Bishop Kenny ends 23-year wait at meet
Saturday will go down as a red-letter day for the red and black of Bishop Kenny.
A volleyball sweep against formerlyperfect state challenger Tallahassee Chiles. Five new event records in swimming. And a home-course triumph in girls cross country, leading the pack along the St. Johns River in the 25-year anniversary edition of the Katie Caples Invitational.
Balance boosted the Crusaders. Led by (19:21) and
(19:24), five Bishop Kenny girls broke 20:15 to tally 68 points, enough to overcome runner-up Ponte Vedra at 82 for the school’s first girls team title in the home meet since 2000.
Northeast Florida’s streak in the elite girls race stretched to 10 years: Bolles won every season from 2014 to 2020, while Ponte Vedra won in 2021 and 2022.
In the boys race, Bolles bounded to the top, led by in 15:59 with
Tessa Massa
Fleming
Riley Smith
Graham Myers
Kate Drummond
Emily Wheldon
Chris Joost Parker Adams, Alexander Ruge, Will Morales Jack Camp
and also under 16:50. The Bulldogs’ 81 points edged out Gainesville Buchholz, which continued its Katie Caples success.
Buchholz’s moved to the front early and dropped Fleming Island’s
and Bolles’ Joost near the end to win in 15:50, while teammate
surged late to make it a Bobcats
Evan
1-2.
Previously, Buchholz’s won the boys race in 2022, and Buchholz’s placed first among girls in 2021.
“It’s my first time really focusing on cross season, putting the miles in and stuff,” Smith said. “I came out here just hoping to pace myself well, let people go out fast, and a lot of people started dropping off that front pack. It probably gave me a little bit of a confidence boost when I was able to keep that pace.”
Lake Highland Prep’s
made her first appearance at the Katie Caples one to remember. Still in seventh grade, Tomasic broke away from the pack inside the opening mile and won by nearly a minute margin in 17:48.82 for the girls individual title and second-fastest Florida high school time for 2023.
“(The pace) was a little bit on the edge,” she said. “I’ve had some good times lately.”
Emerson Miller
Annabella Tomasic
Steve Lyons,
Howard Lindy White
Alyson Johnson
Ponte Vedra’s second, with Creekside’s
third.
Principal and athletic director also presented a commemorative plaque to former coach
who is scheduled for induction into the Florida Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame. Lyons coached cross country at Bishop Kenny and later Nease and Ponte Vedra.
Cross country isn’t slowing down: Heading this week’s schedule is Saturday’s Bale-N-Trail Original at Bartram Trail.
Todd Orlando Mark Thorson
placed
BK swimmers set five meet records
While the Bishop Kenny runners were lifting a trophy on home turf, the Crusaders’ swimmers were rewriting record books in Orlando.
Bishop Kenny set five event records at the Florida Catholic Invitational Meet, on the way to a first-place boys team finish and second place in the girls overall standings.
Smashing records were the boys 200 freestyle relay of
Matt Leitheiser, Angelo Candelora, Evan Gardner Owen Kerkezi
Graham Evans,
Carter Wright
and (1:27.74); the boys 400 free relay of Kerkezi, Leitheiser and (3:11.89); Kerkezi in the boys 200 free (1:41.92); Wright in the boys 100 backstroke (51.19); and
in the girls 100 butterfly (56.56). The Crusaders also got wins from Howard in the girls 50 free, Gardner in the boys 50 free, Kerkezi in the boys 100 free and the boys 200 medley relay team, boosting hopes for a program that won Class 2A boys state championships in
Rachel
2021 and 2022.
While Jacksonville’s rising Class 2A power was excelling in Central Florida, Class 1A giant Bolles was also stamping its name in the win column at home. Bolles won two weekend meets in both boys and girls swimming, topping Miami Braddock and Beachside on Friday and then winning the Plapp Invitational on Saturday.
Frank Holleman meet set for Saturday
Where are Northeast Florida’s top swimmers going this weekend? For a few hundred of them, the answer will be Saturday’s Frank Holleman Invitational at Planet Swim near Ponte Vedra.
In all, 20 schools are scheduled to race at what has become one of the area’s most prominent regular season meets. All eight St. Johns County public schools are expected, in addition to Bolles, Fleming Island and several others.
Unlike most regular season events, the invitational is divided into preliminaries in the morning beginning at 8:30 a.m. and finals in the afternoon starting at 4:30 p.m.
At the 2022 meet,
won the 200 free and 100 back to lead Bartram Trail to first place, while Ponte Vedra lifted the girls trophy after victories by
Ryan Colin Barker Clark
Raymond Prosinski
Annabelle MacAdams, Penny Zarczynski
and Times-Union swimmer of the year
Annie Wohlgemuth.
Ryan rockets onto all-time list
The time: 15:02.90.
That’s how fast Nease senior
ran Saturday at the adidas XC Challenge in Cary, N.C., a time that launches the 2022 state champion ever higher on the list of Northeast Florida’s fastest ever in cross country.
Only a handful of Jacksonville-area runners have gone below 15 minutes in high school cross country, including former Nease star at New World Golf two years ago in 14:45.
(Bishop Kenny), (Creekside) and
(Bolles) are the area’s only other runners on record to go lower than Ryan’s 15:02.
Nease placed second to Maryland’s Calvert Hall College with 202 points, placing
Matt
Rheinhardt Harrison
Jimmy Charles Hicks
Sai Jayaraman, Finn Thomas, Nate Corkran Wyatt Pittman
and
16:22 along with Ryan.
A reloaded Bolles girls team fared well
under in North Carolina as well, placing eighth with a young roster. Seventh-grader
finished 27th in 18:44.6, best among locals, with junior
also inside 19 minutes.
While the Katie Caples drew most of the area’s top teams, some runners also scored high in other meets. St. Johns Country Day’s took second in the girls race at the Embry-Riddle Classic in Daytona Beach, followed by St. Joseph’s and
Stam
Casane.
Brady Harris
Rebecca Stratton
Paige Brammer Broncos sweep at
Carrie Prewitt Gymnasium
Carrie Prewitt,
Hazel Williams, Trinity’s Harris stars for USA Baseball
Sofie
Estella Bruneau
Kira
Nolan Martin Joshua Thompson
In Lake City, Columbia’s
(18:00) and ran 1-2 to lead the hosts’ boys team to victory. Bishop Snyder took second in both boys and girls team standings.
This volleyball season might not see a match with more milestones than last Thursday’s Clay County clash between Fleming Island and Middleburg.
Middleburg dedicated its gym in honor of longtime coach who led the Broncos’ program for 38 seasons and 632 victories through her retirement last October, as the Broncos went on to the 25-18, 25-7, 25-23 victory.
Junior attacker reached the 500-kill mark for her Middleburg career, while setter tallied her 500th assist on the same night.
Not to be ignored was Fleming Island setter who recorded her 500th assist.
Brooke Forkum
Olivia Callipo
Looks like Trinity Christian outfielder
is ready for the red, white and blue.
Lining up for USA Baseball’s 15U team in the five-game International Friendly Series in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Harris put up some dream numbers while leading the United States to the victory.
The sophomore batted .571 (8 for 14) with a double, five stolen bases and eight RBI, good for an OPS of 1.327.
He recorded a hit in every game and made one of the defensive plays of the final, chasing down a fly in foul territory and firing a strike to the plate to double up a Puerto Rico runner attempting to score.