Orlando (September 18)

The East Ridge High School girls’ cross country team competed in the Lake Buena Vista Invitational at the beautiful and brand new Lake Buena Vista High School on Saturday morning. A humid September morning also came with a nice overcast sky, which helped keep the temperature around 77 degrees for the varsity race. Much like last week at St. Cloud, the course at Lake Buena Vista was characterized by a muddy terrain due to some late evening rain the previous night.  The course was flat and it took the runners for three campus laps around the athletic fields.  The Knights had a great showing at this inaugural meet. Six of the eight girls who ran in the varsity race had season-best performances, and because of their efforts, the team placed fourth out of eleven complete teams at Lake Buena Vista High School today.

Girls from fourteen different schools throughout Central Florida participated in the Lake Buena Vista Invitational today.  The varsity girls race started at 7:30 AM. The start of the race took the girls across a practice football field, which they circled twice before running a long straightaway along the backside of the campus.  For the fourth race in a row, junior Sophie Roemmen has led her team and charged the finish line as the team’s first scorer.  As well, for the fourth race in a row, Sophie set a season-best time, as she finished today’s meet in a time of 20:51! Sophie placed 12th overall out of a field of 87 varsity female runners!  Freshman Hanna Warren also set a season-best with a swift 22:01 performance this morning. Hanna took eighteenth place overall! Junior Bre Peine finished in 21st place and also set a new season-best with a time of 22:18!

Freshman Neely Lugo was the fourth Knight to cross the finish line this morning.  She finished in 23rd place and in a time of 22:24 – a season-best performance!  The fifth finisher and final scorer for East Ridge was junior Alanis Melgar. Alanis finished in 34th place and in a time of 23:15 – a season-best and a performance that was just one second shy of her career personal best!  The sixth finisher for the Knights was freshman J’Mariana Douglas.  J’Mariana placed 54th overall and finished in a time of 24:32 – her second-best time of the season. The seventh finisher for the Knights was senior Keira Votava who finished in 60th place and in a time of 24:58 – also her second-best time of the season. The eighth finisher for the Knights was sophomore Lina Maldonado. Lina finished in 63rd place and in a time of 25:19 – a new season personal best!

East Ridge High School placed fourth among eleven complete teams at Lake Buena Vista. District rival Olympia High School, won the Lake Buena Vista Invitational.  Olympia placed their top three runners in the top ten of the race. Winter Springs High School, who also placed their top three runners in the top ten, was the runner-up at today’s meet. District rival Dr. Phillips High School, who took third place, just edged out the Knights today. However, the Knights were able to overcome Indian Hill High School, out of Cincinnati, Ohio, by one team point in spite of the fact that Indian Hill had the first and third place runners! The overall individual winner for the girls’ varsity race was senior Elizabeth Whaley from Indian Hill High School. Whaley finished today’s race in a swift time of 18:33.

The Knights also had eight runners participate in the girls’ junior varsity race this morning at Lake Buena Vista High School. Sophomore Sarah Tingler placed seventh out of a field of 41 junior varsity girls. She finished in a time of 26:39 – a new season-best by nearly an entire minute! Freshman Isabella Stuemke finished in twelfth place overall and in a time of 27:36. Sophomore Kayden Page finished in 16th place in a time of 29:00 – a new season-best by four seconds! Junior Brenna Oliveri finished in nineteenth place overall and in a time of 29:29. Sophomore Brittni Faber placed 23rd overall and finished in a time of 30:11. Sophomore Karlie Saint Lot finished in 30th place overall and in a time of 33:04 in her debut performance. Junior Alexandra Dimitros came in 33rd place and finished in a time of 33:25 – a new season-best performance by nearly twenty seconds! Freshman Brianna Romero finished in 41st place in a time of 44:38 in her debut performance as a Knight.

For full results for the girls’ varsity race at the Lake Buena Vista Invitational visit: https://fl.milesplit.com/meets/410344-lake-buena-vista-xc-invitational-2021/results/763787/formatted#.YUZN7I5Kg2w.  

For full results for the girls’ junior varsity race visit: https://fl.milesplit.com/meets/410344-lake-buena-vista-xc-invitational-2021/results/763799/formatted#.YUZOCY5Kg2w.

The girls’ cross country team will travel to West Orange High School on Saturday, September 25th to participate in the West Orange Invitational. The race is set to start at 7:20 AM.

