Spanish River sweeps county cross country meet – South Florida Sun Sentinel
The Spanish River girls’ cross country team includes, from left, Alexa Bishop, Ella Goldfarb, Sammy Sadorf, Zoe Pustilnik, Katelyn Sadorf, Katie East, Leah Zeledon, Toby Kahn, Sari Kramer and Aliana Saia (not pictured). (Doug Horn/Courtesy )
The Spanish River High School cross country team showed it is on good footing in the recent Palm Beach County championships by sweeping all four divisions – both the boys’ and girls’ junior varsity and varsity divisions.
Spanish River won the boys’ varsity with 20 points, while Boca Raton was second with 65 points in the meet at South County Regional Park in Boca Raton. Junior Justin Spleha took third (16:38.60) to pace the Sharks, which packed the top 8 with the next six spots. West Boca Raton junior Ryan Douihech won the title with a time of 16:23.20.
The Sharks varsity girls edged Jupiter by five points in winning their title. They scored 57 points, while the Warriors totaled 62. Junior Zoe Pustilnik placed third (19:42.60) behind Boca Raton High School senior Pia Beaulieu (17:43.30) and Bobcats sophomore Emma O’Day (19:24.60).
The win for the boys’ varsity marked their seventh straight title, while the girls won for the fourth consecutive time.
The Spanish River boys’ cross country team is, from left, Bodey Miller, Elan Bar-Nur, Greg Kovacs, Sam Jaramillo, Moises Medina, Shai Deichman, Justin Spleha, Tyler VanBuskirk, Joey Garcia and Joey Sheiner. (Doug Horn/Courtesy )
The Sharks cruised to the boys’ JV title by placing five runners in the top eight led by senior Mark Van Buskirk (18:25.50), senior Lorenzo Echeverria (19:02.40) and junior Zach Sarmoen (19:39.50) who swept the first three spots. In total, Spanish River had eight runners in the top 13. The Sharks totaled 17 points, while Boca Raton was second with 44.
The JV girls had the top 2 finishers in sophomore Chloe Vilme (24:38.10) and freshman Gaelle Scheeres (24:45.80) and then swept five through 12 to finish with 21 points, while Jupiter was second with 40 points.
“To call this season challenging would be an understatement,” Spanish River coach Doug Horn said. “We were denied the opportunity to compete in FHSAA State Championship series despite having one of the best teams in Florida. I’m certain our boys would have been in the thick of the fight for the podium and I feel for them. However, in the county meet, we had six of our boys run under 17 minutes and our varsity girls showed great character with all of them running season bests.”
Copyright © 2022, Sun Sentinel
Copyright © 2022, Sun Sentinel
