Ponte Vedra XC Invitational Recap

Ponte Vedra XC Invitational
Chad Germany

 



On-Site Coverage

Meet Recap

With only a month to go before the district meets, Ponte Vedra High School held its fourth annual Cross Country Invitational. As usual, the best teams in North Florida were in attendance, but it was a panhandle powerhouse that ended up stealing the show.

Two weeks ago to the day, Mandarin and Chiles battled it out for the boys’ varsity team title at the Ridgeview Bob Hans Invitational, with Mandarin taking the team title by twenty points. Much of the same would take place at Ponte Vedra, but this time, Chiles got the better of the matchup.
 
At the one-mile mark, Nease’s Kyle Griffey looked strong as he came through at 5:15, and held off a surging Cash Tampa from Creekside. Not too far from those two was a group of Chiles runners that seemed patient, and poised to make a big move at the right time. As the runners tunneled through excited onlookers and made their way onto the track, the Chiles pack had moved up, and junior Cade Zimmerman took control of the lead. Zimmerman would not give up that spot, as he finished in a time of 16:19; a comfortable 12 seconds in front of Mandarin’s John Weaver. Rounding out the top five was the aforementioned Cash Tampa, Robert E. Lee freshman Dominic Williams, and Sam Mack from Mandarin.  A mere four points decided the team title, and Chiles came up with a win in its second trip to the Jacksonville area.
 
As if Chiles Cross Country wasn’t satisfied enough, they went ahead and took the team title for the girls’ varsity race as well. But the real story was the continued dominance of Fletcher’s Danielle Van Liere. Only a freshman, Van Liere is on a tear. She has won her last three races, and she even won last year’s Ponte Vedra XC Invitational as an 8th grader. Her closest competition was Providence’s Eden Meyer, who came in second with a time of 19:36.
 
As they’ve done all season, the Mandarin JV boys packed together, and took yet another JV team victory. To illustrate how well they run as a group, their 1-5 runners were split by only five seconds at the mile mark. Trenton Liberty took the win at 17:52 and was followed by Bishop Kenny’s Husam Ossi, and Creekside’s Justin Lisitano. 
 
Bishop Kenny’s girls’ JV team took a page from the Mandarin boys’ book, and did them one better. They not only ran the entire race in a pack, but they scored a perfect 15, with Annie Kaczorowski finishing first in 21:54.

Elite Performances

Girls Highlights

Boys Highlights