Winter Springs’ Wells leads district winners
CROSS COUNTRYWinter Springs junior Caroline Wells continued her stellar cross country campaign by dropping her personal best by more than 15 seconds in the opening round of postseason competition Saturday.
Wells clocked a time of 16 minutes, 50.78 seconds for 5,000 meters and cruised to a first-place finish in the Class 3A, District 6 meet.
She ran that time, which is fastest in Florida by more than 20 seconds, to win by a gaping margin at the Central Winds Park course next door to her school.
Wells, a state runner-up last season, is unbeaten this year, including a victory at the FSU Invitational on the state meet course a month ago.
Winter Springs is the reigning 3A state title team and is eyeing a repeat championship with Wells leading a new-look lineup. The Bears had five of the top seven finishers in their district-title performance.
Timber Creek junior Amber Schulz owns the third best time in the state (17:44.59), but she did not run in her team’s district race. Wolves coach JulieAnne Halsey said Tuesday that Schulz is dealing with an injury but is on Timber Creek’s state series roster. That means she could return to race in Saturday morning’s 4A, Region 2 meet at Hagerty High School.
Dr. Phillips took both the boys and girls 4A, District 8 team titles and Celebration swept both 4A-9 crowns.
Circle Christian coasted to both 1A-7 championships with seven of the top eight boys and five of the top six girls in those races in Lakeland.
Other large-classification girls district title teams were Spruce Creek in 4A-4, Lake Mary in 4A-5, West Orange just ahead of Windermere and Olympia in 4A-6, and Winter Park in 4A-7.
Montverde won the 2A, District 7 girls championship. International Community was the 1A-8 winner and Mount Dora Christian claimed the 1A-6 title.
Boys 4A district title teams were Orange City University by a four-point margin over DeLand in 4A-4, Hagerty in 4A-5,
Olympia in 4A-6, Timber Creek in 4A-7 and Dr. Phillips in 4A-8.
Lake Minneola won boys 3A-6. Bishop Moore ran to the 2A-7 title. Foundation Academy won 1A-6 and The Master’s Academy finished first in 1A-8.
The next step toward the state meet for area hopefuls are this weekend’s regional races.
Here are this year’s leading times by area runners:
Girls top 12 Caroline Wells (Winter Springs), 16:50.78 Amber Schulz (Timber Creek), 17:44.59 Alanie Rivera (Harmony), 18:07.12
Evie McIver (Winter Springs), 18:15.54 Jolynn Rodriguez (Winter Springs), 18:23.89 Sinkenesh Parker (Circle Christian), 18:31.40 Brooke Mullins (Harmony), 18:48.85
Emma Noel (Winter Park), 18:53.73
Lily Henne (Montverde Academy), 19:16.30 Megan Dolan (Boone), 19:23.90
Mya Bodrato (Lake Mary), 19:23.98
Noelle Vu (Mount Dora), 19:26.65
Boys top 12 Aiden Arnold (Winter Springs), 15:43.30
Nick Carpenter (Trinity Prep), 15:54.60
Riley Novack (Mount Dora Christian), 15:56.00 Sebastian Edwards (Celebration), 16:07.96 Jared Falchook (Celebration), 16:08.97
Kai Komatsu (Olympia), 16:11.85
Sam Austin (Oviedo), 16;12.18
Joel Jean (Harmony), 16:14.34
Brayden Seymour (Hagerty), 16:14.59
Colton Berquist (West Orange), 16:16.54
Ilyas Semlali (Dr. Phillips), 16:16.55
Mitchell Curtis (Mount Dora Christian), 16:19.00 Varsity Content Editor Buddy Collings can be reached by email at bcollings@orlandosentinel.com.