- December 13, 2025
Flagler Palm Coast's Arianna Slaughter and Douglas Seth and Matanzas' Peyton Cerasi each finished among the top 15 in their races to win All-State medals at the state cross country championships Saturday, Nov. 22, at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee.
Slaughter finished 10th in the Class 4A girls race with a time of 18:40.4. Cerasi placed 11th in the Class 3A girls race in 19:00.4. And Seth placed 13th in the 4A boys race in 16:01.1.
The Matanzas boys team placed among the top 10 in the Class 3A team standings with a ninth-place finish. The Pirates were led by three runners who finished among the top 45 — Blaine Vogel, 25th in 16:21.9; freshman Dylan Ciardi 29th in 16:26.7; and Brant Tarsitano 44th in 16:41.9.
Slaughter capped off her senior season, which also included a school record time of 18:17.3 at regionals.
"She's had an amazing season," FPC coach David Halliday said. "Her goal has been to be an All-State medalist. She put the time in, and she got it done. It was a great way for her to close out her (cross country) career."
Cerasi, a sophomore, is a state cross country medalist for the second time. She placed seventh for FPC in the Class 4A race last year.
Seth, a freshman, is the Bulldogs' first boys state medalist since Braedyn Wormeck finished 11th in 2023.
"Douglas was supposed to be 32nd," Halliday said. "He beat a ton of really amazing runners. He is a really tough competitor. He knew he had to worry about competing against people and not worry about times."
Seth dove at the finish line to finish ahead of Largo's Isaiah Howdeshell by one-tenth of a second.
The Matanzas boys' goal all season was to place in the top 10 at state, coach Katie Hoover said.
"It's nice to see all the hard work pay off. The boys were ranked 10th pretty much the whole last month. The girls were ranked 18th and they came in 16th, so they both overachieved," Hoover said. "The girls were fighting all season as underdogs. No one was looking at us as a team that would even make states. We were fifth at regionals, and we were shooting for eighth."
Ciardi, a freshman, broke his personal record of 16:31.2, which he set on the same course at the Pre-State meet on Oct. 25.
"He had an injury mid-season, and coming back to finish second on the team at state is incredible," Hoover said.
The FPC girls placed 20th in 4A. Everyone on the team is coming back next year other than Slaughter. Hunter Shuler led the Seabreeze boys to 29th place in Class 3A, finishing 95th in 17:26.8.
Former FPC cross country and track state champ Justin Harbor, who now lives in France, has been keeping up with the Bulldogs on-line, coach David Halliday said. Before the state meet, Harbor sent a video to freshman Douglas Seth, wishing him good luck.
"That meant a lot to Douglas," Halliday said. "Justin told him, 'it doesn't matter what the watch says, it's who you beat.'"
Harbor won the state cross country championship 20 years ago. He finished his FPC career with two state cross country championships and three state track championships. He went on to run cross country and track for Oregon and Florida State.
Seth knew all about Harbor's career, Halliday said.
"Douglas is a student of the sport," Halliday said. "For him, getting that video from Justin was special."
