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FLrunners.com 14 Post-Race recaps - flrunners.com Invitational 14 2013Published by
Post Race Recaps (Photo's courtesy Kay Oliver)
Midway through the season, the cream starts to bubble and we get a frothy picture of what awaits us towards the end of the season. With teams from across the State making the trek to Titusville to compete on the fast turf at the publicly funded Chain of Lakes XC Park which drew thousands of athletes and fans to the local community, we think the taxpayers are getting a great return on their investment and goes to show that FLRunners/Milesplit founder Jason Byrne's initial grass roots movement has come full circle. The Space Coast really knows how to treat visitors well.
With the 2 highly anticipated Race of Champions races featured at the 14th Flrunners.com Invitational, questions still remain as to which individuals and team match ups will be battling it out in November. Girls Race of Champions
 The Girls ROC pre-race favorite was Nease Senior, Karen Xiang. Karen has been undefeated all year and when we saw her race at Katie Caples, we too knew she was the real deal. Her mantra so far has been to start off conservatively and push the middle of the race. Today was a little different. Roughly 3/4 of a mile into the race, Karen started to take control of the pace earlier than expected and slowly started pulling away from the chase pack that included Ft Myers' Emily Edwards, Pine Crest's Julia Montgomery, St. Thomas sophomore Alexa Cruz, Estero's Araceli Leon and Gulf Coast's Caroline Barlow amongst others in the chase pack. Shortly after 2 miles, it was apparent there would be no catching Karen today and the team battle was also out of question as Estero had 4 of their top 5 looming in the top 10! The battle was on for 2nd, both for the individual and team honors.The individual battle for 2nd place was between Ft Myers senior, Emily Edwards, the 2012 ROC Champion and Alexa Cruz from St. Thomas, both of whom have been having very successful seasons. Edwards and Cruz continued the push for 2nd with Edwards finishing 2nd in 18:04 and Cruz in 3rd at 18:06. With Xiang easily winning in a state leading 17:54, we were surprised that her margin of victory wasn't larger.
Probably the biggest surprise in the top ten was the 4th place finisher, Cardinal Mooney's Grace Casgrande in 18:14, posting a 50 second PR! Rounding out the top 10 individuals were 2012 2A State Champion, Pine Crest's Julia Montgomery 5th in 18:24, Estero's Leon in 18:25 for 6th, Gulf Coast's Barlow 7th, 18:29, DistancePreps.com "Freshman of the Week", Barron Collier's Devin Molloy 8th in 18:32, Estero's Bethany Jenkins 9th in 18:39, and Calvary Christian's Hannah Brookover, 18:40, for 10th. The lady Wildcats from Estero scored a paltry 68 points going 4,6,7,8, and 43. There is no doubt about the best Girls' team in the State and now the question is just how high in the national rankings Estero deserves to be ranked after placing 4 in the top 10. Today, they are just 1 runner away from being in the upper echelons of the very elite from across the nation.
 It was a good day to be a Wildcat. A few weeks ago at the Mountain Dew Invitational, 1A Oak Hall had 27 points on 4A Winter Park. Today, the pendulum swung widely in favor of Winter Park as they were 35 points better than Oak Hall 135-170, placing the 4A Wildcats from Winter Park on the podium next to the winning 3A Wildcats from Estero.
 Boys Race of Champions
An absolutely stacked field took to the line in the Boys Race of Champions including 2012 ROC 4th place finisher, senior Nicholas Morken from Niceville, Ft Myers senior Tyler Bennett who was 5th last year and Miami Sunset junior Nick Diaz 15th last year, plus a host of other contenders for individual honors.
The team battle featured just about every top team in the State with 3 time defending Boys Champion Belen Jesuit expected to hold court once again, or not?
Most recently we've seen Belen in close races against Miami Sunset and we also saw a dominant performance from Trinity Prep at Katie Caples with impressive efforts from Ft Walton Beach when you consider they ran without their number 1 runner, Charles Shackelford, last week at Alligator Lake. So in essence, we wanted to see the best teams go head to head and see where the chips would fall. Without the presence of Leon's Khosla or Timber Creek's Marquez, questions lingered as to whether Bennett would try to run away from the field early in the race much like we saw at Mountain Dew on Mark Bostic Golf Course a few weeks ago, or alternatively, be held in check by the Gulf Coast Stampede champion and the undefeated Southern Knight? Early on in the race it was evident Bennett would be held in check as the lead pack consisted of Bennett, Sarasota's Zackery Summerall and Adam Bradtmueller, Jesuit's Ryan Rodriguez and Fabias Tomas, and Coral Reef's Kurt Convey. This was a great cross section of runners from different parts of the State racing runners they may not normally see on a week in and week out basis.
 Midway through the race, the tide started to turn. Now in the lead pack after moving up smartly was Niceville's Nicholas Morken and from the polar opposite end of the State, Miami Sunset's Nick Diaz. Gamely holding on to the leaders was a resurgent Kurt Convey from Coral Reef who has now made a triumphant return to be considered amongst the State's best runners. Somewhat surprisingly back in 4th but holding on was Ft Myers Tyler Bennett.
 The homestretch run was a classic duo of guys that have really good miler credentials and needed them today. In the end, it was Nick Diaz prevailing over Nicholas Morken by 1 second with both runners etching new PR's. Diaz finished in 15:15.60 and runner-up Morken in 15:16.60.Tyler Bennett came back on Kurt Convey to grab 3rd with Convey 4th at 15:24; a nice rebound and a 15 second PR !
Rounding out the top 10 was Belen Jesuit's Ryan Rodriguez in 5th, Sarasota's Zackery Summerall 6th, Belen Jesuit's Fabian Tomas 7th, Mount Dora Bible's Troy Clark 8th, Sarasota's Adam Bradtmueller 9th, and Woodstock's (Georgia) Owen Bailey 10th.
Belen Jesuit showed that depth matters and a few front runners doesn't hurt you any by placing 2 runners in the top 10 and all 5 in the top 53 going 5,7,18,41 and 43. With the best 5th man out of the top teams, Belen's depth from 1-5 prevailed as they averaged 16:04 over runner-up Ft Walton Beach and 3rd place St. Thomas Aquinas.
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