Flrunners.com Invitational 17 2016

Friday Finishes & More

FLR17 Day 1

Relive all the photo coverage from the last year's FLRunners.com Invitational.

FLR17_Day 2

Pics from Friday's Large School Boys and Girls races.

This Saturday will feature the 16th running of the middle school division at the FLR Invitational.  For those of us who grew up in the twentieth century, "middle school distance running" meant watching the better part of your PE class walk 600 yards as part of the Presidential Physical Fitness test. The kids in this race are not those kids.  They are fast - not just fast for middle schoolers, but fast for adults.  The top finishers would all be varsity-level high school runners, and some would even be in the mix in a state championship. We've come a long way, baby.

If there is one particular race I am looking forward to the most at this year's flrunners.com Invitational 17 it's the girls Race of Champions. The field includes ten of the top fifteen girls in the state, plus two of the top teams in 2014 and 2015 4A state champions Winter Park, and Pine Crest the 2A runner-up the past four years. We take a look at both the individual and team battles.

All eyes are going to be on the championship races at the flrunners invitational, but this huge meet will also be providing some excellent competition in both the small school and large school races. We have some fast individuals ready to take to the course, as well as some team races that could come down to the wire. 

The Flrunners.com Invitational boys Race of Champions will feature sixteen of the top teams and individuals in the state of Florida with 2A power Trinity Prep and 3A power Belen Jesuit leading the way along with Woodstock who makes the trek down from Georgia. On the individual front, only three runners in the field have broken sixteen minutes in Caleb Pottorff, Joshua Collins, and Mason Jones. We take a look at what fans can expect to see on both the team and individual fronts come Saturday morning.

Everyone loves a good head to head match up and we will see plenty of those at Flrunners.com Invitational 17 especially in the race of champions including  FL#1 Amanda Beach Vs. FL#2 Bailey Hertenstein and FL#2 Joshua Collins Vs. FL#3 Caleb Pottorff. We take a look at how they've fared in previous match ups on the track and on the cross country as well as strictly by times using our compare athletes feature to see who has the best shot at pulling out the victory this weekend.

Jimmy Clark and Ryan Pickering's epic battle in 2010 produced the top two times ever in meet history, 14:53.29 and 14:55.48, one year after Matt Mizereck and Armando DelValle went 14:56.21 and 14:56.84. That quartet are the only athletes to ever break 15 minutes while 29 have gone under 15:30 in the past 17 years. We take a look at the top 500 all-time best boys times at the flrunners.com Invitational. 

The Flrunners.com Invitational meet record has stood for the last ten years by Wellington's Ashley Brasovan who steamrolled the competition at FLR 7 on the fields of Ed Radice Park in Tampa. Brasovan's time of 16:41.42 is the fastest by nearly 20 seconds. 24 runners have broke 18 minutes in meet history, while the 25th best of all-time is 2015 meet champion Bailey Hertenstein who won in 18:02.40, and is coming off a 17 minute performance this past weekend. We look at the fastest 500 girls in flrunners.com Invitational history. 

The Race of Champions is the top event at Flrunners.com Invitational 17, but don't count out the invitational events which will split both the male and female genders of the ROC and showcase some of the top talent in the state of Florida duking it out. Last year's race saw four athletes run under 17 minutes with UNC commit Luke Peterson of Shorecrest Prep winning in 16:26.00. We preview all the team and individual action.

Last year's girls invitational race produced one of the ten best times of the whole weekend by Natalie Varela. These athletes and teams are hungry after just missing the cut off for the Race of Champions. Lemon Bay's Maddison Welch was 20th in last year's Race of Champions and comes in as one of the favorites to win on Saturday in this division. We take a look at the top individuals and teams in the field.

Tom Connor was on-site at the flrunners.com Invitational 17 and captured over 2,000 photos on day one including this shot of Lake Mary's Daniela Urzua who won the girls large school race.

Tyler Copeland was on-site at the flrunners.com Invitational 17 and snapped over 750 photos from day one including this picture of the Ft. Myers boys who dominated the JV team race.

The Winter Springs girls and boys scored team victories in the large school races at flrunners.com Invitational 17. Freshman Elayna Bahr finished second for the Bears while Matt Doyle and Justin Czurack went 1-2 in the boys race. We merged the results from day one to see who the best individuals and teams were regardless of race!

Riverview junior Bailey "Hurricane" Hertenstein defends her flrunners.com Invitational Race of Champions title with a a time of 17:32.14 while leading four other girls to times at 18:00 or lower. 

Lincoln Park Academy senior Caleb Pottorff pulled away from hometown Titusville senior Mason Jones in the final 800m to win the boys Race of Champions title in a new state leading time of 15:30.11

Tyler Copeland was on-site as part of our coverage team for flrunners.com Invitational 17 and captured nearly 2,000 photos from day two including this one of our athletes in the foreground with the perfect cross country course as the backdrop.