It was a stellar year for Osceola County cross country; several teams and individuals performed well at county, district, regional and state levels.
At the end of the run, Celebration’s Jared Falchook and Catalina Edwards are the Osceola News-Gazette Male and Female Runners of the Year.
Edwards capped her junior season with an eighth place finish in Class 4A state championship meet in Tallahassee on Nov. 12. Her time of 19:14.5 was the fourth fastest among underclassmen.
She placed third in both the district and regional meets and also won the Orange Belt Conference championship.
“I am so proud of Catalina’s year-round dedication that allowed her to take her talent to the next level. She is a fierce competitor who set high goals for herself and did a tremendous job working to meet those goals,” Coach David Rains said. “She is a phenomenal teammate and an excellent student. I am proud of her accomplishments she earned this year, but she is an even better person and student.”
Harmony, which won the OBC girls team title, had four All-County runners.
In addition to Edwards, the team includes Lailana Decker (Fr., Harmony), Alaine Rivera (Sr., Harmony), Nyidjah Ives (Sr., Liberty), Amari Whetro (So., Tohopekaliga), Eliana Halk (Sr., Harmony) and Izabell Reichard (So., Harmony).
Decker, who finished second to Edwards at the OBC championships, was 24th at the 4A state championship meet; while Rivera finished 44th.
On the boy’s side, Falchook edged out Harmony’s Joel Jean and Tohopekaliga’s Julian Pomales. The Storm senior, who also excels in track, won four of nine races this season, including repeating as OBC champ, where Jean was second. But the Harmony junior had a stellar post-season, as did Pomales; they’d chase each other all during the postseason.
“Jared is a very special athlete and certainly deserving of this honor,” Coach Gerardo Dorta said. “He has had a tremendous career here at Celebration and made a lasting impact on our program. He was essentially the driving force in the most successful four-year run in school history.”
At districts, Falchook placed fifth, Pomales wasw sixth and Jean eighth. At regionals the order was Jean (6th place), Falchook (9th) and Pomales (12th). At state, Pomales had the highest state finish (22nd), while Jean was 35th.
“Jared had an incredible year,” Dorta added. “It’s a shame he missed an atlarge berth in the state meet by one place, because his times were certainly better than the majority of runners who made it to state.”
Joining the trio on the All-County Boys Team is Johan Comacho (Jr., Tohopekaliga), Cooper James (Jr., Celebration), Evan Amaya (Jr., Celebration) and John Ortiz (Sr., St. Cloud).
Tohopekaliga and Celebration finished tied for the OBC team Championship, with the Tigers winning the title based on their sixth place runner finishing ahead of the Storm’s.
