FPC's top five at the Spikes and Spurs: Dylan Ciardi (third overall), Enzo McGovern (seventh), Douglas Seth (first), Mateo Almeida (fourth) and Owen Stackpole (eighth). Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Anna Grigoruk placed third overall behind two Ponte Vedra runners. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC freshman Avery Wisniewski placed fifth in her first high school cross country race. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Audrey Bowman placed 13th at the Spikes and Spurs. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Seabreeze's Karly Rybicki checks her time shortly after the 2-mile split. Rybicki finished first among the Sandcrab runners, 46th overall. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Seabreeze's Emma Robinson leads Lake Mary's Olivia Miskiv. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Seabreeze's Harper Smith runs with DeLand's Justice Lott. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Spikes and Spurs boys championship team: Evan Johnson, Enzo McGovern Dylan Ciardi, Douglas Seth, Mateo Almeida, Brayden Murray, Owen Stackpole and Ethan Green. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Ponte Vedra's Piper Ross won the Spikes and Spurs girls 5K with a time of 19:39.7. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Audrey Bowman was one of four FPC runners to finish among the top 15 in the girls race at the Spikes and Spurs. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC senior Anna Grigoruk placed third with a time of 20:02.5. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Flagler Palm Coast sophomore Douglas Seth said he believes the Bulldogs’ boys cross country team will surprise some people this year.
So far, FPC is off and running. The Bulldogs won the Spikes and Spurs Classic at the Flagler County Fairgrounds on Saturday, Aug. 22, with Seth winning the individual championship.
FPC had never won the boys team or individual title before in the 15-year history of the meet.
“That's wild, that it's the first time, but there’s a first time for everything," Seth said. "It’s great confidence for our guys. I think a lot of people don't realize how good we are. We're just going to keep rolling with that.”
The Bulldogs took three of the top four places and five of the top eight to squash the competition with a phenomenal score of 23 points. Ponte Vedra finished second with 54 points.
Seth was the first runner to finish with a time of 15:59.5 seconds. He is the first FPC runner to finish in under 16 minutes at the meet. It was his second fastest time behind a 15:47 at last year’s regional meet.
FPC’s Dylan Ciardi (16:47.1) placed third behind Ponte Vedra’s Luke Ross. The Bulldogs’ other top-eight finishers were Mateo Almeida (fourth place in 16:50.4), Enzo McGovern (seventh place in 17:03.1) and Owen Stackpole (eighth place in 17:19.2).
Seabreeze placed 10th with Joseph Davis leading the Sandcrabs with a 21st-place finish in 18:04.6.
“The kids are excited,” FPC coach David Halliday said. “They think they can be really successful this year, and not just be at the state meet, but finish high, high up, and I think that's a very real possibility.”
The team has been bolstered by the additions of Matanzas transfers Ciardi and McGovern.
People ask us who’s the fastest, and we just say it changes every day. It changes every workout. We just have joy in improving each other, not just as runners, as men.
— DOUGLAS SETH
“Dylan and Enzo, they both have been great,” Seth said. “We all push each other every day. People ask us who’s the fastest, and we just say it changes every day. It changes every workout. We just have joy in improving each other, not just as runners, as men. That's kind of our motto.”
FPC is a young team. Three of its top seven runners at the meet are sophomores (Seth, Ciardi and Brayden Murray who placed 34th out of 199 runners), and only two are seniors (McGovern and Evan Johnson who was 20th).
“We’ve been working together in practice, but it's something really good to see out there on the field,” said Almeida, who was not among the leaders after the first mile but steadily moved up. “I just saw my teammates, and I'm like, ‘I have to go catch them. I can't let them down.’”
Seth finished his freshman cross country season as an All-State runner placing 13th at the Class 4A state championships. In the first meet of his sophomore season, he showed how far he has progressed by beating Ponte Vedra’s Ross for the first time.
“I’ve looked up to him forever,” Seth said of Ross, who ran 16:04.9. “When I was in sixth grade and he was in eighth grade, he was the fastest. So it was really cool to race him today. He's a great runner, and I think he's going to have a big year.”
Halliday thinks the Bulldogs can have a very big year.
“This is definitely one of the deeper teams we've had, and very young,” he said. “And I think we'll just continue to see big improvements, not just out of those top five, but there's about 20 of them doing some good stuff. It's the first step. We'll see in two weeks [at the Horse Park Invitational in Ocala], how we do with a little bigger competition, a few more teams. But we we feel like we can hold our own.”
The FPC girls placed third at the Spikes and Spurs with 65 points. Ponte Vedra won the girls title with 37 points, while Oviedo Hagerty was second with 55 points. Seabreeze finished ninth.
Senior Ana Grigoruk led the Bulldogs with a third-place finish in 20:02.5. FPC freshman Avery Wisniewski placed fifth with a time of 20:47.0.
Ponte Vedra’s Piper Ross (19:39.7) and Savannah LaVasser (19:52.6) finished first and second.
“I'm a little disappointed because I came here expecting to go sub-20,” Grigoruk said. “But I was close to hitting my goal, so I'm just trying to see the positive in it, continue on and improve throughout the season.”
Grigoruk led at the 1K split, but the Ponte Vedra duo passed her before the 2-mile point.
“I knew those two girls from Ponte Vedra were going to be up there,” she said. “So I wanted to stay with them, but I kind of fell off. I tried to catch second place towards the end, but I think [LaVasser] had a pretty good kick.”
FPC’s Everly Mucciolo (21:40.8) placed 12th, Audrey Bowman (21:52.1) was 13th and Hailey Brennan (23:47.3) was 42nd.
Karly Rybicki led the Sandcrabs with a 46th-place finish in 24:08.4.
In the Spike and Spurs 3K middle school run, Imagine School At Town Center’s club team placed first for both boys and girls, while Indian Trails Middle School placed second in both. Mia Kopcikova of Imagine won the girls title in 12:13.6. Imagine’s Aidan Moylan won the boys title in 11:04.9.
Matanzas junior Peyton Cerasi had a strong start to the season on Friday, Aug. 21, with a 13th-place finish in the Elite Girls Division at the Cecil Field Summer Classic in Jacksonville.
Competing in a field of 340 top distance runners from Florida and Georgia, Cerasi navigated the crowded course to finish in 19:07.
Matanzas’ other runners competed in the Varsity B races. Noemi Malinowski placed 22nd in the Girls Varsity B race in 22:37. Rena Carlton was 48th in 23:37. Liam Yanasheski ran 20:54 in the Boys Varisty B race.
Father Lopez compete in the Jim Ryun Invite at Holloway Park in Lakeland. The Green Wave’s girls team placed 15th with Lucy Fulton leading the way in 23:25 for 34th place. Liam Harman led the boys team with time of 20:05.
