By Vincent Jackson

9/24 Update

     On September 24, Ponte Vedra High School made the journey out to downtown Jacksonville for the Katie Caples Invitational at Bishop Kenny High School, this race is one of the most anticipated races of the entire season, being as it is one of the fastest courses in all of Florida and also having a very stacked field with schools coming from all over for this one meet. On the girls side, junior, Lindy White showed up like usual, in a big way, placing first out of 138 athletes with a time of 18:29, another athlete proving to be one of the key pieces for PVHS is sophomore, Daisy Ross, who placed eighth overall and second for the sharks. The team battle for the girls was as close as can be, ending with PVHS defeating Buchholz High School in a tiebreaker with 86 points, tiebreakers in cross country are very different from other tiebreakers in sports, as the top five runners are guaranteed to get points for their team and the tiebreaker is decided by the number six and seven runner for the teams tied, so PVHS won this race because their number six was the number 47 overall and the number seven runner was the number 48 runner overall, Buchholz had their number six and seven runner place 62 and 77. On the boys side of the competition, the boys had an excellent display of team depth, per the usual, senior, Grant Doherty had a great race, leading the Ponte Vedra boys with a time of 16:30.96, Doherty shows impeccable poise and determination in any race he shows up to, coming in second was senior, Nicolo Fasanelli and just behind him was junior, Davis Brown, both Fasanelli and Brown running times of around 16:38, after the top three boys there was a little gap between the next four runners, although, the next four all had fantastic races, all finishing back to back to back to back with times between 17:22 and 17:24, these athletes include the top new freshman for PVHS, Miles Wicks, the sophomore breakout, Tanner Andrade-Brinsko, juniors, Colby Green and Richard Circelli, Green described this race as “An awesome battle between me and my teammates, it felt like a friendly rivalry in a sense that we all train, suffer and compete with each other every morning we wake up and go to practice.”

     The Katie Caples Invitational brought the best out of the PVHS and sent a message to the rest of the state that they are the real deal and are not messing around, the next meet will be the JV championship race for the JV athletes and the next meet for Varsity will be the FSU pre-state meet due to the second Cecil Field meet being cancelled for Hurricane Ian.

9/3 Update

  As the Ponte Vedra High School cross country team heads into the back half of their season, the team has had many outstanding newcomers representing PVHS. Starting off their season, PVHS headed out to two separate meets, one at Cecil Field and one at the Spikes and Spurs Classic. On the girls side at Cecil Field, junior, Lindy White had an astounding performance for the beginning of the year, placing third overall out of 278 athletes. On the boys side, senior, Grant Doherty placing 27 out of 337 with a time of 16:25 and junior, Davis Brown coming in second for the boys with a time of 16:30. The second race of the weekend was the Spikes and Spurs Classic, in which athletes that were not featured in the Cecil Field race competed. On the girls side, the PVHS girls had a masterclass of a meet, having three athletes place in the top ten and four athletes in the top 11, sophomore, Daisy Ross had a fantastic performance in this meet, placing second out of 253 athletes with a time of 20:42.1, sophomore, Sofia Bushkell, placed fourth with a time of 21:07.5, junior, Amelia Tackling, came in ninth place with a time of 22:14, rounding out the PVHS top four was freshman, Ella McGowan, who came storming in to place eleventh with a time of 22:29.7.

    Moving into the next week for PVHS, the sharks had an unmatched confidence that quickly told the other teams who they were dealing with. This meet was the annual Craig Speziale Invitational, this race was very special for the sharks, being one of the first meets in PVHS history in which both the boys and girls individual winners were representing PVHS. Senior, Grant Doherty, had a fantastic race, pushing through rough conditions to come out with a time of 16:17, a 17 second win over PVHS junior, Davis Brown. Also, in the mix was senior, Nicolo Fasanelli, who placed fourth with a 32 second improvement from his junior year. On the girls side, junior, Lindy White came through with the win with a time of 18:45, with sophomores, Daisy Ross and Sofia Bushkell rounding out the PVHS top three, all three of which placing in the top ten overall for this meet. Potentially the most groundbreaking performance of this meet may have been the PVHS boys JV team, a perfect team sweep, winning the meet with a perfect 15 points, top performers for PVHS were sophomores, Ray Gottchalk, Endrias Lommen and Zane Harper, freshman, Hayden Edinger and junior, Robert Moore. Not only was there a top five sweep, nine of the top ten runners in the JV boys race were PVHS athletes. The JV girls also had an amazing meet, taking eight of the top ten spots, outstanding athletes being freshman, Madalyn Martin, Shani Etique, Ella Nolan, Julia Preston and Annabelle Guirato, top sophomore girls being Charlotte Davidson and Emi Varghese, with junior, Megan Holian closing out the top ten.

     PVHS is moving into the back half of their season and are expecting big things, the sharks have one of, if not, the deepest team in PVHS cross country history. The next meet for PVHS will be the Katie Caples Invitational, which is always a lightning fast course in which all top runners are sure to shine and a great meet for underclassmen to show what the future of PVHS holds.