Edwards Dominates, Miranda Bounces Back At Tough 3A Region 3 Meet

FHSAA 3A Region 3
Robert Brown


Complete Results & Meet Coverage l Photo Album by Robert Brown (1391 Photos!)

Take a beautiful, cool SW Florida morning and mix in a flat, short grass field, a nine meter tall man-made hill, a soccer field, a sugar sand / gravel jeep trail, some woods, a three net sand volleyball pit, three 180º switchbacks and run it twice, hard, and you have the 3A Region 3 meet at Estero Community Park. Survive the course with your legs still under you and you could move on to the FHSAA State CC finals in Tallahassee. Let it turn your legs to jelly and you could be staying at home. History says that later is more likely. The present course was designed and implemented in 2010 and until this day had only offered up a sub 16:30 boys time once and that was last week when Cypress Lake senior Bobby Ormsby won the 3A District 11 meet in 16:28.9. On the girls side only one has been below 18:30 when Olivia Ortiz went 18:25.5 last year at the 3A District 11 race.

Girls Race: Districts 11 & 12 own this region

Emily Edwards, since her runner up showing at the FSU/Pre-State meet has reeled off 3 straights wins by an average 1:13.7 over second place. That dominance continued with Emily taking control of the field at the mile and putting 30 seconds between her and runner up Kacy Smith by the finish line. Kacy made a race of it from the starting gun, sprinting across the field then up the hill trying to run the legs out from under Edwards but she could not shake her. Kacy’s current and future teammate Katy Solis held the third spot throughout the race the same as Gulf Coast’s Caroline Barlow held fourth. Estero put 3 in the top 10 and 6 in the top 15, cruising to 30 point win over second place Lakewood Ranch. Surging Gulf Coast were third followed by Fort Myers, Naples and Cypress Lake as the remaining automatic transfers to the state meet. No teams from Districts 9 or 10 made the cut.  Amanda Spring of Northeast HS was the lone individual qualifier by way of her fifth place, 19:47 performance.

Boys Race: Top three run under the course record

Bobby Ormsby set the course record last week and ran within 1 second of that time, but with different competition that was only good for 4th place. Carlos Miranda coming off a third place showing at the District 12 meet took the lead early, kept the hammer down and fought off a charging Ace Brown to win by 5 seconds. Carlos had some anemia issues as a result of diet change that hampered his performances the last few weeks but thanks to a doctor visit and revised training table he looks to be back in form. Brown passed teammate Tyler Bennett before the mile and set sights on Miranda, closing within steps of the eventual winner but could not pull off the upset. Bennett held third, Ormsby forth and Naples’ Buddy Gates fifth. The surging Naples Eagles were looking to upend reigning champ Fort Myers but came up 8 points shy in the final tally. Estero claimed the third spot with Palmetto Ridge, Lakewood Ranch and Osceola Seminole rounding out the 6 team qualifiers. Ormsby is joined by the Port Charlotte duo of Adam Rioux & Tyler Fisher and Bayshore’s Canaan Meester-Kitterman as individual transfers to the State meet.

Fantastic meet on a truly tough XC course with special shout outs to Coach Jeff Sommer and his whole 3D crew, Rachel Lee & David Cuffe at 3D Racing/Timing, Bobby Tyler MC extrordinaire and the Lee County Parks & Recreation staff.


Elite Performances

Girls Highlights

Boys Highlights