By Ricky Quintana

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Jacksonville, FL - The cancellation of the FSU Prestate meet and cool(for Florida) temperatures made for a great racing Saturday morning at the New World Golf Course.

First up was the girls Elite race. Meet director, Richard Fannin, had assembled one of the best fields one could hope for.

“The only one of the top ten in the state that we don’t have is Annabella Tomasic [Lake Highland Prep, Orlando, FL],” he proclaimed before the race. “I think the record [Jillian Candelino, 17:41] will go down.”

And what a line up it was. Saturday's Elite girl line up included Alyson Johnson (Creekside, St. John, FL) and Avery Hartley (Cornerstone Classical Academy) who were both undefeated this season. They had not raced each other and had been winning their races by large margins. The last competition at Cecil Field on August 23 (albeit, not on the same course) included many who were racing on Saturday. That day,Johnson won by 13 seconds. In her wake were Mackenzie Roy (Spruce Creek, FL), Ellie Black (Cambridge Christian, Tampa, FL), Daisy Ross (Ponte Vedra, FL), her sister Sydney Johnson(Creekside, St. Johns FL), and Rhyen Foley(East Ridge, Claremont, FL). Hartley, an eighth grader, had opted for the middle school 2,500 meter which she won in 8:53. Margaret Bartlow (North Bay Haven, Panama City, FL) did not run Cecil Field but had been undefeated herself and sped to a solo 17:44.30 the week before in a quickly staged (due to the cancellation of FSU PreState) Majette XC Festival. The resume of the field was one of the strongest in high school history. 12 girls had slipped under 11 minutes for the 3,200m and six who had gone under 5 for the 1,600m during spring track season. So you can see why Fannin was so confident that the record could fall under the ideal conditions that presented itself on race day. 

A quick start saw Black in the lead with Mary Summers (Seven Rivers Christian, Lecanto, FL) and Roy leading the pack through 800 with Johnson and Hartley a few steps behind. Just before the mile, that pack dwindled to just Roy, Johnson and Bartlow as they settled in what turned out to be a neck in neck race for the next mile and a half. 

As the race end neared, Johnson began to press the pace, getting a half step lead. She had done this at Cecil Field Classic, but this time, the move was not quite enough. Roy and Bartlow covered it and seemed to awaken them into finish mode. Roy closed best as she pulled away from Johnson and then Bartlow to set a new meet record of 17:14. It was the first time she had beaten Johnson in cross country or track,  the fastest time in the state since Ellie Black's 17:15.5 at the North Port XC Invite in 2022 and the 20th fastest time in Florida cross country history. 

Afterwards, Roy wore a beaming smile.

“ I just wanted to run my own race. I had splits in my mind that I wanted to hit,” she said  “ [With 1k to go] I knew they were there and I definitely wanted to beat them. I’m very competitive. I was thinking I came this far, I’ve pushed every mile and I can’t stop here because there is only a half mile left. I just gave it everything I had. I just surged past everyone. Once you do it, you can never look back. I just wanted to go for it. I never thought I’d run 17:14 but I know I had put in the work.”

Bartlow surprised herself. She rarely gets to race against the state’s best runners competing in relative obscurity in races around the Panhandle. She had hoped to lock horns with the state’s best at FSU Prestate, but turned her attention to New World Fall Spectacular to test herself. She chased Roy to the finish to place second in 17:19, a new personal best.

Afterwards, she too was wearing a radiant smile as she reflected on what she had just done.

“ I’m a bit of a slow starter so I was able to work my way up behind them [Roy and Johnson],” said Bartlow. “ I tried to make a move. I didn’t quite have the confidence. I felt a little scared today because I’d never run this fast before, but once we passed the 800 [to go] mark , I felt this would be the place to go. I tried to kick as much as I could. Obviously, Mackenzie was able to kick a little harder than I could. Honestly, I was just proud. It was so much better than anything I was expecting from myself.” 

For Johnson, it was her first loss of the season. The junior who committed to Colorado recently saw a mistake she made that she plans not to do next time.

“I think I took the lead a little bit too early,” said Johnson who finished third in 17:23, a new personal best. “ Next time, I’ll know.”

The race was one for the ages for Floridians as 9 girls under 18 minutes and a tenth, Rhyn Foley was clocked at 18 minutes flat. Seven of the top ten set new personal bests.

