Lady Bears Come Up Short

Last week at the Class 3A, District 3 race held at Lake McKethan Park in Brooksville, the Central girls were jumping for joy when they finished fifth to qualify for the Region II race this week.
But Saturday at Polk Community College in Winter Haven, the Lady Bear runners were not quite as happy as they came in 10th (213) and failed to advance to next Saturday's state meet in Dade City.
The top six teams and top 15 runners moved on to the states.
"It was an extremely tough field," said Central coach Erin Courtney. "And all of my girls are inexperienced running with this caliber of runners."
Central sophomore Melia Orrell had the best finish for Central as she came in 37th with a time of 21:41.56. She was followed by sophomore Mikayla Bogulski, who ran a 21:57.62 over the 5K course to finish 45th.
Anna DeAngelis was 48th for Central while Caroline Northup was 51st, Bryanna Eady was 62nd, Rennie Devon was 77th and Kady McCandless finished 79th.
For everyone on the Central team, this was their first time at a region meet and their coach thinks this will be an excellent learning experience for them.
"A lot of times you can talk yourself out of a race," said Courtney. "It's a very mental sport. Getting in here with all these fast girls, I think they were feeling a little pressure. But now we just pick ourself up and move on."

Class 3A-Region II Meet
at Polk Community College

Team scores (top six advanced to states)
1. Wharton, (WHA) 67; 2. Newsome, (NEW) 97; 3. Lake Region, (LR) 104; 4. Plant, (PLN) 123; 5. Ocala-Vanguard, (OV) 129; 6. Land O' Lakes, (LOL) 142; 7. Tampa-King, (TK) 157; 8. South Lake, (SL) 183; 9. Gulf, (GU) 206; 10. Central, (CEN) 213.

Top 15 runners (top 15 advanced to states)
1. Sydney Devore, (LR) 18:27.59; 2. Tori Lawson, (OV) 19:12.74; 3. Anne-Marie Blaney, (Belleview) 19:30.07; 4. Michaela Kennedy, (PLN) 19:41.83; 5. Alyssa Franks, (WHA) 19:49.86; 6. Alyssa Brandt, (LOL) 19:57.06; 7. Rebecca Webster, (NEW) 20:11.16; 8. Jennifer Maxwell, (Kathleen) 20:13.13; 9. Cynthia Barajas, (Haines City) 20:14.03; 10. Jessica Furst, (Wesley Chapel) 20:17.75; 11. Erin Bailey, (WHA) 20:19.15; 12. Elizabeth Goodwin, (PLN) 20:24.57; 13. Abigal Ritter, (WHA) 20:25.36; 14. Lauren Kelly (SL) 20:33.66; 15. Sydney Coates, (NEW) 20:33.88.

10. Central (213): 37. Melia Orrell, 21:41.56; 45. Mikayla Bogulski, 21:57.62; 48. Anna DeAngelis, 22:02.32; 51. Caroline Northup, 22:08.37; 62. Bryanna Eady, 22:46.56; 77. Rennie Devon, 24:01.21; 79. Kady McCandless, 24:27.08.