Tallahassee runners fly at FLYRA

Maclay's Clay Milford is the 2014 FLYRA Middle School Boys' State Cross-Country Champion. At Holloway Park in Lakeland, Florida, Milford won the 3K title race in 9:56.30, winning by over ten seconds. The Maclay boys were third in the team standings and the Fairview Middle School boys were 20th.


Deerlake's Lawton Campbell (14th, 11:35.80) and HCES's Katherine Resavage (18th, 11:40.50) were the top Tallahassee athletes in the girls' race. The HCES girls' team placed third.


It was the fifth annual Florida Youth Running Association Championships, an event that has become a fixture since it was established in 2010. 261 athletes and 28 teams from every corner of the state competed in the boys race. The girls' race featured 223 harriers and 25 teams. The FLYRA was established to promote cross country to middle school athletes with a goal of improving the sport at all levels. Based on the alumni of that first FLYRA championship, you could say that the project has been successful. The first FLYRA boys champion, Kurt Convey, is a senior on the Miami Coral Reef High cross-country team and an All-State performer. Tallahassee's Raa Middle School took the team title at that first race, and one of their runners was Sukhi Khosla, the defending FHSAA-3A cross country champion as well as the 2014 FHSAA-3A champ in the 1600 and the 3200. Daesha Rogers, the first winner of the FLYRA girl's race, was second in the 2013 FHSAA-2A Girls' Cross Country State Final as a Miami Jackson frosh.


Pine Crest seventh-grader Yared Tsion won the 2014 FLYRA girls' race, blazing a 10:39 3K and winning by nearly half a minute. Yared was joined in the top ten by another member of her school's "Panther Nation" team, Mahdere Yared, sixth in 11:18. Behind the Yareds, the Panther Nation scored a winning team total of 81 points. Led by the 11:38 16th place performance of Savannah Schwab, Tavares Middle School placed second in the girls' team standings with 108 points. The Holy Comforter girls were third with 132 points on the strength of the performances of Katherine Resavage (18th, 11:41), Hannah Hosay (34th, 12:04), Avery Smith (51st, 12:28), Ella Thames (61st, 12:36), Elizabeth Calabro (72nd, 12:44), Hailey Hobbs (80th, 12:50), and Emma McGibany (110th, 13:10).


Tallahassee's Swift Creek Middle School was represented by seventh-graders Alyson Churchill and Megan Churchill, who placed 20th in 11:44 and 33rd in 12:02. Seventh-grader Caitlin Wilkey was Tallahassee Montford's entry in the race; she was 24th in 11:46. Eighth-grader Kenzie Mazziotta (31st, 12:00) and sixth-grader Lindsay James (32nd, 12:01) ran for Tallahassee Maclay in the championship race.


Maclay ace Clay Milford won it all in the boys' race, but Belen Jesuit put two runners in the top ten--Henrique Souza (8th, 10:27) and Sebastian Roa (9th, 10:29--plus another in the top twenty--Rodrigo Madiedo (17th, 10:37). That set up Belen's championship-winning total of 47 points. Hunter Boyd of Tavares Middle School came in 24th in 10:47. 25 seconds later Tavares had their fifth runner across the finish line and had squeaked by Maclay for second place, 92 to 93.


Holy Comforter's sole entry in the boys' race was Joseph Ashebo, who placed 12th in 10:32. Montford Middle had four runners in the race--Bryant McKnight (46th, 11:07), AJ Hodges (67th, 11:15), Hawthorne Hay (147th, 12:05), and Isaiah Estomos (209th, 13:13). Fairview's Charles Hruda (128th, 11:54), Townshend Porcher (152nd, 12:08), Alexander Gilliam (154th, 12:09), Jalen Greenwood (162nd, 12:17), Christopher Robsinson (180th, 12:30), and Jakeim Plummer (184th, 12:36) combined for 521 points, putting the Falcons 20th in the state.


Top Ten Girls' Teams, 2014 FLYRA Middle School Cross-Country Championships

1. Panther Nation, 81
2. Tavares, 108
3. Holy Comforter, 132
4. Destin, 162
5. The Prep Schoolers, 166
6. Lexington, 182
7. Liza Jackson, 187
8. Centurion TC, 226
9. Top Flight Runners Club, 259
10. St. Kevin, 259

Top Ten Girls, 2014 FLYRA Middle School Cross-Country Championships

1. 10:39.00 ~ Tsion Yared (Panther Nation)
2. 11:04.70 ~ Isabella Pawloski (Hillsborough)
3. 11:05.00 ~ Natalie Varela (Miami Elite)
4. 11:05.10 ~ Rahyah Andressohn (Miami Elite)
5. 11:12.70 ~ Ashley Klingenberg (Central Flor)
6. 11:17.40 ~ Mahdere Yared (Panther Nation)
7. 11:23.40 ~ Charis Ivey (Unattached)
8. 11:23.50 ~ Audrey McAnally (The Prep Schoolers)
9. 11:25.10 ~ Jaden Ault (Centurion TC)

Top Ten Boys' Teams, 2014 FLYRA Middle School Cross-Country Championships

1. Belen Jesuit, 47
2. Tavares, 92
3. Maclay, 93
4. Top Flight Runners Club, 167
5. Liza Jackson, 193
6. Emerald Coast, 205
7. Panther Nation, 228
8. Marco Island, 247
9. Ruckel, 250
10. Windy Hill, 293

Top Ten Boys, 2014 FLYRA Middle School Cross-Country Championships

1.  9:56.30 ~ Clayburn Milford (Maclay School)
2. 10:06.70 ~ Nick Kamen (Unattached)
3. 10:12.10 ~ Gabriel Curtis (Centurion TC)
4. 10:14.10 ~ Andrew Shepherd (Unattached)
5. 10:16.40 ~ Mamush Galloway (The Prep Schoolers)
6. 10:17.70 ~ Wesley Cusack (Unattached)
7. 10:19.70 ~ Cipriano Martinez (Marco Island)
8. 10:26.50 ~ Henrique Souza (Belen Jesuit)
9. 10:28.70 ~ Sebastian Roa (Belen Jesuit)
10. 10:31.30 ~ Josue Reyes (Unattached)

Links

• Complete results, 2014 FLYRA Middle School Cross-Country Championships
  http://elitetiming.net/live-results/2014/20141101-flyra/
  
  
• 2010 story, "2010 FYRA Middle School State Cross-Country Championships"
  http://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/2010/11/florida-ms-2010.html
  
  
• Florida Youth Running Association
  http://www.flyra.org/
  
  
• Championship or not, find an upcoming race in the Tallahassee region on the Trouble Afoot! calendar
  http://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/search/label/calendar?max-results=1
  
  

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