Deleva, Cruz Top Fast Fields At 4A Region 3 Meet

FHSAA 4A Region 3
Bill Fay

On-Site Coverage


Dawn broke on South County Regional Park overcast and cool. The temperature at race time was around 70, and the wind was light and from the east- not likely to affect runners on the North/South aligned course. The sun stayed hidden and temperatures stayed cool all morning, resulting in opportunities for fast times.
 
The course at South County is a permanent cross country course, marked at every  quarter of a mile. and every kilometer with signs denoting the distances. This is the same course used for the Spanish River Invitational, Palm Beach County Championship, as well as the 4A- District 10 meet, so the runners are very familiar with it. The course consists of basically two flat loops around a long skinny lake that runs North/South and a steep hill about 600m from the finish. 
 
Kudos to Coach Rick Rothman of host team Spanish River for his work with the Palm Beach Parks Dept. developing this excellent course available to all since the beginning of last season.

Girls Race

The Girls race opened up with Alexa Cruz of St. Thomas Aquinas separating from the pack shortly after a quarter mile., with Spanish River’s Ellyn Snider dogging her every step.
 
By one and a quartermiles, Cruz with Snider in tow was still leading, and a trailing second pack of five consisting of  Cypress Bay’s Katherine MacNeal and four St. Thomas runners. This put all of St. Thomas’s squad in the top seven at this point, an intimidating performance. The rest of the field was strung out a little behind this pack with Spanish River’s Catherine Vianale and Monarch’s Jade Fungquee leading the charge.
 
PR’s were the order of the day as coming into the finish it was Alexa Cruz winning in an impressive 18:06, with St. Thomas’s  Christina Kalis second in 18:27. Spanish River’s Ellyn Snider scored a huge 40 second PR to break 19 for the first time at 18:36 for third, followed closely by Cypress Bay’s Katherine MacNeal in 18:38. The St Thomas trio of Schloss(5th), Braynon-Moore(6th), and Rischer(7th) finished in 18:47, 18:54, and  18:57 respectively to round out the 18’s and ALL of the top 15 finishers finished under 20 minutes. The top nine beat the national silver elite standard. Individuals qualifying for the State meet without their team include Jade Fungquee of Monarch(9th), Lauren Castillo of Palm Beach Central (10th), Olivia Nicholson of Boca Raton (12th), and Amber Pearce of Jupiter (13th).
 
The team standings had pre-race favorite St. Thomas Aquinas place five runners in the top seven to take first in an impressive 21 points. Host team Spanish River managed to hold off a determined Park Vista squad for runner-up position, 82 points to 93. Cypress Bay took fourth with 126 points and Dwyer fifth with 152 points.  Douglas managed 176 points to edge out Palm Beach Central by only one point to secure the sixth and final berth for the State meet.

Boys Race

Salvador Medrano of John I. Leonard took it out hard from the start with only Coral Glades’ Anthony Deleva for company. In the wake were the usual suspects: Charlie Bengston of JIL, Caleb Rader of Spanish River, Tyler Bell of Coral Springs, Atlantic’s William Fay, Francisco Baglieri of Monarch and several others. 
 
At the mile mark, the top 20 went by in under five minutes. Not until one and a half miles did things begin to thin out, and the top 15 or so made it to two miles in 10:30. Up front, Salvador Medrano was hard charging but Deleva would have none of it. After the hill with 500m to go Anthony turned on the afterburners and at the finish it was Coral Glades’ Anthony Deleva in a PR of 15:48 to John I Leonard’s Salvador Medrano at 15:53.
 
Again PR’s were the order of the day for many as host team Spanish River’s Caleb Rader posted a 16:08 for third, ahead of John I. Leonard’s Charlie Bengston in 16:14. Matthew Butler of St. Thomas Aquinas managed 16:18 for fifth. Francisco Baglieri of Monarch took sixth in 16:22 with William Fay of Atlantic right behind at 16:23 for seventh. Nassor Whitehead of Cooper City, Joel Lacy of South Plantation, and Tyler Bell of Coral Springs rounded out the top ten. Sixth thru fifteenth place was quite a battle with only 10 seconds separation between. The top 25 runners broke 17 minutes and the top 12 finished under the 16:30 National silver Elite Standard.
 
 In the boys team competition St. Thomas Aquinas managed to take the boys title to match the girls win with 55 points.  John I. Leonard   edged out a tight Park Vista team for the runner-up position with 94 points to Park Vista’s 109.  Douglas took 4th with a total of 118 points and Spanish River took 5th with 150 points. Filling out the top 6 teams going to state, Coral Springs’ 191 points outperformed expectations displacing rival team Boca Raton
 
Making their way to the state meet without benefit of a team, individual qualifiers include District 10 and Region 3 champion Anthony Deleva of Coral Glades, Francisco Baglieri of Monarch (6th), William Fay of Atlantic (7th), Nassor Whitehead of Cooper City (8th), Joel Lacy of South Plantation(9th),  Blake Kanarek of Seminole Ridge(11th), Tim Smale of Palm Beach Central (13th), and Avonte Boykins of Flanagan (14th).
 

Elite Performances

Girls Highlights

Boys Highlights