Local middle school cross country runners just keep blazing a trail to state championships.
The Soldier City Striders, a club team formed outside of the school district to give middle schoolers in Osceola County a chance to compete at the state meet after county championships end, brought home the Florida Youth Running Association Middle School State Championship girls open division team title for the third straight year.
“The team extends an invitation to as many different schools athletes as possible who run under a certain ‘qualifying’ time,” said Matt Distler, who works with this team outside coaching the track program at Neptune Middle School. “We have been fortunate enough to put together strong rosters every year that are able to compete at the highest level with the best teams and athletes in the state when it matters most.”
The team has competed at the state meet since 2021 and done well annually. The boys team won the state title in 2022 and were runners-up in 2021 and 2023 and third this year. The girls team placed 5th their first year in 2021 before running off its three-peat.
This year, the girls team had 16 athletes who qualified and the boys team had 24 qualifiers for Saturday’s race at Holloway Park in Lakeland. These student athletes came from Harmony, Canoe Creek, Narcoossee, St. Cloud, Harmony, Celebration and Neptune Middle Schools.
This year’s state champion winning girls team was led by Amyiah Hall (3rd overall), Ireland Wright (4th overall, last year’s champion), Kennedi Demons (7th), Kennedy Boles (9th), Gianna Velez (11th). Hannah Kohail (12th) and Lacey Lessard (17th).
The boys team had All-State medalists Brendan Feddon (3rd overall) and sixth grader Andrew Lahayne (5th).
The club team has been led by coaches Distler and Misty Haystead, but other schools coaches have volunteered each year, Distler said, “To help build something special for these kids to show that Osceola county has some of the best talent in the state.”
“Three consecutive state titles proves it,” he said. We just went for fun at first to give the kids from all the schools a chance for one more competitive meet. Then we were surprised how well we did and haven’t looked back.”
