By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor

St. Cloud’s boys (44) and girls (22) won 3A-5 district cross country champions last week and will compete at the 3A-2 regional meet today at 9 a.m. at Lecanto.

Also advancing to Lecanto are boys teams from Harmony (3rd, 114) and Osceola  (4th, 142).

Liberty’s boys (104) placed third at the 4A-4 district meet at Winter Garden last week and will run at the 4A-1 regional meet at 8 a.m. at Gainesville Buchholz High.

Celebration’s Quincy O’Connor (16:16.60) won the 3A-5 boys individual district championship. He will move on to the regional meet as an individual.

Three St. Cloud runners followed O’Connor across the finish line at the district meet, held at Harmony: Matt Cole (16:58.70), Antonio Montalvo (17:03.50) and Bailey Morgan (17:11.40). Gabriel Sanin (17th, 18:05.70) and Aaron Allcorn (18th, 18:09) also scored for the Bulldogs.

“The boys have a great chance of finishing in the top six and qualifying for states for the fourth straight year,” St. Cloud Coach Kevin Harkema said.

Harmony’s Matt Henning (17:24.40) finished fifth. Also scoring for the Longhorns were Jacob Gilbert (12th, 18:00.90), Alex Grieve (25th, 18:53.20), Austin Miller (31st, 19:17.30) and Chris Huff (41st, 19:40.40).

Osceola was led by Fox Baldwin (21st, 18:27), followed by Joshua Rodriguez (22nd, 18:33.40), Edwin Estrella (30th, 19:15.40), Gamaliar Cedeno (19:23.90) and Milo Williams (19:26).

St. Cloud freshman Octavia Gonzalez (19:37.60) won the individual girls championship and four of her teammates placed among the top 10: Ashlyn Stadtlander (2nd, 19:49.10), Katelyn Stadtlander (5th, 20:21.30), Karissa Solorzano (6th, 20:23.93) and Anaya Reid (8th, 20:58.70).

“The team ran together, and now they will have a chance to compete for the regional championship. Their toughest competition will come from Wiregrass Ranch,” Harkema said.

Harmony’s Yanese Arevalo (12th, 21:05.80) and Celebration’s Christina Ricci (13th, 21:16.10) qualified individually.

Liberty was led by Rogelio Araiza (13th, 16:46.89), followed by Javier Arteaga (18th, 17:10.25), Tyler Haase (21st, 17:24.64), Richard Eyiangho (24th, 17:33.22) and Eyituoyo Eyiangho (28th, 17:52.11).

Gateway’s Bryan Cudjoe (11th, 16:39.30) qualified individually. The Panthers (135) placed fifth.

Poinciana’s Gabriel Rodriguez (20:04.80) was second overall at the 2A-7 district meet at Lake Nona and competes at the 2A-2 regional at Trinity Prep today at 10:30 a.m. She is joined by teammate Estelle Esperance (22:20.28). The Lady Eagles did not have enough runners to post a team score.

City of Life Academy’s boys placed fifth (151) and New Dimensions (157) was sixth at the A-7 district meet at Mount Dora Bible last week. The top four teams advanced.

The state meets at Little Everglades Ranch in Dade City are Nov. 19.