By Grant Mollett, M.Ed.
East Ridge High School
Heading into the weekend, many nearby school districts opted to cancel athletic events and transportation to and from distant athletic events due to the looming presence of Hurricane Dorian. However, in Lake County, the school board permitted travel to athletic events, so the East Ridge Knights girls cross country team boarded the school bus and headed for the hills! Saturday was the girls’ annual test of “Heartbreak” and “Agony,” the hills of Mount Dora Christian Academy’s cross country course, as the team participated in the 45th Annual Mount Dora Christian Cross Country Invitational. If the edginess of hurricane preparation coupled with the physicality of the hills was not enough for the athletes, then perhaps tossing in a bout with a swarm of yellow jackets in the wooded portion of MDCA’s course would up the stakes in Saturday’s race! That’s right – last week at Inverness junior Heidy Castillo endured a bee sting early in the race, and this week freshman Alanis Melgar did battle with yellow jacket stings!
Last season the Knights finished runner up at MDCA, and in spite of the added pressure of the morning’s race, the girls repeated history. This season, girls from eleven different schools and running clubs competed in Saturday morning’s event. Senior Reagan Parks led the Knights once again, as she did battle with the other front-runners. Reagan placed 4th in a field of 36 female runners, and finished in a time of 21:26 – more than one minute better than her performance at Mount Dora last season. The second Knight to finish was junior Mackenzie Hill. Mackenzie followed her teammate, and placed 5th overall in a finish time of 22:09. Mackenzie’s performance on Saturday outshined her performance last season by more than a minute and a half! Reagan and Mackenzie worked hard to prevent a sweep by the Green Wave of Father Lopez Catholic School. Last season, Father Lopez placed fifth in the 1A State Championships, and were the runner up in the 1A Region 3 Championships.
The third Knight to finish was junior Olivia Peine. Olivia placed 10th overall. She finished the morning’s race in a time of 25:04 – just under a minute faster than her performance at Mount Dora last season. Rounding out the Knights’ scoring positions were freshman Alanis Melgar and junior Caitlyn Cavender. Alanis placed 12th overall and posted a time of 25:39, and Caitlyn placed 18th overall and posted a time of 27:06. Alanis’s performance was an improvement by over forty seconds from last week’s meet. A great feat, as the MDCA course is deemed to be a much more difficult course. The sixth runner for the girls varsity team was junior Heidy Castillo. Heidy placed 21st in a time of 28:07.
Due to a smaller field of runners, the meet director combined the varsity and junior varsity girls races. Sophomore Mansi Patel finished in a time of 34:11, and placed 12th out of 17 junior varsity runners.
As a team, the East Ridge girls came in second out of four scoring teams, and placed three girls in the top ten. Father Lopez took first place overall and placed five girls in the top seven. Mary Peck from Father Lopez was the individual champion, and she claimed her title with a swift finish time of 20:34. For full results from the Mount Dora Christian 45th Annual Cross Country Invitational visit https://www.arrowliveresults.com/MDCAXCINVITATIONAL45THANNUALGVARSITY?fbclid=IwAR3tZfGuoHVL5ZUwvmc12XiJD3olzHmPprNlaNN2sBPUENg9Fm3HCt2ZH8g.
The girls’ team will travel to compete in the Astronaut Invitational at Chain of Lakes Park in Titusville, Florida next Saturday, September 7 pending the conditions after Hurricane Dorian.
