Green Wave Fever

Saturday Night Fever has nothing on JoJo Koraya's Friday night fever.  The pre-meet illness must have had the Fort Myers Green Wave boy's cross country team sick to its stomach knowing that their junior star might not be 100 percent for Saturday morning's Class 3A State Championship showdown.

Koraya showed no signs of illness as he picked his way through the star studded field to finish fourth and lead his team to a consecutive second place finish at States.  Junior Allard, the Fort Myers sophomore star who had an up and down season aided the Green Wave cause by having an up day finishing 20th to earn All-State honors.

Other Lee County teams and runners acquitted themselves with sterling performances throughout the different classes. We'll start small first and the one sure thing all season.  You could bet the house that ECS senior star Ava Povich would finish in the top three in Class 1A.  The Florida State signee did just that to finish third improving four places on her junior year finish.

Canterbury's Gabrielle Santucci closed out her senior campaign claiming All State honors.  Santucci ran 19:32 to place 20th.  Not far behind was another senior who certainly can claim the honor of the most improved runner in Lee County.  SFCA's Tommie Bade finished 29th in 19:47.

My favorite senior story came in the form of another SFCA senior, Hayden Tank.  His season looked like a complete disaster after a heat distressed race and health issues early in the season.  Tank led his SFCA squad to a 6th place finish by finishing 8th in Class 1A.  Given the obstacles Tank overcame don't be surprised if his outdoor track season is something special.

Class 2A Mackenzie De Lisle did everything she could to lay claim to the title as the best girl in Lee County.  The Bishop Verot sophomore sensation ran the fastest time of the weekend in 18:07 to finish fifth.  The best Lee County freshman girl was also in that Class 2A race.  Oasis Jazlyn Forbes finished 27th in 19:31.

The Bishop Verot boys can rightly say they had the third best boys team in the county.  The Vikings squad finished a solid 5th in Class 2A led by senior Grayson Tubbs who claimed All State honors with his 18th place finish.  Verot returns the bulk of their squad next year.  

The second best team in Lee County were the boys from Cape Coral.  The Seahawks were nipping at the heels of the Fort Myers all season thanks in large part to Declan Ziomek and William Canales.  Cape finished fifth in Class 3A with Ziomek finishing 9th and Canales 17th.

Fort Myers easily produced the best girl's squad in Lee County.  Led by sophomore Masha Dorofeev the Green Wave finished 16th at State in Class 3A.  Fort Myers will reload next season losing only two seniors, Olivia Olney and Lilly Harris.

Finally there's Class 4A and the runner who I would dub the Comeback Runner of the Year.  After a less than sterling sophomore campaign, Lehigh junior Gianna Del Pizzo rededicated herself.  The work paid off with a fine 13th place finish at State.

This cross country shows me that we could be in store for some incredible fireworks when the first outdoor track meet rolls around in three months.  We can't wait to see what these athletes will do on the oval.

.