Four Weeks In

The Lee County high school cross country season reached its fourth week of racing and one thing is clear.  Ava Povich and Mackenzie DeLisle are going to battle all season.  DeLisle, a Bishop Verot sophomore, runs with a fearlessness that she didn't show last year.  Povich, the ECS senior, just grinds.  She powers her way through a cross country course trying to bend it to her will.

They matched up Saturday night at the Kelly Road soccer complex at the Fort Myers Invite.  DeLisle appeared ready to try and bury her pursuers early.  Povich, Tara Watkins of Naples and Olivia Fraga from Lourdes chased.  The course played a major role in how the race unfolded.  It was a hot mess because Lee County Parks wanted to protect their precious soccer fields from the 700 plus runners after a couple of days of heavy rain.

DeLisle made a off course detour allowing Povich to pounce leading to a long two mile plus drive to the finish for the win.  Mackenzie never recovered and had to be content chasing Fraga and Watkins.  The course issues were numerous.  Due to the triple loop runners were getting lapped.  There were about ten turns on every loop and it was an invitation for misdirection.  Plus apparently some self appointed course marshals helped contribute to the chaos sending runners the wrong way.

The course issues led to the disqualification of Bishop Verot's number three runner.  Much to my surprise Fort Myers not only beat Verot but Naples as well.  Verot is without one of its top runners, Julia Reitz who has a foot injury.  Fort Myers senior Olivia Olney is also dealing with a foot problem but still managed a top 25 finish.  Lilly Harris and Rori Pandolfini showed signs of coming to life for the Green Wave so figuring out which of the two squads is best still up in the air.

DeLisle and Verot will get a chance at payback next week in Northport.  The course is the fastest in the area and should produce some terrific performances.  Povich will be there as well and the stated goal on her half is to run 18:30 or better.

The boy's race was a battle of attrition.  Cape Coral's talented senior duo of Declan Ziomek and William Canales made sure the early tempo was fast.  It took about a mile to whittle the lead pack down from ten to four.  Ziomek steadily applied pressure to ease away for a three second victory over defending champion Bernardo Barnhart of Palmetto Ridge.  Sergei Guzman of CSN keeps showing what a good summer of training can do taking third following up his second place finish last week at DDD, a meet which Ziomek won.

Ziomek is looking more and more like the best boy in Lee County.  Hayden Tank of SFCA had a terrible night due to the heat and humidity.  Joseph Koraya of Fort Myers started slowly and never put himself in a position to compete for the win, something he did at the opening meet hosted by Dunbar.

Koraya's seventh place finish helped the Fort Myers boys beat Cape Coral.  The Green Wave put three in the top ten which was enough to negate Ziomek's win and Canales's ninth place finish.  My personal hero was Fort Myers senior Timmy Schmidt who ran much of the race after losing a shoe.  He still managed an eighth place finish.

Hiding in the weeds are the Dunbar boys who have opted for meets out of the area the last two weeks.  Junior Olmar Bartolon will be a factor at the county championships.  The question is whether the Tigers can get their fourth and fifth runners in a position to put a scare into Cape Coral and Fort Myers..

State is still eight weeks away.  I'm looking forward to mid-October for Private 8 and LCAC.  At Private 8 Povich and DeLisle will square with Canterbury's Gabriella Santucci in pursuit.  The boys rac will be a hot one as well with Verot's talented duo of Cooper Banks and Grayson Tubbs taking on defending champ SFCA's Hayden Tank.

The Lee County XC Championship should be a walk for the Fort Myers girls and an interesting battle between Fort Myers, Cape Coral and perhaps Dunbar.  Can't wait for the fireworks.