Freshman Peyton Cerasi leads Flagler Palm Coast girls to first Spikes and Spurs team title

Running in her first high school cross country race, Cerasi won the girls individual title by more than 25 seconds; FPC's boys were runners-up behind Nease.

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Freshman Peyton Cerasi won her first high school cross country race to lead the Flagler Palm Coast girls to their first ever Spikes and Spurs team championship.

Meanwhile, the FPC boys were runners-up at the 13th annual Spikes and Spurs Classic on Aug. 24 at the Flagler County Fairgrounds.

The Bulldogs, who host the season-opening meet, have never won it before on either the boys or girls side.

“We’ve been second, but this is the first time we’ve won,” FPC coach David Halliday said. “So ,I guess it’s Lucky 13. We’re excited. A couple people had PR’s. Some of the young kids are brand new and never ran a 5k before.”

Cerasi, who finished second at the public middle schools 3-kilometer state championship last year, is new to running a 5K on a cross country course, but you’d never know it.

Her time of 19:47.6 beat Alaysa Chipunov (20:12.8) of Jacksonville Mandarin by more than 25 seconds. FPC junior Arianna Slaughter was third, just behind Chipunov, with a time of 20:14.7.

I’ve never really run this distance coming from middle school. It definitely was a big change, but as the year goes on, I'm going to start adapting to it.
— PEYTON CERASI, FPC freshman runner

“It was hot out there. It started to get a little bit tough during the last mile, and I knew I had to just keep up my pace and keep the lead on (Chipunov),” Cerasi said. “I’ve never really run this distance coming from middle school. It definitely was a big change, but as the year goes on, I'm going to start adapting to it.”

FPC’s other point scorers were Madison Lagarde (sixth place, 21:02.6), Taylor Novak (10th place, 21:28.0) and Isabella Tarsitano (23rd place, 22:44.8).

“Peyton was running with (Chipunov), who is solid, then she just felt like the pace was flagging, so she took off. She did really well,” Halliday said.

FPC won the girls title with 43 points. Lake Mary was second with 56 points. Ponte Vedra’s JV team (72 points) placed third, Matanzas (114) was fourth, Seabreeze (241) was eighth and Father Lopez (388) was 13th.

“We thought Ponte Vedra was going to have varsity kids here, but they ran their varsity kids at Cecil Field (in Jacksonville on the same day). So it took away a little bit of the depth up front for the girls and the boys,” Halliday said. “But our girls were really aggressive. Lake Mary is a ranked team. We weren't even ranked in the state, but I think we probably will be (now).”

Seabreeze’s Kirsten Glaenzer (22:30.1) was 15th, and Matanzas’ Megan Rhee (22:32.3), Maria Phillips (22:36.0) and Sarah Van Buren (22:41.0) were 17th, 19th and 21st respectively.

“Our top five all run together and train together and it showed today,” said Matanzas first-year coach Katie Hoover. “They finished together.”

FPC BOYS 2ND BEHIND NEASE

Nease’s Jack Reich (16:54.4) won the boys race and led the Panthers to the team title with a scorching 34 points. Five Nease runners finished among the top 12. FPC was second with 87 points with Mandarin (105) third. Matanzas (188) was sixth, Seabreeze (257) 11th and Father Lopez (419) 15th.

FPC senior Jevin Luna placed fifth with a time of 17:21.0, just edging out Matanzas junior Blaine Vogel at 17:21.5. FPC senior Braedyn Wormeck placed seventh in 17:28.0.

Wormeck was second behind Reich at the two-mile mark, but in retrospect he thought he ran out too fast.

“I thought I opened too slow, but I guess I’ll learn,” he said. “Last year I ran a sub-17 (16:55.0), but I haven’t run a cross country race since March.”

The times were generally slower this year, even with a dry course. Luna and Vogel, however, dramatically improved their times from a year ago.

“That was maybe Jevin’s second best race ever, so that was a good opener for him,” Halliday said. “And then a couple of new freshmen, Owen Stackpole and Mateo Almeida had their first races and did real well.”

Vogel passed three runners after the second mile but couldn’t get past Luna.

“I caught up to him with around 400 meters left and then we blitzed it out the the rest of the race,” Vogel said. “But I placed a lot better than what I thought I was going to do, so I'm pretty happy.”

Hoover said Vogel’s hard work during the summer paid off.

“He had a monster summer,” she said. “We really focused on hills and trails this summer and even though this is not a hilly course it translated into a faster time for him.”

Brant Tarsitano (18:09.8) was next for FPC in 15th place. Matanzas freshman Enzo McGovern (18:11.0) was 16th, and Seabreeze’s Hunter Shuler (18:12.8) was 17th.

Halliday said some of FPC’s runners were sick or injured and missed the race or only ran part of the race.

“Cassidy De Young had an Achilles (injury), so she ran part of the race and dropped out. Ayden Peterson, same thing, he ran part of the race and dropped out, but that was planned. And then some of the younger kids were sick. Once we get Cassidy back in there, she’s probably going to be our number 3 or co-number 2. But all in all, first and second, it was a good little opener.”

 

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