- December 20, 2024
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With the addition of highly touted freshman Peyton Cerasi, Flagler Palm Coast's coaches and runners knew they would have a special girls cross country team this year.
The Bulldogs were even better than expected. FPC placed third at the Class 4A state championships Saturday, Nov. 16, at Appalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee. It was their best finish in program history. Their previous best was eighth place.
"They were pegged to be fifth or sixth," FPC head coach David Halliday said. "The girls have just had an amazing season. It was a real transformation on how they approached competition. And it really shone through today and this whole weekend. They seemed to have as much fun and be as focused as they have ever been. I think it's a true testament to the hard work and goals they have set since the summer."
Cerasi shattered her own school record with a time of 18:19.2 in the 5K to place seventh overall. Her previous best was 18:34.6 at the Region 1-4A meet a week earlier. She beat out last year's state champ, Creekside's Alyson Johnson, who placed eighth.
"Peyton ran an amazing race," Halliday said. "It's one of the hardest courses in Florida, and she destroyed her PR, again setting a new school record."
Three other FPC runners broke 20 minutes: Arianna Slaughter (19:15.3, 32nd place), Bella Tarsitano (19:37.7, 54th place) and Cassidy De Young (19:51.4, 64th place). Tarsitano broke 19 minutes for the first time.
Creekside and Gainesville Buchholz placed first and second in the team standings. Creekside, Buchholz and FPC placed first, second and third in the district, region and state meets.
Spruce Creek's Mackenzie Roy won the individual title by 35 seconds with a blazing time of 17:19.5. The former Seabreeze runner ran the fifth fastest 5K time in any girls state final at Appalachee Park. Roy's twin sister, Arianna, placed fifth in the girls 4A race with a time of 18:15.4.
Halliday said his runners cried after the race partly because it was their last race together with seniors Tarsitano, De Young, Madison Lagarde and Taylor Novak graduating and partly because they didn't reach their ultimate goal of overtaking Buchholz for runner-up honors.
"Even though third was amazing, they were hungry," Halliday said. "We set up a plan to go for Buchholz. We were really close."
It was the first time in 15 years that the FPC girls qualified for the state championships, which shows how strong the Bulldogs' district and region are year after year.
"We've always been in the toughest region and always been on the outside looking in," he said. "We were always one of the better teams that didn't make it. In the COVID year we were sixth, but they only took four teams (per region instead of the usual eight). In 2022, we were the best team in any region in any classification not to make it."
FPC's boys team finished 26th at the Class 4A championships. Buchholz won the team title with senior Gino Palazzolo also winning the individual title with a time of 15:23.6.
Jevin Luna led the Bulldogs with a time of 16:54.1 for 80th place. Braedyn Wormeck finished in 17:12.9 (124th) and Brant Tarsitano ran in 17:16.6 (132nd).
In the Class 3A boys race, Matanzas junior Blaine Vogel placed 44th with a time of 16:40.8, just four-tenths of a second off his PR. Seabreeze junior Hunter Shuler placed 55th with a PR time of 16:50.4. The Sandcrabs placed 31st in the team standings.
Marcelo Mantecon led Belen Jesuit to the Class 3A boys title with the best time of the day — 14:57.8, one second off the overall state championship record.
