By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor

The St. Cloud Lady Bulldog cross country team won the 3A-2 regional championship at Lecanto and earned a berth to the state meet at Dade City Little Everglades Ranch today.

St. Cloud’s top five runners placed among the top 19, led by freshman Octavia Gonzalez (3rd, 19:26.23).

Next for St. Cloud came Ashlyn Stadtlander (4th, 19:41.10), Karissa Solorzano (10th, 20:05.70), Katelyn Stadtlander (13th, 20:07.97) and Anaya Reid (17th, 20:24.92). Rebecca Davis placed 20th for St. Cloud.

This will be St. Cloud’s second straight appearance at the state meet, which begins at 8:30 a.m. The team is ranked No. 5 in Class 3A.

St. Cloud’s boys also qualified for the state meet, placing fifth (167) led by Bailey Morgan (15th, 16:50.05). Antonio Montalvo (20th, 16:59.59), Matt Cole (23rd, 17:05.13), Gabriel Sanin (65th, 18:17.25) and Aaron Allcorn (69th, 18:22.20) scored for St. Cloud.

"The girls ran great, and have a goal to finish in the top five of state (today)," St. Cloud Coach Kevin Harkema said. "The boys did a good job to qualify, and they're going to state for the fourth year in a row."

Celebration’s Quincy O’Connor (15:53) won the individual regional championship and will compete at the state meet for the second straight year.

Storm Coach Bart Roberts said O'Connor ran one of his best races at the regional.

"It is not his fastest time of the year, but because it was a pretty difficult course it would translate into his fastest time," Roberts said. "We are looking forward to the race (today)."

Harmony’s Matt Henning (7th, 16:43.31) qualified as an individual.

"I'm excited about Matt. He really bounced back this season," Horns Coach Jacob Grantham said.

Poinciana's Gabriella Rodriguez (6th, 20:29.30) will compete at the Class 2A meet after qualifying individually at the regional.

She broke Edda Santiago's 2001 school record by more than 1 minute and is only the second Lady Eagle, after Santiago, to qualify for the state meet.

Liberty’s boys placed 14th at the 4A-1 regional at Winter Garden last week.