Varsity Race Recaps - Fleet Feet Invitational presented by Saucony

Girls Varsity

The weather that had threatened the opening weekend for a good majority of the teams only showed as athletes and fans were heading out of the gates at South Fork High School.

The consensus amongst athletes and fans - the Fleet Feet Invitational's turf is a bonafide cross country course that offered varying types of surface and lots of visibility for the fans over the length of the two loops that encompassed the Varsity and Junior Varsity 5K's.

First up was the Girls Varsity 5K.  We had a pretty good idea that Melbourne's Natalie Bress would be the favorite going in, but there was only one concern.  The junior Bulldog had never run a cross-country race in her life.  Sure, she had run local 5K's on the road before but that's comparing apples to oranges.  Her only track season this past spring showed great promise for a fall XC campaign.  She clocked 5:15 and 11:08 showing she had speed and endurance.

When asked what her thoughts were going into her first XC race, she said, "I was just picturing what a XC course was going to look like, I had no clue.  The only time I've run a 5K is on the roads, so I was just wondering what the girls were like, and how to race and how hot it was going to be.  I had no clue exactly how to race, so it was exciting."

It became evident less than 2 minutes into the race that Natalie is a real competitor.  She sped by us with a steely determination and in front.

Close on her heels was another runner.  Freshman Rylee Pustilnik from Spanish River High School.  It was evident from the get-go she was not going to let Natalie get more than a couple of inches in front of her as they both out-distanced the field early.

As it turns out, this was also the first ever cross-country race at the high school level for Rylee as well.  Florida, we're in store for some great racing from these two in the future!

For the first half of the race, Rylee was content to let Natalie do the heavy lifting up front. "I just said I was going to stay behind her and let her do  most of the work, and then I was going to take off with half a mile to go."  Rylee's race played out perfectly.  She pulled up alongside the right shoulder of Natalie and then ever so slowly, she started to inch forward and eventually gap not only Natalie but the rest of field by a considerable margin.  She crossed the line in 19:06. Natalie was second in 19:18.  On this course, those times weren't indicative of the effort nor the future.

Meanwhile, the chase pack was a good ways back and competing amongst themselves for not only that third spot but also for team title aspirations.

Mater Academy's Jinah-Mickens Malik was always in contention for that third spot and finished with a sub 20 effort, going 19:57.  Circle Christian's Sinkenesh Parker was fourth in 20:00 and rounding out the top 5 were Ransom-Everglades senior, Beatriz Ruan who crossed the line in 20:31. 

Over the course of the 5K, the Girls from Satellite had slowly moved up running as a pack.  Leading the way across the line for the Scorpions was Lana Rukab in seventh followed by Marie Groppel in 8th, Anique Kattenberg in 10th, Sara Towers in 13th, and the fifth scorer for the Scorpions was Brianna Basford in 17th. 

Satellite scored followed 52 followed by our Our Lady of Lourdes in second with 82 and defending 1A State Champions Circle Christian in 3rd with 124.

Team Spread for Girls Varsity 5K - Runners 1-5

Boys Varsity

Coming off solid outings last week at Wickham Park led by Senior Egan Kattenberg, the Satellite Scorpions were always going to be in contention for top honors.

Belen Jesuit also opened their 2016 season last week at the Westminster Christian Warrior Pre-Season Jamboree placing 5 in the top 7.

The line for top honors in the boy's race had been established.

Belen Jesuit led by DyeStat #67, Junior Joshua Collins was the pre-race favorite following a stellar track season where he went 4:21.67 in the 1600m and 9:17.39 as the 3A runner-up in the 3200.

As expected, the lead pack at the 800m mark included Jesuit's Collins, Satellite's Egan Kattenberg, brother Trevor Kattenberg, John Cacciatore, West Shore's Austin Camps and maybe more surprisingly, a very game Isaia De La Puente from Forest Hills, the early leader.

The leaders passed the first mile in 5:04 and it could be seen at this point that Satellite's pack was better formed than that of Belen Jesuit's with Collins doing a lot of the work by himself at the front.

With coaches that preach pack running as a necessary tactic for success, Satellite's Coach Butler was especially pleased, "We pack ran, and that's what I liked.  I wanted them to learn to pack run. Leaders going out a little softer, my five and six going out a little harder."

Belen's Coach Ruiz has a young team of harriers with only one senior on his squad of 30 offered, "My guys were ready to race, they weren't looking at clocks, today wasn't a race to look at that". 

Midway during the race Coach Ruiz asked Joshua to drop back and not do so much of the work up front.  It was somewhat surprising to see him drift to the back of the front pack with the Kattenberg's, Cacciatore, and Camps in front of him with less than a mile to go. 

The break came as they hit the paved gravel road in the back woods and when the runners emerged, John Cacciatore was now gapping the field, but a resurgent Collins wouldn't let him go that easily.

As one of the best finishers in the State according to Coach Ruiz, by the time they emerged with less than 400m to go, Collins was in go-mode and cruised to victory in 16:09.

Moving up in the last few meters to finish second was Egan Kattenberg in 16:20.  Finishing 3rd was Cacciatore in 16:20 as well, followed by Camps in 16:24, Trevor Kattenberg in 16:26 and then it was a good ways back to Highland Christian's Ryan Szklany in sixth at 16:52.

The two-way team battle fell to Satellite as they went 2-3-5-7-12 totaling 29 points, Belen Jesuit with 41 and Spanish River in 3rd at 107.

Team Scores Boys Varsity 5K

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