Arroyo, Blake Blast Fast Times At Region Of Death

FHSAA 4A Region 1
Jason Byrne


On-Site Coverage

Summary by Jason Byrne

Year in and year out, this region is the toughest one in the state. It is both exhilarating and devastating. Much like they say about New York City... if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. The teams lucky enough to survive this championship meet--first through sixth--are almost assured to be top ten at next week's state championship.

GIRLS RACE

For the top ten or so runners, it's hard to judge exactly what the individual strategies going in were and how hard they attacked it versus waiting for next week. Bridge Blake took the pace out strong from the beginning to see who would stay with her. The Dr. Phillips senior has been slowly building throughout the season and has come on strong these last couple of week after a slow start to the year. Emily Headley of Olympia and Bridget's teammate Amber Johnson hung with Blake for much of the race, attempting to ride her wake in for a solid time. Blake eventually got some separation and would go on to win in 17:56. Headley and Johnson battled it out back and forth for second place throughout the race, hearing the cheers for Bryce Seymour of Hagerty just meters behind telling them not to let up on the accelerator. Headley pulled away at the end to take second in 18:17, followed by Johnson's 18:24 and 18:34 for Seymour.

Dr. Phillips jumped out to the lead early with three points after two, but Kaitlyn Camp of Olympia's fifth place 19:01 kept the Titans close behind. Olympia had really nice depth with a 19:27 team average, placing their fifth runner in 30th place (24th in team scoring) for 60 points over the 86 points of Hagerty. Colonial, Mandarin, Dr. Phillips, and Lake Mary also survived the ROD for a state meet berth. A lot of really quality teams were not so lucky... Buchholz (20:45), Lyman (21:05), Winter Park (20:59) and Lake Brantley (21:02) rounded out the top ten.

Individual qualifiers (finishing in the top fifteen though their team will not advance) were:  Autumn Bartlet (University), Danielle Van Lierre (Fletcher), Regan Farrow (Lake Howell), Isabella Whelan (Buchholz), Sinclair Johnson (Lake Brantley), Emily Nix (Winter Park), and Danielle Turk (Oviedo).

BOYS RACE

Photo by Darrell Laxton

Andres Arroyo of Colonial wasted no time driving the pace out strong, and a whole host of others decided it might be a good idea to try to follow him.  For most, that probably proved ill advised with Keneth Pineiro of Deland being the exception. Pineiro has been really impressive this season, moving up from being a second tier elite kind of runner who I decided to take a chance on with the flrunners.com ROC to being one of the top contenders in the 4A classification. The junior expected to see Timber Creek freshman Brandon Marquez at his side (Brandon came in with the second fastest time in the field), but instead he found himself as the only hanging on to Arroyo's shadow at the half way point.

Meanwhile, Marquez and local friendly rival Connor Ferrentino of Freedom found themselves a little confused. While they came in as two of the top seeded runners and took the race out to their normal quick pace, at the 800 meter mark they found themselves swallowed up by the overly-excited field around 30th place. After exchanging words and a laugh about it, the two went to work. They stuck to their pace and slowly picked through the crowd. By the half way mark, they were moving up into around 8th place, and continued moving up ward from there.

Arroyo showed again that he is kind of at another level than the rest of the field, cruising into a course record time of 15:12. That beat former Foot Locker finalist Brian Atkinson's (now at Duke) old best of 15:15. Arroyo said he was out to run hard, but not kill it and will be seeking not just a state championship but also a course record next week at Appalachee Park. That is actually his own mark to beat... he ran a 15:19 there back in October. Could he press the 15 minute mark in the cooler weather?

Pineiro mantained for a big new personal best of 15:34 for second place. And with a charge up the final incline Marquez got some space on his partner in crime... Marquez a third place 15:41 and Ferrentino 15:50. But be warned! Next week Marquez says he will be tweaking a few things and is not settling for anything less than second place! (He will let Arroyo run his likely solo race)

Arroyo's Colonial also got the job done. The defending state champions will be looking to do it again next week, but they had a bit more trouble than most anticipated capturing the regional crown. Mandrain, a team who is rather mysterious since their school board in Duval County doesn't let them travel, gave them a run for their money and only finished eight points down. Colonial wins 60-68 over Mandarin. Four other teams put up team averages in the 16 minute range, and that's what it took to advance to state this year. Suddenly powerhouse again Flagler Palm Coast (16:47) was third, followed by young power Boone (16:50), Winter Park 16:53), and Timber Creek (16:48). Left broken hearted by the cruel region: Buchholz (17:03), Olympia (17:08), Oviedo (17:13), and Lake Mary (17:22) were the rest of the top ten.

Race Videos and Interviews by Dean Headley and John Dey

 

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