Pine Crest’s Yared repeats in girls 2A

Pine Crest junior Tsion Yared ran a personal-best and state-record 17 minutes and 26.63 seconds to repeat as the Class 2A girls state champion at the FHSAA state cross country meet at the Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee on Saturday.

Yared, who won for the third time in five years, shaved more than

34 seconds off her previous best state time of 18:00.16 seconds when she won last year’s race. Her time this year was not only a Class 2A record but also the 12th-fastest time at the state meet for all classifications.

“I have never broken 18 [minutes] on that course, so it felt amazing,” Yared said. “I had been running fast times all season, so I knew I could push myself. I love the state meet.”

After winning the state title in 2014, Yared was sidelined for the state championships the following year with a stress fracture in her shin. She finished second in

2016 before winning the past two years to become the sixth individual champion in the last seven years for Pine Crest, which is tied Yared for third-most in state history.

Pine Crest junior Emily Faulhaber was third with an 18:16.29 clocking and also helped the Panthers finish runner-up to Jacksonville Bolles, who won the team title as they placed six runners in the top 19 to finish with 66 points. Pine Crest was second with 84 points. The Panthers have finished runner-up behind Bolles from

2012-2015 and won championships in both the 2016 and

2017 seasons. “Counting this year, it has either been Bolles or us finishing 1-2 seven years in a row,” said Pine Crest cross country coach Paul Baur. “We knew it was going to be a fight. They run really well together as a pack. They have been doing that all season long.

“We had some injuries this season and some girls coming back,” he added. “We obviously wanted to win, but we were really pleased to be second. [Junior] Maya Belezany was just cleared to run in October after being out since April and she ran a personal-best time of 19:23.83, which really helped us.”

South Florida Heat junior Joseph Anderton was fourth in the Boys 1A race with a personal-best time of

16:03.40. Benjamin senior Ted Twyman was seventh overall with a 16:19.63 time.

Boca Raton’s Pia Beaulieu was fourth in the girls Class 4A race. The sophomore tied her personal best with an 18:23.76 clocking to defeat rival Rylee Pustilnik, a junior at Spanish River. The Sharks were the top girls' team from Broward or Palm Beach County finishing

13th overall.

“I wanted to stick with the first pack,” said Beaulieu, who was fifth at state last year. “I knew I could tolerate the pain and I am really happy where I finished.”

Saint Andrews sophomore Eleanor Tymorek was sixth overall in Class 2A with an 18:27.74 clocking. Calvary Christian got a strong performance from eighth-grader Samantha Kavanaugh, who finished

37th overall (19:35.07) to finish in seventh with 222 points.

In the Boys 2A race, Thomas Rodriguez, a senior at Archbishop McCarthy, was 17th with a 16:23.51 clocking, while Pine Crest senior Gabriel Ortega ran

16:40.82 to take 22nd. Pine Crest’s boys took eighth overall with 284 points. Jacksonville Bolles ran away with the team title with 21 points as they took the top four places and has six runners in the top 13.

St. Thomas Aquinas was led by junior Aidan Breslin, who finished ninth in the Class 4A boys race

(16:13.46), while Colin Breslin was 21st at 16:34.18. Fort Lauderdale’s Michael Fiore and Piper’s Sukiel Foucha were 12th and 13th respectively. St. Thomas Aquinas took fifth place with 193 points. Sarasota won the state title with 84.

Forest Hill’s Isaias De La Puente was a disappointing

59th with a 17:01.20. The two-time Sun Sentinel Palm Beach County Runner of the Year, who has battled injuries all season, placed third at the state meet last year with a personal best time of 15:44.47.

In the Boys 3A race, Dwyer junior John Lesh was 30th (16:41.41). In the girls 3A race, Dillard seventh-grader Christian Coleman took 16th with a time of 19:10.77 as the Panthers took 12th with 334.

King’s Academy, led by junior Cameron Dunn’s

19th-place finish at 17:01.47, was sixth overall in Boys 1A with 238 points. King’s Academy freshman Mia Rodriguez was 11th with a

19:21.82 time in the girls Class 1A race. Boca Christian senior Sena Erickson was 16th with a time of

19:50.23. King’s Academy finished seventh at 257. Panthers right wing Juho Lammikko controls the puck Saturday against the Islanders.

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Senators at Panthers 5 p.m. Sunday,

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BRYNN ANDERSON/AP