Article by Grant V Mollett, East Ridge High School, M.Ed
Photos courtesy of ERHS Friends and Family
WINTER SPRINGS, September 4 – The East Ridge High School girls’ cross country team competed in their second meet of the 2021 season today. This week’s meet was the Winter Springs Invitational at the beautiful Central Winds Park in Winter Springs, Florida. It was a sunny and humid morning for the first race of September, but those conditions did not stop most of the girls from improving their times from last week’s performances! The course at Central Winds Park was mostly grass and included the runners traversing numerous athletic fields, like soccer and softball fields. The course was mostly flat, but had a few small hills. The last mile of the course was through a shaded wooded portion of the park, which took the sun off the runners for a slight reprieve. East Ridge’s girls’ varsity team placed fourth out of eleven complete teams in their debut at the Winter Springs Invitational and Central Winds Park.
Girls from 16 different schools throughout Central Florida participated in this morning’s meet. The varsity girls race started at 7:30 AM with the firing of the starter’s pistol. The first Knight through the chute was junior Sophie Roemmen. Sophie, whose performance today was an improvement by over a minute from last week’s performance, finished in a time of 21:19! Sophie placed thirteenth overall out of a field of 87 varsity female runners! Freshman Hanna Warren was the second Knight through the finish chute this morning. Hanna also outperformed her race from last week, as she improved her time by over a minute! Hanna finished in a time of 22:06 and placed twentieth overall. Junior Bre Peine also improved on her performance from last week, finishing in 26th place in a time of 22:44 – a more than thirty-second improvement!
Freshman Neely Lugo also improved from her performance last week at Whispering Pines, as she finished in 28th place in a time of 22:54! Neely’s performance from this morning was nearly a minute faster than her performance last week. The fifth finisher and final scorer for East Ridge was junior Alanis Melgar. Alanis also set a new season-best with her performance this morning! Alanis finished in 42nd place and in a time of 24:02 – an improvement of more than a minute from last week’s performance. The sixth finisher for the Knights was freshman J’Mariana Douglas. J’Mariana followed her teammate in and placed 43rd overall and posted a time of 24:13. Her performance this week was more than a two-minute improvement from her performance last week! The seventh finisher for the Knights was senior Keira Votava who finished in 51st place and in a time of 24:54. This was Keira’s first meet of the season, and she was merely fourteen seconds from her career personal best this morning!
East Ridge High School placed fourth among eleven complete teams this morning. Timber Creek High School, who placed fourth as a team in the Class 4A State Championships last season, won the Winter Springs Invitational this morning. Winter Springs High School, last season’s Class 3A state championship team, was the runner-up at the meet this morning. District rival, West Orange High School, edged out the Knights by one team position, placing third at the invitational this morning. The overall individual winner for the girls’ varsity race was senior Amber Schulz from Timber Creek High School. Amber, the reigning Class 4A individual state champion, finished today’s race in a swift time of 18:55.
The Knights also had six runners participate in the girls’ junior varsity race this morning at Whispering Pines. Sophomore Lina Maldonado placed eighth out of a field of 26 junior varsity girls. Lina, in her debut as a Knight, finished in a time of 26:57. Sophomore Sarah Tingler took tenth place overall and finished in a time of 27:30 – more than a minute faster than her performance last week. Junior Brenna Oliveri finished in nineteenth place in a time of 29:39. Brenna was followed in by her teammates, freshman Isabella Stuemke and sophomore Addison Dodd. Isabella placed twentieth overall and finished in a time of 30:23 and Addison placed 21st overall and finished in a time of 31:12. Junior Alexandra Dimitros came in 24th place and finished in a time of 33:43 – an improvement by over three minutes from her performance last week!
For full results for the girls varsity and junior varsity races at the Winter Springs Invitational visit: http://results.tfmeetpro.com/Elite_Timing_and_Event_Management/Winter_Springs_Invitational_2021/.
The girls cross country team will travel to Saint Cloud High School on Saturday, September 11th to participate in the Saint Cloud Invitational. The race is set to start at 8:00 AM.
