Articles Submitted by Grant Mollet, East Ridge High School
Photos by student/teammate Alexandra Dimitros
October 22, 2022 – Winter Garden, Florida
The East Ridge High School girls’ varsity cross country team participated in the Class 4A District 2 Championships on Saturday morning at West Orange High School. Last season’s district meet was held at the Sterling Sports Complex in Deland. Almost exactly one year ago to the date was last season’s district meet, in which the Knights finished in the unfortunate ninth-team position. Last season, like this season, the top eight teams at the district meet moved on to the regional championships, and the Knights missed out by one team position. So, last season East Ridge was the first team out, but this season, in a drastic turn of events, East Ridge was the first team in! The Knights won the district title, making it the first district title in the school’s twenty-one-year history! Additionally, this season’s team became the seventh team in the school’s history to advance to a regional championship meet!
Girls from nineteen different schools competed Saturday morning in the Class 4A District 2 Championships. The girls’ race went off at 7:30 AM. For the fifth time this season, freshman Veronica Peterson was the first finisher for the Knights!
Veronica set a new career personal best on Saturday morning with a swift time of 19:52! She placed seventh in a field of 139 varsity female runners! Veronica’s performance at the district meet broke a nine-year school record! The fastest district performance by a Knight was 20:02, which was set by Anita Green in 2013. Veronica’s performance was also just eight seconds shy of East Ridge High School’s individual 5k record of 19:44, which was set by Kelsey Arellano in 2006. Veronica will have another chance at that record this coming Saturday at the Class 4A Region 1 Championships!
The second Knight to finish was sophomore Hanna Warren. Hanna ran the district course in a career personal best time of 19:58! Her performance has landed her the now new second-best district performance in East Ridge’s twenty-one year history! Hanna placed ninth overall, and joined her teammate in the medal line after such a tremendous performance! Her performance today at the district meet was more than a minute better than her performance at last season’s district meet! The third Knight to finish was sophomore Madi McCormack. Madi placed nineteenth overall with a new career personal best time of 20:39! Madi’s district performance was more than a minute improvement from her performance on the same course at the West Orange Invitational nearly one month ago!
The fourth Knight across the finish line was senior Bre Peine. Bre placed 24th overall in a time of 20:50 – which tied her second-best performance of the season! Bre’s district performance this season was nearly two minutes faster than her performance at last season’s district race! The fifth finisher and final scorer for the Knights was freshman Adriana Mustin. Adriana placed 29th overall and finished in a new career personal best time of 21:05! Adriana’s performance at the district meet was more than thirty seconds faster than her performance on the same course at the West Orange Invitational in late September!
Freshman Rhyen Foley was the sixth finisher for East Ridge and she placed 32nd overall and finished in a new career personal best time of 21:15! Rhyen’s district performance was ten-second improvement from her performance on the same course at the West Orange Invitational last month! The seventh finisher for the Knights was sophomore Neely Lugo who placed 49th overall and finished in a new season personal best time of 22:06! Neely’s district performance was fifteen seconds faster than her performance on this same course last month at the West Orange Invitational!
Junior Lina Maldonado was the eighth finisher for the Knights. She finished in 73rd place and ran a new career personal best with a time of 23:19! Lina’s district performance was nearly a ten second improvement from her performance at the West Orange Invitational earlier this season! Also, Lina also made more than a minute improvement at this season’s district meet from last season’s district meet! Senior Alanis Melgar was the ninth finisher for the Knights and she placed 86th overall and finished with a new season personal best with a time of 24:04!
Senior Brenna Oliveri was the tenth finisher for the Knights. She placed 103rd overall and ran a new career personal best with a time of 24:32! Brenna’s district performance was nearly 45 seconds faster than her performance at the West Orange Invitational last month! Additionally, Brenna’s district performance this season was more than a minute improvement from her district performance last season!
East Ridge High School took the honors out of sixteen schools that fielded complete teams. The Knights won the district title by placing their five scorers in the top thirty overall positions! Olympia High School was the runner-up. Although Olympia placed three of their scorers in the top ten of the race, it was not enough to overcome the Knights. The overall individual winner for the girls’ varsity race was sophomore Emily Knopfle from Olympia High School. Knopfle finished today’s race in a swift time of 19:01. Emily is now the two-time reigning district champion in Class 4A District 2.
The Knights will compete in the Class 4A Region 1 Championships on Saturday, October 29 at Santa Fe State College in Gainesville. The gun time will be 7:45 am. This will be the girls team’s first trip back to the regional meet in Gainesville since 2019.
For full results for the Class 4A District 2 girls race visit:https://fl.milesplit.com/meets/505098-fhsaa-4a-district-2-2022/results/858256#.Y1RDVnbMI2w.
