Finally A Champion

Southwest Florida distance runners can hold up their heads for their performances at last week's Florida State High School Track and Field Championships. The four classes competed on four separate days spread Wednesday through Saturday. 

In the end Bishop Verot the boys and girls proved their teams can claim the spot as the top distance power in Lee County when looking at all of the results. And finally for one Southwest Florida distance star, a state championship could be claimed. 

Starting with Class 4A ladies Gianna Del Pizzo, the Lehigh junior, pulled off a fine double placing 4th in the 1600 with a personal best of 5:05.8. She doubled back in 11:29.52 in the 3200 placing 11th. Ahead of her in that race was the breakout sensation from Riverdale, junior Ansley Kelly. She placed 5th running 11:11.52. 

I usally don't touch on Collier County runners but the performances of Palmetto Ridge senior Bernardo Barnhart and Gulf Coast junior William Montoya in the 3200 stand out. Barnhart clocked one of the fastest 3200 times from the area in years hitting 9:12.24 for 3rd while Montoya was close behind running 9:17.82 to finish 5th. 

The biggest Class 3A result came from the boys of Fort Myers in the 4x800. Timmy Schultz and Joseph Koraya helped lead the Green Wave to a 4th place finish in the 4x800 in a school record 7:57.68. Schultz and Koraya doubled back in the 1600. Koraya, only a junior, took seventh running 4:24.73. Schultz, a senior, was 14th in 4:29.24. The only other podium finish came from Declan Ziomek. The Cape Coral senior finished 8th in the 3200 hitting the finish in 9:31.50. Dunbar junior Joshua Dorestin came close finishing 9th in the 800 running 1:57.75. 

The only girl to race in an open event was Fort Myers sophomore Masha Dorofeev who passed up the 1600 to focus on the 3200. Her decision almost paid off with a podium finish with Dorofeev placing 9th in a personal best of 11:15.06. Class 2A was the Bishop Verot show. Both the boys and girls squad grabbed 4th place in the 4x800. 

The Verot girls of Sofia Roman, Julia Reitz, Kylie Thomas and Mackenzie DeLisle did it in style clocking a school record of 9:31.44. Reitz followed that up with a fine 8th place finish in the 1600 with a personal best 5:07.65 while super sophomore DeLisle took 4th in the 3200 running 10:55.26. The Vikings Grayson Tubbs doubled back in the open 800 taking 3rd in 1:56.52. Class 1A saw the girls of SFCA snag an 8th place finish with a 10:00.32. 

We also want to give a nod to SFCA senior Hayden Tank who wrapped up his fine career with a 9:38.06 and a 9th place finish. Hard to believe that Tank would run that fast and not podium. The capper goes to Ava Povich who once again showed what it takes to be ready for a state championship. Povich ran a sterling 5:01.84 to take 4th in the 1600. Then making a bold move with two laps to go the Florida State bound star held on to win her first state title running 10:47.99. Povich now joins the ranks as one of the best distance to ever come out of Lee County.