The Gateway boys cross country team will make a return trip this weekend to the Class 3A state meet, held Saturday at Apalachee State Park near Tallahassee.
St. Cloud’s Brody Ansbaugh and Kyla Perez, who qualified as individuals through regionals, will join the Panthers in the Panhandle, running in the Class 4A meet as individuals.
The accomplishment is impressive for Gateway, since Coach Matt Distler said he barely had enough runners in 2023 to compete at districts, and the heart of that group made it to state last year.
“We built a strong base, and our goal was to qualify for regionals and just see what happened,” Distler said. “Then we qualify, we were seeded dead last (32nd) and finished 27th.”
He said that set the jaw of his returning runners to do it again.
“We started working three days a week right after track ended, then in practice at the end of the summer, the kids worked hard,” Distler said. “My only regret was not training them to be quicker.”
Whatever they did worked. Starting the postseason by nearly dethroning St. Cloud (41-45) as the OBC champs, the Panthers were fifth at the Region 3A-2 meet last weekend in New Smyrna Beach, and Anderson Olea rebroke his own school record with a time of 16:15.7, which earned him regional runner-up.
Langston Carry, Nicholas Gordils, Jean Jessurum, Jacob Zamor, Gianni Mestre and David Goden will form the team at Apalachee, with the fastest five making up the team score.
“Last year it was, ‘Hey we’re here, let’s enjoy it,’” Distler said. “The kids are more focused this time and all want to set a (personal record). I’d say improving on our placing from last year and finishing middle of the pack is a tangible goal.”
Ansbaugh finished 13th overall (16:08.1) at the Region 4A-2 meet to punch his ticket, and Perez was 10th (19:06.7) in the girls regional.
