DISTRICT CROSS COUNTRY
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The start of the girls OBC cross-country race Oct. 13. Harmony and Celebration will run in Saturday's regional races after qualifying through last weekend's district races. PHOTO/LINDSEY TELLEZ
Saturday was a successful day for several local cross country teams as Osceola High School hosted the FHSAA Class 4A, District 5 cross country championships.
Celebration advanced both its girls’ and boys’ teams to next week’s regional meet at North Port High School; while the Tohopekaliga boys easily advanced and the Harmony girls barely edged Timber Creek to also move on to regionals.
On the boys’ side, Tohopekaliga (118 team points) and Celebration (122) finished fourth and fifth and advance to next Saturday’s regional meet.
Tohopekaliga, who barely edged out Celebration for the Orange Belt Conference championship last week, had four runners in the top 15 including Johan Comacho, who finished fourth in 16:18.79. Other counting times for the Tigers included Javan Median (11th-16:35.22), Zaniel Lizardo (14th-16:41.90), Cameron Ford (48th-18:28.12) and Marc Rodriguez (49th -18:29.53).
With a healthy Comacho now leading the squad, Tohopekaliga coach Matt Fenn believes his team has a legitimate chance to get to the state meet in Tallahassee on Nov. 5. “Johan has been battling an injury for most of the season but has managed to put the pieces together when it counts. He had a great performance at districts. Zaniel and Javan have been very consistent all season as my number two and three runners, so if we can get that consistency from our top three guys making it to states as a team is certainly obtainable.”
With the top eight teams advancing, Celebration also made it through to regionals behind Evan Amaya’s sixth place finish (16:24.53). Other Storm runners included Cooper James (25th-17:29.30), Sebastian Valez (28th-17:36.24), Justin Quispe (29th-17:37.94), and Jakobe Vongphrachan (39th-18:00.35). The Storm’s squad should also challenge for a state team berth.
Longhorn senior Joel Jean, the defending OBC champion, finished fifth overall in 16:20.44 to grab one of three available at-large individual spots; while Poinciana’s Levi Lee (18th-17:04.10) also qualified.
The girls’ side featured a much tighter race for regional qualification. Melbourne (71) edged Boone (78) for the girls’ team title; while only four points separated fifth through ninth place. Celebration (184) grabbed the fifth spot; while Harmony (188) and Timber Creek (188) tied for the eighth and final automatic team qualifying spot — with the Lady Longhorns advancing based on their sixth place runner Alyssa Santacruz to break the tie.
Overall, the Storm’s Catalina Edwards, the OBC champion from 2021 who struggled to a third place this year, regained her form Saturday as the county’s top county finisher with a third place time of 19:19.97. Other Storm runners that contributed included ninth graders Gabriella DeCesare (23rd, 21:09.17) and Piper Morgan (56th, 23.22.31). Senior Hefina Oliver (58th-23.22.12) and sophomore Marissa McNeill (63rd – 23:45.15) rounded out scoring for the Storm.
Sophomore Lailana Decker (4th-19:23.78), who won her first OBC individual championship last week, led the way for the Longhorns. Eliana Halk (42nd-22:27.18), Kaetlyn Ussery (49th-23:02.22), Kiana Medina-Vega (53rd- 23:05.22) and Amelia Blumer (55th-23:18.52) were the other counting times for the Lady Longhorns.
Osceola runners Nicole Salcedo (15th-20:16.4) and Mia Gonzalez-Nunez (27th-21:17.58) grabbed two of three at-large spots for regionals.
