- December 4, 2025
Matanzas freshman Dyland Ciardi won the Volusia-Flagler Freshman-Sophomore Boys Championship with a time of 17:42.81. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Matanzas freshman Rena Carlton won the Volusia-Flagler Freshman-Sophomore Girls Championship with a time 22:10.7. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Top five boys finishers, from left: Atlantic's Kebra Bonner (fifth), Mainland's Maddox Howe (fourth), Matanzas' Tanner Lagocki (third), Spruce Creek's Luke Carlson (second) and Matanzas' Dylan Ciardi (first). Photo by Brent Woronoff
Top four girls finishers, from left: Father Lopez's Lisa Fulton (fourth), Spruce Creek's Razan Daoud (third), New Smyrna Beach's Lilah Fusco (second) and Matanzas' Rena Carlton (first). Photo by Brent Woronoff
Father Lopez's Lisa Fulton placed fourth in the Volusia-Flagler Freshman-Sophomore girls race. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Seabreeze's Pheobe Meija, left, passes teammate Karly Rybicki in the final meters. Meija was 16th with a time of 25:23.26. Rybicki was 17th in 25:25.71. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Seabreeze sophomore Audie Dayton, right, placed sixth, one spot ahead of New Smyrna Beach's Landon Secomski. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Seabreeze sophomore Barrett Jones, left, in the awards line. Barrett placed 10th. Pine Ridge's Ethan Cooper was ninth. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Seabreeze sophomore Emma Robinson placed 12th in the girls freshman-sophomore championship. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Father Lopez's Izy Kosko placed 13th in the girls freshman-sophomore championship. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Mainland's Liam Ciferri, Jacob Williams and Landon Baliles are all upperclassmen but attended the meet to compete in the open race. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC freshmen Seraphina Morris (44) and Summer McKinney cool down after the race. Morris finished 19th and McKinney was 24th. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Seabreeze freshman Ella Dunaway, right, finished 22nd, just ahead of Spruce Creek's Ava Ellerton. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Rena Carlton has gotten faster in just about every cross country meet she’s run this season. Dylan Ciardi is trying to get back to the times he was posting before injuring his toe.
Both Matanzas freshmen won the Volusia-Flagler Freshman-Sophomore championships on Oct. 15 on the Matanzas campus.
Ciardi ran a 17:42.81 in his first meet since he injured his toe in club soccer practice over three weeks ago. He had just started running again only days before the Volusia-Flagler meet.
“We’ve been monitoring it and just trying to be very careful, because obviously we want him to run well now but also run well in the future. As a freshman, he has a long time ahead of him in running,” Matanzas coach Katie Hoover said.
At his first high school meet on Aug. 22 at the Cecil Field Summer Classic in Jacksonville, Ciardi ran a 16:36, which is still among the top freshmen times in the state. He ran 16:40 and 16:41 in his next two meets before suffering what he believes was a bone bruise.
He said he was pain-free at the Freshman-Sophomore meet, but he has a lot of catching up to do.
“Hopefully I can get around the 16:20s by state,” he said. “My goal was originally to run a sub-16 before I injured my toe. Now it’s around sub-16:20 or sub 16:10,” he said.
If he hadn’t suffered the injury, Ciardi wouldn’t have run in the freshman-sophomore meet. One bright side is he won his first cross country title. Even in middle school, he said, he always came in second.
Matanzas also had the third-place finisher in the boys race with freshman Tanner Lagocki running an 18:30.58, just 2.3 seconds behind runner-up Luke Carlson of Spruce Creek.
Mainland sophomore Maddox Howe placed fourth with a personal-record 18:57.31. Seabreeze sophomore Audie Dayton was sixth in 19:03.39. And sophomore Barrett Jones of Seabreeze won the 10-place medal with a time of 19:35.86. Father Lopez’s Eldin Rankin finished 11th in 19:36.3.
Carlton ran a PR 22:10.7 to win the girls race. It was the sixth time in eight races this season that she set a new PR. She has lowered her time by about two and a half minutes since early in the season.
“I was surprised to win this race,” said Carlton, who finished 9.2 seconds ahead of Lilah Fusco of New Smyrna Beach.
Her coach, however wasn’t surprised.
“She’s been improving every single day, and she’s a great competitor,” Hoover said. “She had someone in front of her on her home course, and there was no way she was coming in second. She was going for the win.”
Carlton was second after the first mile. She took the lead at about a mile and a half and then heard footsteps as Fusco passed her.
I was kind of losing my steam. And then I just heard everybody around me cheering for me. I was like, ‘You know what, I'm going to win this.’
— RENA CARLTON
“I was kind of losing my steam,” Carlton said. “And then I just heard everybody around me cheering for me. I was like, ‘You know what, I'm going to win this.’ And I just pushed all the way through, and I used all that I had left. The third mile came around and I passed her, and I held first. I’m very proud of myself.”
Just two weeks ago, Carlton’s PR was 23:11. Now she’s hoping to run a sub-22-minute race before districts.
“I've been getting a PR each race, little by little, and I think I'm just going to keep getting better and better,” she said.
Father Lopez sophomore Lisa Fulton placed fourth in 23:04.84. Seabreeze’s Emma Robinson (24:59.06) was 12th. Father Lopez’s Izy Kosko (25:14.07) was 13th.
Spruce Creek won the boys team trophy, while New Smyrna Beach won the girls trophy.
