Spanish River Part Deux: Convey Wins Re-Run

Spanish River Invitational
Jason Byrne

It took two tries, but the re-scheduled, rain-delayed Spanish River Invitational went off on Monday without a hitch.

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The hopes of some fast times and great competition in the 30th running of one of the largest meets in South Florida were dashed on Saturday, as lightning detectors were going off around South County Regional Park. Many were especially disappointed because it scrapped plans to run well enough to qualify for the Race of Champions at this week's flrunners.com Invitational.

But the show must go on. And meet director and longtime Spanish River coach rescheduled the event for Monday evening. Though the field and number of races were basically cut in half, it was still a nice meet with some solid competition.

Coral Reef sophomore Kurt Convey led the way in the boys race, with the overall fastest time of 16:01.56 over fellow soph Nick Diaz of Miami Sunset. Ten others also dipped under the 17 minute mark including Kenneth Castro of Miami Sunset (formerly of Columbus) in third. Sunset had the overal lbest team showing with a 17:00 team average, but Coral Reef also looked very tough with a 17:20 average that was weighted by Convey's big time. Showing solid depth though, it was enough to prove they deserved their much desiered spot in the Race of Champions on Saturday--their main intention going into the race.

On the girls side, it was home team senior star Ellyn Snider of Spanish River with the best overall time in 19:59. Rachelle Alexander of American Heritage was second with a 20:07 showing. The Snider-led Spanish River also had the best overall team showing with a 21:24 team average. American Heritage, coming off an emotional second-place finish at last year's state meet, is still a big question mark at this point. The team had some key transfers and a coach change and thus far this is their first meet on the year. They were missing some of their key stars (including Daesha Rogers) in this outing and, though I have not heard from the coach to this point, others have suggested that they will pull out of next weekend's flrunners.com Invitational, where they have been grand-fathered into a Race of Champions position based on last season. Time will tell. We hope they show!

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