Conference championships are always about bragging rights, and for the past twelve years the Five Star Conference Championships have been dominated by FPC and Spruce Creek. As a statement of fact the only year that either the boys or girls championship was not hoisted by either of the two was 2000 when Port Orange Atlantic, and Deland took the boys and girls respectively. The past three years Spruce Creek has swept both divisions and on the girls side they have raised the championship trophy every year since 2005. With a former list of individual champions the likes of Justin Harbor, Anthony Morales, Sammy Vasquez FPC once dominated the meet, but that was from 2001-2006 and 2007-2011 the Creek boys have won four of the last five years. The ladies have also seen some well known talent with Mandy Perkins, Jocelin Adona of Spruce Creek along with Tiffany Urquart of Seabreeze back at the dawn of the century with each of those young ladies winning two or more individual crowns.
2012 is bringing many twists to the meet, along with help from Hurricane Sandy. Volusia County Schools will not allow competition to be held on Saturday due to projected storm conditions, and it appears Friday is also a no go. The FHSAA prohibits competition on the week of the State Series events, so as of this minute it’s a mad scramble to get something worked out. If things are reworked the meet 2012 edition of this backyard brawl will bring perhaps the most parity this meet has seen in many years and on paper FPC’s boys, and Spruce Creek’s girls appear to have the edge, but that is only on paper. This year brings a youth movement in both division’s, and a lot of inexperience to the championship scene that could have some coaches pulling their hair out before it’s all over.
The defending boys champ Keneth Pineiro of Deland comes in as a clear favorite on the boy’s side with a season’s best time of 15:53.10 and an average time of 16:15.40. While Pineiro is the favorite, don’t count out the FPC duo of Thomas Carroll and Brad Walbert ( 16:13.90/16:32.6) along with Orange City’s CJ Westfall (16:32.90) who all could threaten to end Pineiro’s reign. The boy’s team competition looks to be loaded with green as Coach Halliday’s FPC Bulldogs look to take back the top spot from a younger Spruce Creek team that graduated three of last year’s top six, and lost two key returnee’s to injury early in the season. FPC has five runners who have run sub 17:17, and this could be their year to take back the championship. The big battle appears to be between Deland, Spruce Creek, and Orange City for Runner-up honors in a race that will come down to who is able to navigate the new course of host school Pine Ridge. The battle will surely come down to the four and five runners for Deland, while Creek could close the gap if they can get a runner into the top ten with a tight spread to the number five runner.
On the ladies side Spruce Creek is favored, but much of an effect the loss of number one runner Alycia Loriz will affect the Hawks strength. Per my discussion with a coach from Spruce Creek Loriz is out for four weeks with a foot injury that will put the team to the test without any senior leadership. Gone are Creek’s stalwarts of the past 4 years, Jocelin Adona (UCF), Tori Ehrhardt(UTampa), Kaitlyn Kelly(FSU) and Zoe Volenec. This year’s Creek team is young with a lot of upside potential, but the loss of Loriz will make a real battle out of this meet. Loriz has the fastest time (19:48.60), but has been hampered by a foot injury that has kept her out of lineup since the Flrunners meet in September. With Loriz out it will be Orange City’s Christen Daniels leading the field through the campus of Pine Ridge. Daniels ran 19:56 at last week’s Hagerty Invitational, and is poised to break out and become Orange City’s first individual conference champion in cross country. Daniels appears to be peaking at just the right time, but Seabreeze has two youngsters that are looking to make names as well. Alyssa Baylif (20:03), and Elizabeth Murray (20:08) figure to be in the lead group but Baylif has also been out with injury since mid September. On paper, and if everyone performs at their best and is healthy which is unlikely based on reports I am hearing it would be a tight battle between Spruce Creek and FPC. With Loriz out and Baylif questionable it becomes a statistical dead heat with both teams scoring 58 points with the edge going to Creek with the better number five runner, but both teams are young and Orange City could figure into the mix if they can get strong performances from their four and five runners.
Regardless of how it plays out, this is going to be a great battle to watch and should provide plenty of excitement for everyone that attends. Let’s just hope something happens that gets this meet done, because it would be a shame for a lot of JV athletes that don’t have the ability to compete at next week’s district meets.