Written By Grant Mollett, M. Ed.
East Ridge High School
(photos taken by Dave Worthington)
The West Orange Invitational has become one of the largest and most competitive cross country events in Central Florida. For ten of the teams that participated in it today, the Invitational served as a preview to next month’s Class 4A District 2 Championships.
In just five weeks, the district championship will be held at the campus of West Orange High School, and only ten of the seventeen teams in that district will qualify for the Class 4A Region 2 Championships. The East Ridge High School girls cross country team has a lot of experience with West Orange’s course, as they have participated in two district and two invitational meets on that campus over the last four years. As expected, the Knights used this morning’s meet as a means to prepare for the district meet at the end of October. The morning was cool and breezy, as the temperature was gauged at 69 degrees at the start of the varsity girls race – a reprieve from typically warmer temperatures in September.
Girls from more than thirty different schools predominantly from central Florida competed in the West Orange Invitational this morning. The meet official fired the starter pistol promptly at 7:30 am, and the girls were off and running. Senior Reagan Parks was the first Knight to cross the finish line. Reagan placed eleventh in a field of 215 varsity female runners.
Additionally, Reagan set a personal course best by more than twenty seconds with a finish time of 20:10. At merely one second off from her career personal best, only one other female runner in District 2 ran a faster time this morning. The second Knight to finish was junior Mackenzie Hill. Mackenzie ran her best performance of the season thus far in order to help her team fend off the district competition. She finished in 30th place in a time of 21:20. Last year Mackenzie finished the district meet on West Orange’s course in 22:21.
The third Knight to finish was junior Olivia Peine. Olivia placed 80th overall and finished the morning’s race in a time of 23:04 – another season personal best for the third consecutive week. The fourth runner for the Knights was freshman Alanis Melgar. Alanis placed 104th overall and posted a career personal best time of 23:48. She has improved her time each week this season, and looks to continue her progress in remaining weeks of the season! The fifth runner for the girls’ varsity team was junior Heidy Castillo. Heidy placed 135th in a finish time of 25:24 to round out the Knights’ scoring positions. Heidy’s time from this morning was just one second shy of her career personal best performance. Junior Caitlyn Cavender finished sixth for the Knights. She placed 169th in a time of 27:07.
The East Ridge girls team also had four runners participate in the junior varsity this morning. Junior Mia Vogel-Lag placed nineteenth in a field of 159 junior varsity runners and finished in a time of 24:48. Freshman Bre Peine debuted for the Knights and finished in 45th place, and in a time of 26:46. Sophomore “Peppa” Marin finished in 94th place, and in a time of 29:06. Lastly, sophomore Mansi Patel finished in 117thplace, and in a time of 30:49.
As a team, the East Ridge girls varsity placed tenth out of thirty scoring teams. The Knights were able to edge out seven district rivals and fell short to just two district rivals. Timber Creek High School took first place by placing their first four finishers in the top twenty. The individual champion at the West Orange Invitational this morning was sophomore Amber Schulz of Timber Creek High School. Amber finished in a swift time of 18:29. East Ridge’s girls cross country team will compete in the Weeki Wachee Invitational at the Weeki Wachee Preserve in Hernando Beach on Saturday, September 28th.
For full results from the West Orange Invitational visit http://elitetiming.net/live-results/2019/20190921-wo/?fbclid=IwAR3rF7ms9SUEIlrH3t5p8Nl5ErcQNHKur-Y1v2PxGgbokc4xc4rj8ce9BgU.
