Bishop Moore ninth grader Annabella Tomasic ran away with her second state title at Saturday’s FHSAA cross country state championships meet in Tallahassee.
She ran a time of 17 minutes, 35.5 seconds for 5,000 meters to win the Class 3A final by 31 seconds ahead of Satellite senior Celina Coryell (18:06.3) at Apalachee Regional Park. Tomasic’s performance was the fastest girls time of the day across the four classifications and was her seventh win in seven races this year.
She won the 2A championship as a seventh grader and finished third as an eighth grader in a season marred by injury. She ran for Lake Highlander in both of those seasons.
Tomasic switched to Bishop Moore this year and led the Hornets to a third place in the team standings behind first place Chiles of Tallahassee and Ponte Vedra on Saturday.
Montverde Academy junior Will Moss won the boys 2A title decisively with a 15:35.3 time. The victory marked a huge improvement from when he ran 16:53.5 in a 29th place finish a year ago.
Oviedo’s boys were pegged as 4A favorites after beating reigning 4A champ Buchholz of Gainesville in the Region 1 race last week. But the Bobcats turned the tables and scored a decisive win with 58 points ahead of Oviedo’s 103.
The Lions led through the two mile mark but Buchholz finished stronger.
East Ridge junior Axel Sallault was the 4A individual runner-up with a time of 15:27.5.
Horizon senior Jacob Finch placed sixth at 15:48.0, and Oviedo senior Colin Aysun was seventh at 15:54.8. Lake Nona senior Matthew Rutan was 10th at 15:59.9, just ahead of Oviedo junior Levi Mollica, who clocked the same time.
Hagerty was fifth and East Ridge seventh in the team standings.
East Ridge’s girls finished fourth in 4A. Lake Minneola was 10th. Lake Nona sophomore Arabella Duffell was the ninth individual with an 18:36.6 time.
Mount Dora sophomore Cecelia Lear ran 18:55.6 for seventh in 2A. Montverde was seventh in the team race.
Lake Highland Prep’s boys were 10th in 2A.
In 1A, Master’s Academy was eighth in the girls race and Circle Christian’s boys were also eighth.
Lake Highland 7th-grader is FHSAA state cross country champion
Varsity content editor Buddy Collings can be contacted by email at bcollings@orlandosentinel.com.