Overcoming a three-lap course, against the nine teams in the Seminole Athletic Conference, the boys and girls cross country teams placed first and fourth respectively in the SAC Championship on Oct. 28.
Senior Johnathon Leon (15:51), senior Gabriel Abbate (16:15), junior Jacob Leon (16:28), and senior Alex Madruga (16:43) all placed in the top ten, leading the boys to a team score of 31, 27 points better than the team in second.
The girls team scored 110, and senior Alena Pezzoli placed seventh with a time of 20:20. Sophomore Ava Howell (21:25) placed 22nd, and senior Kailyn David (21:45) placed 24th.
Johnathon Leon, Jacob Leon, Abbate, Madruga, and Pezzoli made first team all-conference, and sophomore Noah Mott, sophomore Alexavier Davis-Medina, and senior Julian Scanlon made second team all-conference.
The meet took place on the day of the homecoming dance, which runners looked forward to attending afterwards.
“My second mile I just thought about [homecoming],” Pezzoli said “and just how much fun it’s going to be, and how proud of it I want to be when I’m there.”
Because the races just included schools in the SAC, there were far fewer teams than a typical meet.
“This one is actually probably the most difficult [meet] on the schedule because it’s a small field,” coach Jay Getty said. “And issues in small fields get exaggerated into issues that you can’t solve when you run out of time to race.”
The meet, which alternates locations annually, was held at Lake Mary High School. The boys’ race began at 7:25 a.m., and the girls’ race began at 8 a.m., but runners arrived more than an hour early in order to warm up and prepare.
The runners started on the rubber track, before running three loops through a park and around the stadium, and then finishing on the track again. As there was not much in the way of directions, runners had to either be familiar with the layout of the course and keep track of their own laps, or follow those around them.
“This was the first time we’ve run this [course] in a while,” Getty said. “For this one, it was all about placing and not time but it actually worked out that they went hand in hand.”
After the race, the awards ceremony took place. All of the teams gathered on the field, and cheered for the athletes who received awards. First place teams were given a trophy, and medals were awarded to individuals who placed in the top ten.
“We ran really, really well on both sides,” Getty said. “It was a good day. Up next is the state series.”
Next up for both teams are the district championships at Hagerty on Nov. 4. The top eight teams will move on to regionals, where they have the opportunity to qualify for the state championships.
So far, the boys have been regularly coming in first, and placed sixth in the Elite division at the pre-state meet, where Johnathon Leon and Abbate set school records.
With some of the top runners in the area, the boys expect to move on from districts, and the girls are optimistic about their chances.
“There have been a lot of nerves on the team about making it to regionals, but I have full faith that we can,” Pezzoli said. “Because when we get together, and we feel competitive, we could do it.”
