“Friday Night Lights” doesn’t just apply to football in these parts.
Last Friday, the Tohopekaliga and Gateway High cross country programs jointly hosted a meet, the J.T. Memorial Invitational under the lights at the Austin-Tindall Sports Complex.
And the Tigers and Celebration Storm were the ones who lit it up, taking 13 of the 20 spots in the top 10 for the boys and girls runners.
In the girls race, Celebration won the meet with 36 points to edge out Boone, and Storm runners took third (Catalina Edwards, 19:21), sixth (Gabriella Castro, 22:44), eighth (Hefina Oliver, 22:53) and 10th (Camille Barrios, 23:05). Toho runners took fifth (Amari Whetro, 21:25), seventh (Brianna Rodriguez, 22:52) and ninth (Tiana McPhaul, 22:56).
Gateway was fourth, led by 15th place Elise Echeverry (24:25) and St. Cloud was fifth, led by 20th place Jenny Hernandez (25:32).
The Celebration boys completed the Storm sweep (33) over Boone (38), with Tohopekaliga (69) third and Gateway (166), St. Cloud (177), Poinciana (196) and Life Christian (240) fifth through eighth.
The Storm’s Jared Falchook (16:20) and Cooper James (17:01) led a 1-2 finish, and Evan Amaya (17:13) and Sebastian Velez (17:45) were fourth and eighth. Tohopekaliga’s Julian Drey Pomales (17:12) was third and Javan Medina (18:01) was 10th.
