Junior Varsity Team Champions: South Dade MS - 55 points
Boys Junior Varsity Team Runner-up: Lamar Louise Curry MS - 72 points
Girls Varsity Individual Champion: Beatriz Ruan, Ransom Everglades
Girls Varsity Team Champions: Ransom Everglades MS - 16 points
Girls Varsity Team Runner-up: Devon Aire K-8 - 65 points
Boys Varsity Individual Champion: Marcos Young, Palmetto MS
Boys Varsity Team Champions: Palmetto MS - 31 points
Boys Varsity Team Runner-up: Devon Aire K-8 - 64 points
Pictures of all Award Winners can be found on the meet page here: https://fl.milesplit.com/photos/albums/14670
Girls Varsity Team Champions from Ransom Everglades with Coach Mike Becker.
High School Recap:
After a successful morning middle school races, the high school races kicked off at 3:30pm just as the sun decided to show up on what had been a beautiful and overcast day. For the junior varsity girls race the Ransom Everglades girls ran away with the victory over Ferguson and Lourdes by placing seven girls in the top 18; on the boys side it was even more lop-sided as Belen Jesuit continued it's local dominance as it's "C" team went 1-2-3, with three more top 10 finishers in the JV division. Christopher Columbus HS finished solidly in second, ahead of teams: John A. Ferguson, Miami Sunset, and Ransom Everglades.
Note: Belen's "B" team ran in the varsity division, while their "A" team is currently headed up to Gainesville to race in the UF Mountain Dew Invitational. Our Lady of Lourdes Academy followed suit for this meet as well with their top "A" squad; they're in Gainesville too.
In the varsity divisions, these races played out a little bit more like a script that has been read before. With the Lourdes "A" squad sitting out, the Ferguson girls looked to claim the Invitational's Championship trophy for the second consecutive year, and that they did by impressively placing a very strong eight girls in the top 15 finishers of the meet. Ferguson's top girl, Katrina Santiago, took home the individual champion trophy as she won the meet in a time of 20:13. The runner-up girls team was South Dade, that finished quite a ways back behind Ferguson (67 points back) as they held off the girls from Ransom Everglades by 11 points.
On the boys side, Christopher Columbus also had an impressive finish as they placed five boys in the top 15, with four of them in the top seven. The next group of teams were all pretty evenly spread out as Miami Sunset, Belen Jesuit "B", John A. Ferguson, and Ransom Everglades rounded out your top five. Individually, Daniel Fernandez of Christopher Columbus took home the Championship trophy by beating his closest competitors by 15 seconds running a time of 16:17. This was the first Ferguson Falcons Invitational win for Columbus HS.
High School Team & Individual Award Winners:
Girls Varsity Individual Champion: Katrina Santiago, John A. Ferguson HS
Girls Varsity Team Champions: John A. Ferguson HS - 25 points
Girls Varsity Team Runner-up: South Dade HS - 92 points
Boys Varsity Individual Champion: Daniel Fernandez, Christopher Columbus HS
Boys Varsity Team Champions: Christopher Columbus HS - 32 points
Boys Varsity Team Runner-up: Miami Sunset HS - 51 points
Pictures of all Award Winners can be found on the meet page here: https://fl.milesplit.com/photos/albums/14670
Girls Varsity Team Champions from John A. Ferguson HS.