Article and Photos By Grant Mollett, M.ED
East Ridge High School
October 30, 2020 – Winter Garden
The East Ridge High School girls varsity cross country team participated in the Class 4A District 6 Championships on Friday morning at West Orange High School. West Orange High School has played host to the district meet for the past four years. One year ago, almost to the date, was last season’s district meet, in which the Knights qualified as a team for the regional championships. This year, the girls team participated in a smaller, but competitive district. Unfortunately, some late season injury and muscle fatigue hindered some of the team members’ performances at the district championships this year. The top three placing teams at the district meet qualified for the regional meet, but unfortunately, the Knights came in fourth place in the team scoring. However, the Knights did have two individual runners qualify for next week’s regional meet!
Girls from six different schools throughout Central Florida competed in the Class 4A District 6 Championships on Friday morning. Senior Mackenzie Hill led the Knights as she competed with the other elite runners in Central Florida. In the first mile, Mackenzie was spotted in fifth place, as she passed the first mile marker. Round the second mile marker, Mackenzie maintained her position at fifth place. In the third mile, Mackenzie was out of striking distance from the fourth place runner and had made quite a distance between herself and the sixth place runner. Mackenzie finished in fifth place out of a field of 43 varsity runners! She finished in a swift time of 20:24, which was an improvement by more than two and a half minutes from her performance at last season’s district meet! Today’s performance was also a career personal best for Mackenzie! The second Knight through the chute was sophomore Bre Peine. Bre finished in tenth place and also set a new career personal best. Bre finished the district race in a time of 21:54 – nearly an entire minute faster than her performance at the district meet at West Orange High School last season!
Senior Heidy Castillo was the third Knight to cross the finish line on Friday morning. Heidy placed 22nd overall in a finish time of 23:21. In spite of some late season knee pain, Heidy’s performance at the district meet this season was an improvement by over a minute from her performance at last season’s district meet! The fourth Knight to finish was sophomore Alanis Melgar. Alanis placed 33rd overall, and finished in a time of 24:58. The fifth runner for the Knights was junior Keira Votava. Keira placed 35th and finished in a time of 25:17. Senior Olivia Peine was the sixth runner for East Ridge on Friday morning. Olivia placed 36th overall and finished in a time of 25:24. Freshman Addison Dodd was the seventh runner in for East Ridge, and she finished in a time of 27:22 and secured the 39th position overall. Addison’s performance was a new career personal best! The eighth runner to finish for the Knights was sophomore Alexandra Dimitros. Alexandra posted her second best time of the season with a 30:21.
East Ridge placed fourth as a team at the district meet. West Orange High School took first place in the district by placing four girls in the top thirteen. The overall winner for the girls varsity race was freshman Ella Klyce from West Orange High School. Ella finished the race in a time of 19:28. Windermere High School and Olympia High School came in second and third in team scoring, advancing to the regional championships next week.
Although the Knights did not qualify as a team for next week’s regional championship, two individuals did qualify for the regional championships! This season the advancement requirements changed, as the top placing four individuals who are on non-qualifying teams qualified for the regional championships. The Knights claimed two of those four spots! Senior Mackenzie Hill and sophomore Bre Peine actually claimed the first two of those four spots, and will be competing at next week’s Class 4A Region 2 Championships on Saturday November 7 at Hagerty High School in Oviedo. The gun time will be 8:00 AM. This will be the fourth consecutive year that either the girls team or individuals have qualified for the regional meet. As well, this is the ninth season out of the school’s nineteen-year history that only individuals have qualified for the regional meet. The last individual to qualify for the regional meet was alumnus Reagan Parks in 2017.
For full results from the Class 4A District 6 Championships visit http://elitetiming.net/live-results/2020/20201030-wo/?fbclid=IwAR02X1CcGBickcFCtR3dY-zjJV5VutKtDEg5XtAp3lxdd4_7ootSXciL9wI#event6.
