Hoka One One Future Stars recognizes the top freshman and sophomore around the country. We decided to take a look at the best class of 2017 and 2018 standouts from our flrunners.com Invitational 15.
Pine Crest ended the Estero dynasty in the girls ROC and were the best team of both days. Combining all the results the Panthers are still number one, but the battle for second between Lake Mary and Oak Hall might have ended differently. Belen Jesuit won the boys Race of Champions, but we wanted to see what the team race would be like if we combined all the races. Trinity Prep ran Friday due to the Jewish holiday and was third last year. If the Saints would have been able to compete Saturday they could have contended with Lyman for a runner-up finish. See the top twenty teams and complete list!
The largest meet in Florida took place this past weekend as the best of the best headed to Chain of Lakes Park in Titusville. Saturday morning Race of Champions pitted those top athletes together in the mud and the muck, to see who would come out on top. Pine Crest seventh grader Tsion Yared proved that size and age don't mean a thing as she ran away from the competition in a time of 18:33.07, leading her team to the ROC championship trophy as well.
Saturday marked the final day of competition at the flrunners.com Invitational at beautiful Chain of Lakes Park in Titusville. Athletes were in for a true cross country experience as the mother nature had her way previous night, dumping rain on the course, and making for a series of mud-filled 5k's.Pine Crest 7th grader Tsion Yared and Belen Jesuit senior Ryan Rodriguez (pictured above) navigated their way to victories in the Race of Champions and helped guide their teams to the championship as well. Check out over 6,500 photos, race videos, interviews, and a recap of all the action from day two!
Mike Leary manned the finish area of the course all weekend and captured over 1,500 photos from day two including this one of girls invitational winner Kelly Aponte of St. Augustine.
Watch the flrunners.com Invitational 15 girls race of champions video replay in which 7th grader Tsion Yared of Pinecrest lead her team to victory and win her state's largest high school invitational by 16 seconds in a 18:33 victory on a soaked and water filled Chain of Lakes Park course.
Chain Of Lakes Park took on a new meaning Saturday for day two of the flrunners.com Invitational 15. Tom Connor brought his rain boots and braved the elements to capture over 4,000 photos including this one of runners heading over the iconic bridge about to encounter even more fun on a mud soaked course!
Donald Lamb was scouring the course and also the awards stage and came away with over 1,000 photos from day two of the flrunners.com Invitational 15. Check out all the awesome images!
The ladies of Pearl River made the trip from New York down to Florida and dominated the competition in both the girls JV blue and girls small school races. Check out close to 4,000 photos, as well as race videos, interviews, and a recap of all the day one action from FLR15.
Mike Leary was at the finish line capturing over 1,200 images including this one in the girls small school race as Trinity Prep 7th grader Audrey McAnally and Pearl River's Mary Borkoski go down to the wire. Borkoski an 8th grader from New York won in 19:29.36.m Invitational 15 coverage (via MileSplit)
Tom Connor was on-site at the flrunners.com Invitational 15 shooting most of the back part of the course and the final turn to the finish. Check out over 2,000 images including this one of Admiral Farragut's Patrick McNamara has he sprints to the finish in the boys small school race.
Tyler Fisher quit his high school basketball team because it was too much running. Ironically, then quit the cross country team his freshman year. However, the Port Charlotte standout didn't want to be defined as a quitter. He made himself go back after his freshman track season because deep down he knew he couldn't stop running. He says he is extremely glad he stuck with it.
The top 24 girls teams and 21 boys teams along with select individuals will compete in the prestigious Race of Champions Saturday morning at flrunners.com Invitational 15. The goal is to see how many girls can break 19 minutes and how many guys can break 16 on this fast Chain of Lakes Park course. We take a look at the individual match ups as well as team battles and see what the computers think in our virtual meet feature.
Day one of the flrunners.com Invitational 15 kicks off with our JV Blue girls race at 3:20. The small school and large school girls race will come next followed by the boys small school and large school races. The day will conclude with the college men and women. Here is a taste of what to expect from the small school and large school races.
We look ahead to the October 4th weekend ahead in the latest "Meets on Tap" with North Carolina drawing most of the national attention on Saturday with Great American and Wendy's, while the Desert Twilight Festival on Friday in Arizona will have a great individual matchup between Katie Rainsberger and Dani Jones with fast times expected. MileSplit will be doing it LIVE with a stream of Florida's largest meet in the flrunners.com Invitational, while the first state meet of the season will be up in the far Northwest with the Alaska state championships led by Allie Ostrander and Levi Thomet.
MileSplit will be providing a LIVE webcast of the flrunners.com Invitational, the largest high school cross country meet in the state of Florida, this Friday and Saturday from Chain of Lakes Park in Titusville, Florida.
Nathan reviews the new trainer from Hoka One One, the lightweight and maximum cushioning Hoka Clifton in the latest Gear Geek.
Fifteen years ago Jason Byrne started the flrunners.com Invitational. The first meet held in 2000 at Polk State College in Winter Haven consisted of a girls and boys Varsity A and Varsity B race, and less than two dozen teams. Since then numerous, collegiate standouts, and even Olympians first got their big break at this meet and the participation has grown times ten. Flrunners.com Invitational 15 will feature over 300 teams and 4,500 athletes. The meet has definitely come along way. We wanted to take a trip down memory lane and revisit highlights over the last 15 years.
From the food, to the fanfare, to the competition there a lot of reasons to be excited about FLR15 coming up this weekend in Titusville. Here are some of our favorites.
Sunday marked the last day for entries and our meet staff has been busy getting things ready! Here are the updated team entries for this years varsity races as well as the top individuals competing without their teams at the ROC.
We've had a lot of Olympians join us over the years, but none that have made the team FOUR times. Abdi Abdirahman has represented the USA at the past four Olympic Games (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012).
A total of ten more teams have been added to the presitigious Race Of Champions at the flrunners.com Invitational. The meet is just ten days away and runners and spectators are eagerly waiting in anticipation. This is the third round of teams to be announce with the newest teams at the bottom of each list. Four more slots will be awarded in the coming days to complete the field. In addition, to this exciting news both days of the meet will be livestreamed, so if you can't make the race or have family or friends that want to watch don't worry.
The 15th flrunners.com Invitational is just 17 days away and the excitement is building for runners and teams around the state. Take a look at this year's meet logo as well as the next six teams to be invited to our prestigious Race of Champions.
We are proud to announce a new addition to enhance the race experience for runners and fans at the Flrunners.com Invitational 15. Elite Timing will be bringing out a 9' x 6' Daktronics Scoreboard that will give team results at the mile and 2.5 mile markers and display the names and times at the finish. The splits will be viewable on the results both on paper and on online. In addition, the live results feed will also feature the team scores listed at each mark as well as the athlete-results.
Each year the flrunners.com Invitational attracts the best teams from every corner of the state. With over 300 teams and nearly 4,500 athletes now signed up, 2014 is no exception. The goal of many teams is to earn a coveted invitation to compete in the Race of Champions.For many that is a goal they have worked for over several seasons. For perenial powerhouses, it is a yearly badge of honor and midseason opportunity to face off against the teams looking to challenge them for a podium position in November.