The boys’ varsity cross country team took first place in the Seminole County Athletic Conference championship hosted at Hagerty on Oct. 21. This is the second year that the team has taken first.

“It was a great feeling to come out on top,” senior Brayden Seymour said. “Everyone did their part and we came away with the win.”

The team went into the race ranked second to Winter Springs, but led by Seymour with a first place finish and a time of 15:46, the team finished first. Jonathan Leon came in second, and Marek Orr came in tenth.

“All the hard work we put in this season is paying off, and it showed when we beat Winter Springs,” Leon said.

Last time Seymour competed at Hagerty he broke the school’s record of the fastest 5k time with a time of 15:32. Seymour only being 14 seconds off this time thinks he took it easy.

“I did not run the race as hard as I could as there are bigger meets coming up in the future,” Seymour said. “I just took the first mile hard and coasted the rest of the race for the win.” 

The team practices daily with each other which creates a strong bond within the team and adds to their chemistry. Even members of the team who couldn’t compete still showed up to motivate and cheer on their teammates to victory.

“Our team chemistry is great, we all love training and racing together,” Seymour said. “That is the best thing to have if you want your team to be successful in the postseason.”

The team has set certain goals for their post-season like winning districts, regionals, and making it to states.

“I would say what we are striving for is to get as good as we can to get back to competing at the state level,” Orr said.

The team will compete at districts that will take place at the Sperling Sports Complex in Deland. The first race will start at 7:30 a.m. on Oct. 29.

“We are immediately looking at next week to try and take home the district title and go back to back in that as well,” Seymour said. “We had a good race this weekend but we are going to put our head down and work again.”