The Sunlake High Girls Cross Country Team nearly completed a perfect postseason, being crowned District and Regional Champs, while finishing as the Class 4A state runner-up at the championship run on Nov. 17 at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee.
In a 5,000-meter run (3.1 miles) featuring 230 runners, Sunlake was led by the team’s top finisher, senior Abigail Williams, who ran a 19:11 for a 14th-place finish. Freshman Katelin Wilcox finished 21st (19:19), freshman Leah Foster finished 32nd (19:47), sophomore Kailyn Ford finished 59th (20:16), freshman Kaitlyn Zabrocki finished 80th (20:41), freshman Isabella Lundberg finished 129th (21:31) and sophomore Meghan Ballard finished 202nd (23:48).
The Wiregrass Ranch girls team also competed at the Class 4A Championships, finishing 15th, led by freshman Natalia Gaona-Zelaya, who finished 10th (19:00) and junior Ava Schmitt, who finished 13th (19:10).
Steinbrenner’s girls team came in 22nd, led by Blake Peifer, who finished 82nd (20:43).
On the boys side of Class 4A, Steinbrenner finished seventh, Sunlake finished 14th and Land O’ Lakes finished 19th.
The Warriors were led by senior Nicholas Pugh, who finished 23rd (16:06), the Seahawks were led by junior Cade Culpepper, who finished 31st (16:10) and the Gators were led by senior Caden Sessions, who finished 65th (16:40).
In Class 3A, Zephyrhills freshman Lydia Vincent finished 14th (19:11), while teammate, senior William Poe, finished 10th.
Additionally, both Cypress Creek’s boys and girls teams competed in the 3A championship. On the girls side, the team finished 32nd, while the boys finished ninth, led by freshman Skylar Manatt, who finished 15th (16:04) and senior Dylan Powell, who finished 21st (16:20).
