Submitted by Coach Grant Mollett, East Ridge High School
Image contributed by Dave Worthington
August 26, 2023, Inverness, Florida
The East Ridge High School girls cross country team opened up the 2023 regular season today, as they competed in the Whispering Pines Invitational at Whispering Pines Park in Inverness, Florida. It was an overcast Central Florida morning, and the temperature hovered around the mid-70s. This was the fifth time that the Knights had competed at the Whispering Pines Invitational. Last season East Ridge’s girls varsity team took third place out of nine teams. Therefore, this season the Knights were back to outperform last year’s results!
Girls from 20 different schools throughout Central Florida participated in this morning’s meet. The gun sounded at 8:00 AM sharp, and the girls were off and running through an open field that quickly narrowed, bared left, and then onto a narrow pathway of hard-packed dirt, lime rock, and sand, and then meandering through the woods of Whispering Pines Park. East Ridge’s first runner to cross the finish line was sophomore Rhyen Foley! Rhyen was the runner-up out of a field of 91 varsity female runners and finished in a swift time of 19:48 – a more than two-and-a-half-minute improvement from her performance at Whispering Pines last season! Not only was this Rhyen’s new career personal best, but it edged out her previous career personal best (set last week in preseason) by four seconds! Beyond that, Rhyen now has the East Ridge High School record time for the Whispering Pines course – a record previously set by alumnus Reagan Parks in 2019!
Rhyen’s sensational performance was followed up by two gutsy and gritty performances that her teammates doled out at Whispering Pines. Junior Hanna Warren came through the finish chute second for the Knights! Hanna, who had been limited by some preseason soreness and strain, put up a time of 20:04 and placed third overall! Despite the setbacks from preseason, Hanna’s performance was more than a two-minute improvement from her result at Whispering Pines last season! Her result is now the second-fastest time an East Ridge runner has accomplished at Whispering Pines! East Ridge’s third finisher was sophomore Veronica Peterson, who also had a gutsy and gritty performance! Veronica finished in fourth place in a time of 20:24 – an improvement by nearly one minute from her performance at this meet last season! She accomplished this time despite taking two untimely falls during the second mile of the race at Whispering Pines! Veronica’s competitiveness and adrenaline kicked in quickly, as she bounced back up and completed the course without a single competitor passing her up throughout the rest of the race. Veronica’s performance landed her as now having the third fastest time for a Knight at the Whispering Pines course!
The fourth Knight to finish was sophomore Adriana Mustin. Adriana finished in eighth place and posted a time of 22:13.54 – a result that was more than a minute faster than her time last week at the preseason race! This was Adriana’s first time running at Whispering Pines and her performance is now the tenth fastest time by a Knight at Whispering Pines! The fifth finisher and final scorer for East Ridge was freshman Taylor Walker who finished in 9th place and in a time of 22:13.70 in her regular season debut race! Taylor followed in her teammate, rushing the finish line, with an impressive stride to ensure a top-ten finish! The sixth finisher for the Knights was junior Neely Lugo. Neely placed 18th and posted a time of 24:10 – a twenty-one-second improvement from her performance at Whispering Pines last season. The seventh finisher for the Knights was junior Madi McCormack. Madi placed twentieth overall and posted a time of 24:27.
East Ridge High School dominated the field and took first place out of twelve complete teams this morning! The Knights were able to place their five scoring runners in the top ten positions! The overall individual winner for the girls’ varsity race was freshman Mary Summers from Seven Rivers Christian. Mary was a Class 1A 1600M and 3200M state finalist at the FHSAA outdoor track and field state championships in May as an eighth grader. Mary finished the race in a swift time of 19:28.
The Knights also had seven runners participate in the girls’ junior varsity race this morning at Whispering Pines. Junior J’Mariana Douglas took second overall in the junior varsity race this morning! J’Mariana finished in a time of 27:27 at Whispering Pines. Senior Sarah Tingler was the second Knight to cross the finish line in the junior varsity race. Sarah placed ninth overall and finished in a time of 28:50. Senior Kayden Page was the third Knight to finish and she placed tenth overall in a time of 29:56. Next for the Knights was sophomore Shane George, who placed eleventh overall and finished in a time of 29:57 – a more than thirty-second improvement from her performance at Whispering Pines last season and a near four-minute improvement from her performance at last week’s preseason meet! The fifth finisher for the junior varsity was junior Bianca Brauti-Heidemann, who placed fifteenth overall and finished in a time of 31:01 – a twenty-five-second improvement from her performance at the preseason meet last week! Freshman Lexi Whitehead finished sixteenth overall and in a time of 31:08. Junior Isabella Stuemke finished seventeenth overall and in a time of 32:34 in her first meet of the season.
For full results for the girls’ varsity race at the Whispering Pines Invitational visit: https://www.arrowliveresults.com/WhisperingPinesGirlsVarsity. Varsity Girls’ team and individual results were initially misreported and will be updated soon.
For full results for the girls’ junior varsity race at the Whispering Pines Invitational visit: https://www.arrowliveresults.com/WhisperingPinesGirlsJV. Junior Varsity Girls team and individual results were initially misreported and will be updated soon.
The girls’ cross country team will travel to Sperling Sports Complex in Deland on Saturday, September 2nd to participate in the Deland Invitational.