The post East Ridge High School Girls’ Cross Country Team Recap appeared first on South Lake Tablet.

The East Ridge High School girls varsity cross country team traveled to Ocala to competein the Seventh Annual Trinity Catholic High School Celtic Invitational at Trinity Catholic High School. In 2018, the team had competed at this particular event and performed spectacularly, as they secured first place.  In 2019, the Knights came to defend their invitational championship and raced hard to repeat last season’s triumph.  The weather conditions were near perfect for runners, as the temperature sat at 65 degrees on a crisp Ocala morning.

Girls from seventeen different schools throughout Central Florida competed in the Seventh Annual Trinity Catholic High School Celtic Invitational on Saturday morning.  In her final regular-season race of her high school career, senior Reagan Parks led the entire field of 71 female runners.  Reagan established her lead in the fairway of the starting area, and never looked back.  Parks swiftly moved along Trinity Catholic’s updated campus course, following the race director in the golf cart. In 2018 Reagan posted a 21:00 finish time at the meet and secured sixth place.  This time around, she posted a 20:44 finish time and placed first overall, and was the Celtic Invitational individual champion!  Reagan celebrated her last regular season meet of her high school career by winning her first invitational individual championship in her high school career! Junior Mackenzie Hill was the second Knight to cross the finish line on Saturday morning.  Placing fourth overall, Mackenzie finished in a time of 21:57, which was an improvement of fifty seconds from her sophomore time at Trinity Catholic in 2018!

For the first mile of the race, East Ridge’s remaining four varsity runners ran in a fairly tight pack.  Naturally, the pack broke apart, and the race thinned out.  At the front of the pack, junior Olivia Peine led most of the remainder of the race, but in the final half-mile junior Mia Vogel-Lag was able to overcome her teammate.  The third Knight to finish was junior Mia Vogel-Lag, placing eleventh overall and finishing in a time of 23:26 – just twelve seconds shy of a season personal best finish time.  Junior Olivia Peine followed her teammate as the fourth scorer for the varsity team.  Olivia placed twelfth overall and came across the finish line in a time of 23:34 – comparable to her time at Trinity last season.

The internal team competition did not end with Mia and Olivia, as freshmen Bre Peine and Alanis Melgar remained close to each other the entire race.  The course had a short track finish in a straightaway of approximately 80 meters. Bre’s toes touched the track first, and her teammate swiftly followed her through the entry gate and onto the track.  However, in the final stretch, it would be Alanis’s toes that would cross the finish line first.  Alanis finished in seventeenth place in a time of 24:02.00, as she inched out Bre in the literal final second of their race.  Bre finished in eighteenth place in a time of 24:02.80 – a new season personal best. The seventh runner for the Knights was junior Heidy Castillo.  Heidy placed 21^st and finished in a time of 24:26 – also a new season personal best!

East Ridge also had some runners compete in the junior varsity race on Saturday morning.  Sophomore Peppa Marin placed fifth out of 27 total junior varsity female runners.  She finished in a time of 26:43 – less than twenty seconds from her season personal best.  Sophomore Mansi Patel finished in eleventh place, and in a time of 27:55 – a new season personal best time by more than two minutes!  Freshman Alexandra Dimitros and Junior Myra Niang completed their first race of the season.  Alexandra finished in 33:45 and Myra finished in 34:54.

East Ridge’s two frontrunners, Reagan and Mackenzie, along with the internal team competition between Mia and Olivia and between Alanis and Bre propelled the Knights to victory.  East Ridge took first place, successfully defending their invitational title.

Saturday’s race ended the 2019 regular season for the girls’ cross country team.  Now the focus for the team is the district meet.  The girls will compete in the Class 4A District 2 meet on Saturday, October 26, at West Orange High School at 8:00 am.  The top ten teams (of seventeen total teams) and top thirty individuals at the district meet will qualify for the Class 4A Region 1 meet the following week.  Last year East Ridge was runner up at their district meet, and qualified for the regional meet.  In a larger and more competitive district this season, the Knights seek their second consecutive regional qualification.

For individual results from the Seventh Annual Trinity Catholic High School Celtic Invitational visit https://drcsports.com/race-results/155.

The post East Ridge HS Girls Cross Country Competes In Celtic Invitational appeared first on South Lake Tablet.