2023 Florida State Elementary Girls' Champions
The Elementary Girls 3rd-5th Grade Squad closed out the 2023 Cross Country season with a resounding 1st place finish at the FLYRA MS State Cross Country Championship 2023.
Despite being without one of our top runners in Arielle Gorlovetzky, the team dominated everyone else & set the State Championship Record as the fastest Elementary Girls team ever.
"As a whole I have never been around a group of elementary runners as our girls team. And neither has anyone else in Florida." - Coach Crate
These girls started the season at Holloway Park with a 1st place finish, way back in late August, kept their momentum and high-level training going throughout the season, and ended up as State Champions!
To put our Girls' accomplishment in perspective, the 3rd -5th grade Elementary race was added in 2013.
That year saw only 30 girls finishing. This year's race had 163 finishers. The first year had no team awards, as there was only one complete team. This year the girls had 12 complete teams.
The 2021 & 2022 winning teams tied as the fastest teams to date both averaging 8:38 for the top 5 runners. Up until this year when the Boca Warriors set the record for the fastest team in State history with a team average time of 8:33.
The team score of 24 was well ahead of the 2nd place team who had 78 points.
All 5 scoring team members finished in the Top 20 and received individual podium medals
The Girls' Medal Winners Include:
Hayden Frey:
4th place overall and 1st among all 4th graders & new PR
Ana Lucia Barba:
5th place overall and 2nd among all 4th graders
Faith Gladstone:
6th place overall & new PR
Katerina Skutnik:
14th place overall and 1st among all 3rd graders & new PR
Mila Valderrama:
20th place overall and 2nd among all 3rd graders & new PR
On the Podium: Hayden, Ana Lucia, Faith, Katerina & Mila (off-screen)
Strength From Top to Bottom
The girls team is stacked top to bottom, with all of the other team members contributing mightily:
Diane Fiederer (new PR)
Norah Kraev (establishing a PR)
Emily Cooper (new PR)
Sarah Tinoco (new PR)
Olivia Aaronson (new PR)
This team is positioned well for the coming track season and for next year's XC season. Great job girls !