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Belen Dominates Florida Horse Park Invitational 2024Published by
By Ricky Quintana Ocala, FL- Belen Jesuit’s Marcelo Mantecon ran a meet and course record and Belen Jesuit romped to victory Saturday morning at the 11th annual Florida Horse Park Invitational. On the girl’s side, The Bolles School (2A) eked out a victory over Ponte Vedra (3A), 117-119 in a race that saw the top four teams within 26 points of each other. Two weeks ago at the Cecil Field Classic, the runners had to funnel in to a narrow path 200 meters into the race reeking havoc for the runners as they tried to position themselves. However, the Florida Horse Park start is about 80 yards wide with the first 400 meters narrowing gradually to 15 yards wide allowing the runners to ease into the race and not battle for position. The end result was the field was close nit group of 50 runners within ten seconds at the 800m mark. Leading the field was Buchholz junior, Demetrie Meyers. Meyers transferred from Pennsylvania this past year and finished 15th at the Cecil Field Classic in 15:57. In this race though, he looked like a totally different runner leading through the first 1.3 miles. “I wanted to run an equivalent of a PR because I knew the course was going to be slow. I wanted to aim around 15:45 but I kind of shocked myself by going out a little bit too fast, but then I was able to hold on a little longer and close in about 15 seconds faster.” said Meyers who ran 5k track best of 15:20.11 in June at the John Hay Distance Classic. “I was a little shocked to be in with the Belen group, but I held on as long as I could.” A sharp left hand turn at 1.3 miles saw Mantecon take charge stringing out the field over the next half mile. However, unlike Cecil Field Classic, he had company and wasn’t able to get separation from Berkeley Prep senior Liam Jordan who was up to the task and followed the pace. “Obviously, given that he’s [Mantecon] one of the best kids in the country and has a target on his back every race, the main goal was stick with the Belen pack and stay as close to Marcelo as possible and see where the race took me,” said Jordan. As Mantecon and Jordan battled it out, Belen Jesuit teammate, Tiago Socarras was making his way up into fourth place just before the two mile mark. He had finished sixth at Cecil Field Classic, but he too looked like a different runner battling over the last half of the race to move from fifth at 1.5 miles to third at 2.5 miles. “For me, I wanted to get out more comfortably because I’ve been tired the last two weeks. The race felt a lot slower back there it felt a more comfortable. I was really able to started putting in the work at the 2k.” Though Mantecon stated he ran a bit scared, his persistent push finally gave him daylight at the 2.5 mile mark and he rode that gap all the way to finish as he crushed Joshua Ruiz’s, his former teammate now a freshman at the University of Florida, course record by a whopping 18 seconds. “ I thought was going to have Justin or Tiago right on me and finish together, but he [Liam Jordan] came right behind me so I had to pick it up,” said Mantecon who finished in 15:06.6, 18.8 seconds faster than last year. Jordan held his own in his second race of the season finishing second in 15:13.6(15:39 last year) and also crushed Ruiz’s 15:24.90 from last year. He posted a 4:14.80 mile and 9:04.45 two mile in the high school post season and parlayed that fitness on Saturday. “After each cross country and track season I take a two week break to reset everything. This year with doing New Balance Outdoor, I pushed later into the summer and held the fitness and worked a good mileage base so I came out here and put that to work.” Socarras (1:51.32,4:04.53 last spring) was able to gap Meyers over the final half mile to finish third in 15:27.2, a 12.8 second xc personal best. “I’m trying to work my up there [with Mantecon]. I’m relatively new to the cross country scene and trying to figure out what works. Hopefully by the end of the season I’ll be up there pushing him [Mantecon] as much as I possibly can.” Meyers held on for fourth in 15:29.0, bettering his 15:46.40 at Running Lane last December. “It’s crazy for this time of the year. It’s only my second race. It’s only week two and we have a long way to go,” he said. The times on Saturday matched the all-time best of nine total runners under 16:00 set last year. The top four rewrote the top standings as Mantecon and Jordan were under Ruiz’s record to take the top two fastest times. Socarras moved to fifth fastest and Meyers to sixth fastest. Some notable runners who they displaced were Graham Myers (Freshman at UF now), Gabe Montague and Charles Hicks. 3A Belen scored a team low 22 points to outdistance 4A Buchholz (105) by 88 points. Their 15:34 average was done with a slightly different top five than Cecil Field(15:31 average) as Armando Cruz scored in the top five for this first time this season with a seventh place finish in 15:48.3. Justin Ruiz was fifth (15:42.2) and Diego Magarino was sixth in 15:45.3 to round out the scoring. Buchholz improved over Cecil Field Classic performances (16:34.6) across the board (16:10 avg Saturday); Meyers saw a 28 second improvement; Sam Freas, an 18 second improvement ( 10th in 16:00.8); Gino Palazzolo returned from injury to finish 19th in 16:16.7; Calum Watson improved 18 seconds (24th in 16:18.5) and St. Francis Catholic(Gainesville, FL) transfer Sam Stone improved 16 seconds (51st in 16:43.5). Belen will travel to Huntsville for The Southern Showcase next week while Buchholz will compete in the Bobcat Classic in their hometown of Gainesville, FL. Girls Ponte Vedra senior Daisy Ross got a challenge early but dispatched all contenders with an 19.8 second win in 18:27.1.
“For this race, I felt pretty good. This was something our team was super excited about doing since it was our first time here. During the race I felt I had to breath and keep control and then when it was finally time to hit the two mile, I kicked it up a notch,” she said after the race. The time was a tick faster than her fifth place showing at Cecil Field. She used that experience for Saturday’s race. Springstead freshman Lainee Mercer bided her time and moved up to second place by race end to finish second in 18:46.9, cutting 10.3 seconds off her personal best for the distance. The ’23 Florida MS cross country champion and owner of a 10:13.38 3k outdoor personal best has transitioned well and could be a factor in the 3A individual state title hunt in two months. “I like it [the 5k distance]. It’s definitely a jump from the 3k, but I’m acclimating pretty well to it,” said Mercer. “I did try to get out hard so I wouldn’t get boxed in or anything. I just mostly tried to maintain and hold it and save up for a kick at the end. I think it’s a pretty good time. It’s my second race and I have a lot more to improve on.” In the team race, 2A Bolles was able to counter Ross’ first place matching them through the top four and getting a commanding 33-51 place difference at number five to edge the 3A Sharks 117-119. Other notables:
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