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ALL-AREA BOYS CROSS COUNTRY TEAM
RUNNER OF THE YEAR TYLER O’BRIEN
All-Area First Team
Coach of the Year
MIKE LEHNING
Sean Barricklow
Hernan Baltazar
Austin Dyess
Jon Gonzalez
Travis McHale
Christian Moore
Josh NegronSantiago
Nic Parrinelli
Martin County, second year of second stint This season: The Tigers finished first or second in all but three meets this season — the UF Mountain Dew Invitational (fourth of 39 teams), the FSU Invitational (13th of 26 teams in invitational race) and the Class 3A state meet (14th). Lehning guided the team to the District 14-3A title, as all five scorers finished in the top 13, and a runner-up finish at the Region 4-3A meet. The 14th-place finish at state was the team’s best average time of the season at 17:02. Quotable: “The Florida meet was one of our best races. It was early and I was completely surprised to have the entire team in the 17s at that point, so I knew we were going to have a good season from there. We changed our training and had more quality and fewer injuries, and that was a big factor. I wasn’t disappointed in our finish (at state) at all. The guys earned everything they accomplished and they can be proud.”
SEAN BARRICKLOW
Martin County sophomore Notable: Season-best time was a 17:02.61 at the Class 3A state meet, placing 85th; finished 13th at the District 14-3A meet (17:39.02) and 19th in Region 4-3A (17:22.11)
HERNAN BALTAZAR
Okeechobee junior Notable: Season-best time of 17:18; finished 12th in District 14-3A (17:38.74) and 18th in Region 4-3A (17:21.79)
HONORABLE MENTION MARK ANTHONY BOZZO Treasure Coast junior
AUSTIN DYESS
Jensen Beach senior Notable: Season-best time was a 17:03.5 at the Terrier Invitational on Oct. 6; finished sixth in District 14-3A (17:30.57), 30th in Region 4-3A (18:04.03) and 139th at the Class 3A meet (17:55.71)
STEVEN PAUL BEAMS South Fork senior
JON GONZALEZ
MATTHEW EDWARDS Pine School junior
Martin County senior Notable: Season-best time was 17:00.1 at the Class 3A state meet, placing 77th; finished fourth at the District 14-3A meet (17:13.07) and 13th in Region 4-3A (17:14.95)
JAYMES COLE Vero Beach junior CHRISTIAN DAMIAN Fort Pierce Central senior
DEBORAH SILVER/TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS
Tyler O’Brien is the Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers’ All-Area Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year.
Determination
TRAVIS MCHALE
Jensen Beach senior Notable: Season-best time was 16:38 at the District 14-3A meet (first place), finished 49th in Region 4-3A (18:44.68) and 116th at the Class 3A state meet (17:33.37) Jensen Beach senior Notable: Season-best time was 16:51 at the Terrier Invitational on Oct. 6, third in District 14-3A (16:58.37), 16th in Region 4-3A (17:21.23), 87th in Class 3A (17:04.13)
JOSHUA NEGRONSANTIAGO
Port St. Lucie senior Notable: Season-best time was 17:06 at the Class 3A state meet; finished fifth in District 14-3A (17:13.57) and 14th in Region 4-3A (17:15.42)
NIC PARRINELLI
Martin County senior Notable: Season-best time was a 16:45 at the Shark Invitational; finished seventh in District 14-3A (17:31.8), 79th at the Class 3A meet (17:00.86)
The Team
The 2012 All-Area Boys Cross Country Team was compiled by Laurel Pfahler.
ANDREW JOHNSON St. Lucie West Centennial freshman JORDAN KUTNER Vero Beach senior JUSTIN MAY Lincoln Park senior
Martin County’s Tyler O’Brien is determined to excel and achieve greater goals in the future
CHRISTIAN MOORE
By Laurel Pfahler
Runner of the Year
laurel.pfahler@scripps.com 772-978-2282
Tyler O’Brien is driven by a desire that extends beyond wanting to be successful on the high school crosscountry course. The Martin County junior has his mind on a college running career, and it’s that goal that has pushed him to become the area’s most dominant male cross country runner. O’Brien broke 17 minutes for the first time at the FSU Invitational in early October and never looked back from there. After posting the area’s best times of the season, as well as the top performances at regionals and state, he is the Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers’ All-Area Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year. “That’s the only thing I want to do is run in college,” said O’Brien. “That’s why I’m trying to improve so much. I only took five days off after cross country ended. Now, I’m training for track and, hopefully, I can go to state in the 2-mile. I just want to keep getting better and improving my times.” O’Brien joined the cross country team for the first time last fall, following a successful freshman track season. He posted a season-best time of 17:02.90 at state in 2011, had another strong track season and worked
TYLER O’BRIEN
Martin County junior Notable: Ran a season-best time of 16 minutes, 30.63 seconds at the Shark Invitational on Oct. 20; finished second in the District 14-3A meet (16:45.87), was the top area runner in the Region 4-3A meet and at state, finishing fifth at regionals in 16:36.02 on a soggy course at South Fork, and 59th on a hilly course at state in 16:45.05 Coach Mike Lehning: “He just had a very good year. He’s finally starting to mature as a runner and the results are showing. He’s finally becoming a student of running. He knows how to train now and I can always count on Tyler to do the workout whether I’m there or not. The biggest thing is, he is so deserving. He’s not only come a long way as a runner, he’s come a long way as a person.”
hard to further improve on the crosscountry course this season. The results came quickly and consistently. “When I first started running, I thought if I ran a lot and worked hard in practice, it would be enough, but over the last two years I learned I need to do more than just running,” O’Brien said. “Cross training, biking,
VINCENT HARRIS Sebastian River senior
RYDER PEPPLER South Fork junior
exercising — all that will help you get better.” O’Brien said he liked being in front and leading his team as an individual. So, when another area runner beat him at the District 14-3A meet, leaving him with a second-place finish, it was no surprise he bounced back with his best race of the season. O’Brien ran a 16:36.02 — only 6 seconds off his personal record from just two weeks prior — on a soggy course at South Fork to finish fifth, trailing only four dominant Belen Jesuit runners. “I was confident in districts and going there expecting to win, but (Jensen Beach’s Travis McHale) passed me at the end with about 300 meters left, and it surprised me,” O’Brien said. “It was a cold day, the wind was hard on my lungs, and I still ran great, but I just couldn’t close the race. That made me really want to run hard at regionals.” Though O’Brien wasn’t able to get into the low 16s like he had hoped, coach Mike Lehning expects more big things to come for his top runner. “We’re really excited about track and next year,” Lehning said. “I’m glad he’s a junior because he has a lot left in him. He can go a long way because not only does he have talent, but desire. He has big goals, and we have big goals for him in the future.”
CALEB POTTORFF Lincoln Park eighth-grader C.J. ROBERTSON John Carroll sophomore JAKE SONZOGNI Vero Beach junior ALONDO STONE Treasure Coast senior MARVIN VINCENT Martin County senior
All-Area Teams Find previous All-Area teams on TCPALM.COM
All-Area Schedule DEC. 16
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