In the team race, Creekside (4A) put together its best race of the season as they placed 5 in the top 41 to win with 84 points, 79 points better than Bishop Kenny (2A) with 163 points. Their 18:21 average was tops in the state this year and one of the best in Florida High School history. The Knights could be the best team in Florida history as their top 7 are composed of two juniors (Alyson Johnson and Sarah Rose), 1 sophomore (Emily Kate Longmire) and 4 freshmen (Sydney Johnson, Hadleigh Roberts, Emily Kate Longmire, Kaitlyn Chapman and Brynn Jenkins). They will be heavily favored to defeat three time state champions Buchholz who finished fourth with 253.

Though Bishop Kenny was defeated, their 18:59.6 top five average was tops among 2A this season and topped their 19:17 average in their team win at Asics/Alexander Invitational on October 5. Their 163 points just edged Ponte Vedra’s (3A) 169 points. Ponte Vedra’s top five average of 18:59.4  was slightly faster than Bishop Kenny, but  despite Daisy Ross’ tenth place finish, Ponte Vedra fell behind at the 2nd-5th runner to be edged out. Ponte Vedra, the 3A runner-up last year, posted the fastest average time in class 3A and will be favored over Dillard, the defending state champion who won the Broward County Cross Country Championships with 29 points and  a 19:54 average on Thursday.

Quotes and notes

Ellie Black (4th 17:33)- “ I was really sick at the beginning of the season. My first race at  Horse Park [September 7, Ocala, FL] I was not planning on running. It was bad. I was in bed with a fever all week.  I’m happy to be finally feeling myself and back to 100%.
I believe that all the setbacks are what make you stronger.  I’m really happy where I am at now. I’m happy to be back with my coach and my teammates. I feel this is where I really thrive. I also believe that everything happens for a reason and trust in God’s plan. It’s all working out.
It’s the fastest I’ve run in a long time so obviously that is what I’m most excited for. “

Sydney Johnson finished 6th at the Cecil Field Classic on August 23 in 18:37. The heralded freshman set personal best of 9:57.72 for 3,000m indoors and 5:02.60 for the mile outdoors as an 8th grader. Her best this cross country season was 18:21.50. Saturday morning she finished sixth in a new personal best of 17:49.

“My times were in the mid 18s and I’m excited to break 18. I was really disappointed at the beginning [of her season]. I wanted to be up there with the top runners. I just kept training hard and tried to change my mindset and stay strong in that second and third mile. I’m really happy now because I’m more close.
I used to start out really fast with the top people.Today I took it out at more even splits. I took it out at 5:40 so that second mile I could hold it and finish as fast as I could. That has helped me a lot. I’m still figuring out how to run a 5k.”

Avery Hartley decided to race at 9pm on Friday night. She also had a mishap that banged up her knee earlier in the week. She finished 13th in 18:09.0, her second best time of the season.

Boys

Equally or deeper than the girls race, the boys Elite race was another highly anticipated race.

Sophomore Marcelo Mantecon (Belen Jesuit, Miami,FL) was coming off a win at The Great American XC Festival in the sixth fastest performance in venue history, 14:40.20. Taking a page from that win, he tore off into the lead getting three seconds up on the chase pack of Andrew Beroset (Gulf Breeze, FL) and Jonathan Pena (Westminster Academy, Fort Lauderdale, FL) by the 800m mark. At the mile, 4:36, he increased that advantage to four seconds. It was the second straight race he had opened up a gap early. Afterwards, he talked about his fast start strategy.

“ I just like to run like that. It’s good to get out fast. It sets the tone for the race.”

Sophomore Beroset held second place, but wasn’t expecting Mantecon to get such a lead that early.

“ When I first started, I was looking for the Belen team because I was planning to stick with them the first mile. I said ‘Where is Marcelo?’ and I look up and he’s like 15 meters ahead of everybody. I was like ‘How did he already get up there?’ I was just trying to stay within striking distance.”

Staying within striking distance was easier said than done. By the halfway mark, Mantecon had  increased the lead another second to five seconds over Pena and teammate Diego Magarino and was running with a full head of steam. 

Tucked in the chase pack, Gino Palazzolo (Buchholz, Gainesville, FL) was running a measured race with teammate Demetrie Meyers. Buchholz Coach Pat Douma had said prior to the race to  “ Watch out for Gino [Palazzolo]. He’s been running well and is going to do well today.”

Palazollo had a great spring running 9:05.33 in the 3,200m at Running Lane to end his track season. This past summer, he strung together some high mileage weeks and on a trip to Colorado injured himself. That resulted in time off from running and a slow start to his senior season. He did not race at Cecil Field Classic, but debuted at Florida Horse Park in 16:16.70 to finish 19th.

