2022 Middle School FLYRA Championship
The Girls
The Boca Warriors Middle School Girls' Team took 2nd Place Club and 4th Place Overall at the 2022 FLYRA Middle School State Championship
Our Middle School Girls' Team was led by Emily Pymm's (8th grade) 6th place overall finish. Emily had a new PR of 11:19:90 and completes her middle school cross country career as the 4th fastest 8th grader in Florida in the 3K cross country event.
Also on the podium was Gianna Gallego (7th grade) with her 8th place finish. Gianna ran a new PR of 11:30 and completes the 2022 cross country season ranked number 6 out of 700 7th grade runners.
Alex Palekar (8th grade) was on the podium in 13th place. Alex was our leader last year and finished 3rd in the State in the 3K at MS States track last May. Unfortunately, Alex suffered from injury and was unable to train until a couple of weeks before States. Alex is disappointed, but she's a great runner, has the right long-term perspective, and she will be back for the upcoming track season.
Also making the podium in 19th place was 6th grader Makaela Morilla. Her 12:00.80 time was a new PR & Makaela finishes the 2022 cross country season ranked 13th out of 750 6th grade 3K cross country runners.
Rounding out our top 5 was Ellie Morgan (8th grade). Ellie has been dealing with breathing issues all season but she came through yesterday in 28th place with a new PR of 12:20:50, a full minute faster than she ran just two weeks ago at HOKA.
The rest of our team Victoria "Vicki" Zea (8th grade) came in 33rd overall, newcomer Barbarita Jedlicka (6th grader) came in 43rd & 7th grader Lily Sierra came in 63rd.
2022 "SWAG-time" for the girls !
Shout Outs
Emily, Alex, Ellie and Vicki are also four of the original Boca Warriors, and were there from Day 1 when our Club started from scratch 3 + years ago.
These young ladies' consistent work ethic, positive attitude, their willingness to be coachable, and their on-the-field success were instrumental to the Boca Warriors developing a middle school running program that is the envy of Florida.
These girls deserve a big "Thank You" for setting a standard of excellence as they move on to High School cross country next year.
Cross Country is not for the Faint-of-Heart
In 2021 our MS Girls' Team averaged 11:52 & won it all as the top team in Florida. This year they averaged 5 seconds faster at 11:47 but were 4th over all (approx 160 teams qualified for States) & are the 2022 runner up club team. This was the fastest middle school year for girls & shows just how hard teams & individuals work to get to the top.
The Guys
This year we didn't have enough boys to field a complete Middle School Boys' Team, but the guys we did have at FLYRA are all exceptional runners, and they showed off their skill and hard-work, and also set a standard of excellence in the Open Race.
Out of 308 finishers, both Erik Moss (6th place and a new PR of 11:11:90) & Jeremy Lopez (11th place and a new PR 11:27:10) medaled on the podium, while Justin Xia finished 57th with a new PR of 12:35:90.
Next year, they should be joined by some of our elementary boys runners, and have a good chance to contend for a team medal.
Great job guys !