Article by Coach Grant Mollett, East Ridge High School
and photos by South Lake Photography
The East Ridge High School girls cross country team competed in the West Orange High School Invitational in Winter Garden on Saturday morning. This annual tradition has often brought the Knights both team and individual success. Last season, the Knights took the top honors, placing first out of seventeen complete teams, so this season, they sought to successfully defend their title. This morning’s high level of humidity along with some course changes did not help the large field of runners make a lot of improvements in timed results. However, the Knights charged the foggy athletic fields of West Orange High School, and when the fog lifted, it was the Knights who stood above all the rest.
Girls from nineteen complete teams throughout Central Florida participated in the West Orange High School Invitational today. The varsity girls’ race started at 7:15 AM. The start of the race took the girls across some athletic fields near the football stadium. Then, the course took the runners around two loops around the back end of the campus, rounding some soccer fields, and through a small wooded area.
For the fifth time this season, junior Rhyen Foley was the first Knight to cross the finish line! After a narrow start, the race normalized, and Foley found herself amidst opposing elite runners – specifically Olympia’s Emily Knophle and Viera’s Addison Elwell. At the first mile mark, Foley and Knophle were neck and neck, with Elwell trailing by about three seconds.
Shortly into the second mile, the pace became a bit much for Knophle, as she dropped back, and Elwell pulled up to join Foley at the front. Rounding mile marker two, Foley and Elwell were, as they had been at Astronaut last week, in near lockstep with each other. The two front runners created a lot of space from the rest of the field in the final mile, and when both runners entered the finish area, Elwell was just a few seconds in front of Foley. Last week at the Astronaut Invitational, Elwell was able to defeat Foley by twenty seconds. However, this morning at West Orange, Foley narrowed the gap considerably. She finished as the meet’s runner up in a time of 18:57, merely six seconds behind Elwell!
Junior Veronica Peterson was the second Knight to finish at West Orange. She placed fourth overall and finished in a time of 20:03. Senior Hanna Warren was the third Knight to finish this morning. Warren placed fifth overall and finished in a time of 20:13. Peterson and Warren found themselves in no man’s land for most of the race, so they had to compete with each other rather than nearby opponents. Peterson was able to pull ahead of Warren in the third mile, as both runners rushed the finish area and helped to secure those coveted top five positions!
For the second year in the row, the Knights won the West Orange Invitational. Additionally, this was the third time the Knights have won an invitational this season! The Knights were able to outperform all of the Class 4A District 3 rivals that competed at West Orange this morning! East Ridge defeated six District 3 teams, including Windermere, Viera, Olympia, West Orange, Boone, and Lake Nona! Windermere High School was the team runner up, as they placed their top two scorers within the first twelve positions. The overall individual winner for the girls varsity race was junior Addison Elwell from Viera High School. Elwell finished today’s race in a swift time of 18:51.
The Knights also had seven runners participate in the girls junior varsity race this morning at West Orange High School. Freshman Kori Lindley made her return today, and was the individual champion of the junior varsity race – a race that had 98 total runners! Lindley finished in a time of 23:25 – which was a new career personal best! Sophomore Jessie Volz, the second Knight to finish, placed third overall and clocked a time of 24:18.
Sophomore Lexi Whitehead, the third Knight to finish, placed tenth overall and finished in 25:37. Junior Thirsa Cnossen, the fourth scorer for the Knights junior varsity team, finished in fourteenth place in a time of 26:10. Senior J’Mariana Douglas, the junior varsity’s fifth scorer, placed eighteenth overall and finished in a time of 26:42 – an improvement of fourteen seconds from her performance at West Orange last season! Junior Alyssa Schacht placed 24th overall and finished in a time of 27:26 – a new career personal best performance!
Sophomore Yeidy Diaz placed 46th overall and finished in a time of 29:47 – also a new career personal best performance! The Knights’ junior varsity team also took the team top honors, as they defeated seven other junior varsity teams at West Orange this morning!
For full results for the girls varsity and junior varsity races at the West Orange High School Invitational visit: http://results.tfmeetpro.com/Elite_Timing_and_Event_Management/West_Orange_Invitational_2024/.
East Ridge will host its first of two home meets next week. The Second Annual SSG Hammond Invitational will be on Saturday September 21st, with the girls’ varsity race starting promptly at 8:00 am.