Saturday, as Douma had said, Palazollo was having a great race and moved into second place by the two mile with teammate Demetrie Meyers and Beroset in tow.

Mantecon continued to increase his lead and was never threatened. His, winning time was 14:49, third best in course history behind Rheinhardt Harrison’s (Nease, Ponte Vedra, FL) 14:45 and Patrick Koon’s (Leon, Tallahassee, FL) 14:46.

“ I just wanted to do what I could do. I just wanted to win to get one point for my team. That’s what I did and I’m happy with that,” Mantecon said afterwards. “ It was nice to have a break after Great American.  That was a tough race. This season has been amazing. It's about trusting God’s plan.”

Palazzolo finished second 15:01 with Meyers third in 15:02 and Beroset fourth in 15:05. All three set personal bests. In all 8 of the top ten set new personal bests.

In the team race, Belen scored an eye popping 28 points. The numbers they posted were staggering: a top five average of 15:12.8; a top six average was 15:15.3; a top seven average was 15:21.4; and a top five spread of 34 seconds. Tiago Socarras( 5th- 15:12), Armando Cruz (8th- 15:20), Justin Ruiz (9th- 15:20), Marco Prieguez(12th-15:23), Diego Magarino (15:28) and Matthias Murrle (46th-15:58) all posted personal bests. They are on track to win their 16th state championship in school history and their eighth in a row and earn a berth at the Nike Cross Nationals.

Buchholz put together its best race of the season without Sam Freas, one of their top three runners who was out nursing an injury.  Their 160 points came on personal bests from their top five runners; Palazzolo (2nd 15:01), Meyers (3rd- 15:02), Sam Stone (42nd- 15:53), Bennett Sager (68th-16:15), Calum Watson (73rd-16:18). Also setting personal bests were Brennen Bentley (81st-16:19), Davis Garrett(111th-16:42) and Luke Geltner(115th-16:42). They will be favored to win the 4A title which they last won in 1994- 30 years ago. Individually, Buchholz has favorites in Palazzolo and Meyers and the two could sweep the top two spots which was last done by Nease’s Reinhardt Harrison and Bradely Ball in 2020. Post season, they are a threat to make the Nike Cross Nationals.

Other potential state champions fared well. 1A Cambridge Christian finished fourth with 272 points with a 16:17.2 average. 2A Bishop Verot finished sixth with 310 points and a 16:11.6 average.

Quotes

Gino Palazzolo (2nd- 15:01)-  [After the injury]- “I just had to get it started back up. That’s pretty easy. I have an amazing team and an amazing coach. I’m just trying to have fun with it though there is a lot on the line this season. In past years, I’ve always just tried to stay consistent and this time I’ve had to do a little more- go to bed earlier, run a little more miles each week, run my easy pace a little faster. There are so many minute things that go into it. I’ve just strengthened and built up to it to get to this moment.”

Demetrie Meyers (3rd 15:02)-  “ The whole I was just blindside. I didn’t know where any of the marks were really. I was trying to hit a specific pace. There was a bunch of trouble from slipping at the start. It was an amazing race. To finish third and run 15:02 behind some amazing guys and beating some better guys, it was great.

[On his injury] We were doing a little bit of speed work and I didn’t get a good enough warm up. I was out for two or three days, but I was still keeping progress to get this big of  a race.”

Drew Beroset( 4th-15:05)- “ When they first passed me [Palazzolo and Meyers] , I said ‘Who are these guys? I’ve never seen them before. I had never raced them before. I’ll just stick with them and hopefully they will drag me up to Mareeclo because they were going fast.
I’m really excited. I’m getting closer and closer to 15. It feels really good.
Since the Southern Showcase, the workouts have been really good. They have been some of the best workouts I’ve ever had. They’ve been really hard and really long.
It would mean a lot to return to state. I have big goals. Obviously I want to win, but goals aren’t supposed to be easy to hit.

Tiago Socarras (5th-15:12) - “ We had a plan. [Coach Franike Ruiz] told us to  go out together. And that’s sort of what we did. We got out, no panicking. It was kind of working the k’s. We broke it into k’s and really tried to see what we could do from there. A lot of the guys were together just talking. We all felt really comfortable at the 1.5 and the 2 [mile] and after that it was everything you had. We saw Liam Jordan and Pena up front. Me and Justin communicated and looked at each other and knew it was time to go.

It's definitely been a learning experience[running cross country]. I haven’t had a ton of cross country seasons where I have been able to absorb all the information. Each race is definitely a little lesson. This distance can be intimidating as far as getting out quick because you know have so far to go. You just kind of have to figure out yourself and where you are in the race ”