FL Horse Park Invitational Meet Results

Early Saturday morning, the Varsity Cross Country Bucs arose from their slumber to participate in the Florida Horse Park Invitational in Ocala. Harkening back to the days of Secretariat, the Cross Country Bucs approached the race with the veracity of War Admiral. Ready to run fast, in this Kentucky Derby esque championship field, your XC Bucs would find the guts of Seabiscuit. More than 50 schools from across the state descended to this beautiful facility, and the end result would be a 10th place showing for the boys, and a 11th place finish for the girls.
The boys raced first, starting at 7:20am, the gorgeous sunrise made for a picture-perfect start. The field featured the defending 3A boys (and all-time state series leaders) champions Belen Jesuit, class 2A favorite Satellite, class 4A favorite Steinbrenner, class 1A favorite Oak Hall, 4th ranked Windemere HS (class 4A), 8th ranked Columbus (class 4A), 8th ranked Tampa Jesuit (class 3A)…. I think you get the picture – all 4 state meet classifications favorites were in this meet. While our boys did fall to most of the aforementioned schools, they did take down Rival Jesuit (who finished 12th), and only lost to Oak Hall by one point. Impressively, Ethan Lipham and Hudson Rowan both set major PR’s in route to finishing in the top 20 (out of 360 finishers). Ethan had his breakout race, conquering the 5K course in a time of 16:11 and finishing 7th overall in this star-studded field. His time currently ranks him 16th in the state (3rd in class 2A), and 4th in the state among sophomores. It also moves him to #8 all-time for Berkeley at the 5K distance. Hudson’s impressive 16:36 placed him 19th, currently ranking him in the top 50 in the state, and 8th in class 2A. His time moves him up to 12th all-time for Berkeley at the 5K distance. Trey Morris equaled his season best time to run as a strong number 3, while Luke Doyle had another PR (nearly every race…) to run as our number 4. Colby Kudla continues to round into form as he ran a strong race to round out our scoring 5. Liam Jordan, just a 7th grader, broke the 19:00 barrier for the first time. His time currently ranks him 4th in the state for 7th graders, and 1st in class 2A. Kirin Karver and George Smith rounded out our competitors on this great race day!
The girls started 20 minutes later, but still produced a great early season result. The field featured the #2 and #6 ranked teams in class 1A (Oak Hall and Maclay), the #5 and #8 ranked teams in 2A (Satellite and Bishop Moore), one of the class 4A favorites Braddock and 6th ranked Fleming Island. While we may have succumbed to many of the above teams (we did take down Bishop Moore), the race offered a real chance to work on our “Berkeley Pack” running traditions. Only 1:07 separated our 1 – 9 runners, and only 38 seconds separated our 2 – 9 runners. Going back as far as I could within our record book, this is a Berkeley First to have 9 athletes under 22:34 on the same team at the same race! Anna McDermott led the way, moving up throughout the race to finish 44th overall (out of 282 finishers). Next, Heidi Hausinger crushed her previous PR by a minute to run as our number 2 on the morning, breaking the 22:00 barrier and finishing 58th overall. Kylie Stephens finished as a strong number 3 on the day, within seconds of Heidi and only 5 places back. Next, the Berkeley Pack! Finley Jordan, Abbey Ramos, Emma Flowers, Macy Maiocco, Emily McDermott, and Claire Armstrong finished within 14 places of one another. Rounding out our competitors on the day, Abby Armstrong dropped a season best time.
The MD XC Teams will be in action today at the FWCL League Series opener at Carrollwood Day School. The JV and Varsity teams will be back in action on Saturday at the Seffner Christian Invitational at Holloway Park in Lakeland. Go Bucs!
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Founded in 1960, Berkeley is an independent, Episcopal, college-preparatory day school located in Tampa, FL, for boys and girls in grades Pre-Kindergarten through 12. Approximately 1,400 students gather here from the greater Tampa Bay area to form ONE Berkeley.