The 2023 high school cross country season is at hand. Looking at the Lee County line up of high school athletes a handful of runners appear ready to dominate while only a couple teams appear ready to dominate. This could be a season of surprises.
On the boys side the boys from Fort Myers should continue to lay claim as the top squad in the county. After back to back second place finishes at State in Class 3A and a solid group of returning runners there seems little doubt about the Green Wave.
Jojo Koraya leads Fort Myers. The senior will have help from classmate Craig Allard, Jr. who spent much of his summer training at altitude in Colorado. Another strong competitor for the Green Wave squad will be senior Keaton Roberts.
A couple of other juniors, Olmar Bartolon from Dunbar and Andrew Marino from Bishop Verot should be at the top of a lot of meet finishes along with Cape Coral senior Jake Jacoby. The question is who has put in the miles over the summer and who will surprise us with a stellar season. Somebody always rises to the occasion unexpectedly.
On the girls side there's junior Mackenzie De Lisle from Bishop Verot and a lot of hopefuls. De Lisle inherits the crown from ECS star Ava Povich who has graduated and headed to Florida State. De Lisle has a legitimate shot at taking the Class 2A cross country crown. De Lisle should get some help at Verot from incoming freshman Gianna Gyurich.
Gianna Del Pizzo returns for her senior year at Lehigh after scoring All State honors last season. Del Pizzo showed that she was more than just a middle distance runner last spring dropping her 3200 meter best. She'll be looking for a top ten finish in Class 4A as will Riverdale senior Ansley Kelly. Kelly came out of nowhere last spring to stake a claim as one of the best 1600/3200 runners in the county. She was a sub 11 performer over 3200 meters along with De Lisle.
The top returning sophomore is Class 2A All State cross country runner Jazlyn Forbes. The Oasis standout tacked on an outstanding track season last spring to go along with her cross country success.
Two juniors to watch out for are Masha Dorofeev from Fort Myers and Avery Sommers from Estero. Dorofeev has shown steady progress over the past two seasons and piled up some significant miles over the summer. Sommers will hope to lead a resurgent Wildcat squad this fall.
As far as teams the boys and girls from Fort Myers are the gold standard. While the boys and girls from Bishop Verot look to be the only squad capable of giving the Green Wave a run for its money,
