Article by Coach Grant Mollett, East Ridge High School
Photos contributed by Dave Worthington, Jeff Warren, and Quiana Peterson
The East Ridge High School girls cross country team competed in the Lake County Championships on Saturday morning. East Ridge hosted the county championships for the second consecutive year, and what a competitive meet Lake County showcased today! Last season, the Knights placed third as a team at the county championships and were destined to raise the bar this season.
Today’s county championships was the second home meet for the Knights this season, as they had hosted the SSG Hammond Invitational at the school just two weeks ago. Also, today’s meet was the last meet of the regular season for the Knights, as they will soon begin making their final preparations for the postseason.
The start of the race took the girls across the football field and out of the stadium and onto the grassy and hilly campus of East Ridge.
The course ran the perimeter of a lot of the campus, and ascended a large hill affectionately known as the “Green Monster.” Then the course normalized with some flat straightaways, making one big loop around a portion of the campus. The field of runners merged back into the “Green Monster,” but this time to descend it, and re-ran the perimeter, and back into the football stadium, and then ended with an approximately 300M track finish.
Girls from six different schools participated in the Lake County Championships on Saturday. The varsity girls race started at 8:00 AM. Sophomore Rhyen Foley toppled both the Green Monster and all of the competition that Lake County had to offer! Foley’s finish time of 19:35 set a new course record at East Ridge High School! Furthermore, Rhyen’s result was more than a three-and-a-half minute improvement from her finish time at the Lake County Championships held at East Ridge last season! This was also the fifth time this season that Foley led her team as the first scorer for the Knights!
Sophomore Veronica Peterson was the second Knight to cross the finish line at the county championships this morning. Peterson placed fifth overall and finished in a time of 20:22 – a near minute improvement from her performance last season at the county championships!’
Junior Hanna Warren was the third Knight to cross the finish line this morning, as she finished in a time of 21:04 – a forty-two second improvement from her time at last season’s county championships! Warren secured eighth place overall, helping her team raise the bar at counties!
The fourth finisher for the Knights was sophomore Adriana Mustin. Mustin finished twelfth overall and in a time of 22:25 – a forty-one second improvement from her time at the county championships last season!
Adriana led a pack of Knights that collectively helped the team to raise the bar this morning, as freshman Taylor Walker, the Knights’ final scorer, followed her teammate in, claiming thirteenth place at counties today. Walker finished in a swift time of 22:36. Junior Madi McCormack was the sixth finisher for the Knights. McCormack placed fourteenth overall and finished in a time of 22:40 – a more than twenty second improvement from her performance at counties last season and a new season personal best! Junior Neely Lugo was the seventh finisher for the Knights. Lugo placed fifteenth overall and finished in a time of 23:09 – an improvement of nearly a minute-and-a-half from her result at the county championships last season!
Senior Lina Maldonado took twentieth place overall, and finished in a time of 23:55 – a forty-four second improvement from her result at counties last season! Freshman Lexi Whitehead finished in 23rd place overall and in a time of 24:49 – a near thirty second improvement from her time at SSG Hammond on the same course two weeks ago! Freshman Jessie Volz finished in 31st place in a time of 26:50 – a near minute-and-a-half improvement from her result at SSG Hammond! Senior Sarah Tingler placed 35th overall and finished in a time of 28:02 – more than a minute faster than her result from counties last season! Sophomore Alyssa Schacht finished in 36th place overall and in a time of 28:09 – more than a minute faster than her result from at SSG Hammond two weeks ago! Junior J’Mariana Douglas finished in 41st place and in a time of 28:51. Senior Karlie Saintlot came in 43rd place and finished in a time of 29:06 – more than a minute improvement from her time at counties last season!
Sophomore Shane George placed 46th overall and finished in a time of 30:20. Senior Kayden Page placed 48th overall and finished in a time of 30:52. Freshman Yeidy Diaz finished in 51st place in a time of 31:41. Junior Bianca Brauti-Heidemann finished in 53rd place with a time of 32:58 – more than a minute improvement from her time at SSG Hammond two weeks ago! Freshman Nicolly Silva finished in 62nd place with a time of 37:30 – a near three minute improvement from her result at SSG Hammond two weeks ago!
Raising the bar at the county championships this season, the Knights took the top team honors, and were crowned the new Lake County Champions! The Knights were able to defeat the other district rivals by placing their first seven finishers in the top fifteen positions – securing nearly half of the individual medals at counties today!
East Ridge ousted Lake Minneola High School, last season’s county champion, who was this season’s team runner-up. Running unattached was Mary Kate Summers, who runs for Seven Rivers Christian School out of Lecanto. Summers took first place overall, finishing in a swift time of 19:24.
East Ridge’s Rhyen Foley took second overall and finished as Lake County’s top female runner for 2023 – defeating all other Lake County runners at the meet this morning!
Scoring and Timing was managed by Kahlil Tucker and Godspeed Timing who did a wonderful job in managing the county championships.
For full results for the girls varsity race at the Lake County Championships visit: http://milesplit.live/meets/557959.
The girls cross country team will have one more bye week, but will be back in action for the Class 4A District 2 Championships on Saturday, November 4th, which will be held at Hagerty High School in Oviedo. The girls race is scheduled to begin at 8:00 AM that morning.
