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ALL-AREA BOYS CROSS-COUNTRY TEAM
RUNNER OF THE YEAR TYLER O’BRIEN
All-Area First Team
First Team continued CALEB POTTORFF
Blake Bachman
Lincoln Park freshman Season-best time: 16:12.90 District 14-2A meet: 17:32.17 (ninth) Region 4-2A meet: 16:56.97 (eighth) Class 2A state meet: 16:12.89 (seventh)
Hernan Baltazar
C.J. ROBERTSON
John Carroll junior Season-best time: 17:46 District 13-1A meet: 17:49.14 (fourth) Region 4-1A meet: 18:53.46 (22nd) Class 1A state meet: 17:46.18 (6st) Sean Barricklow
Mark Anthony Bozzo
Jaymes Cole
Hunter DuBois
Coach of the Year
FRANK IRIZARRY
Zach Garland
Ryder Peppler
Caleb Pottorff
C.J. Robertson
John Carroll, 10th year This season: John Carroll surprised a lot of teams during the postseason, starting when Irizarry guided the Golden Rams to the 13-1A title by edging projected winner Wellington Christian by five points. They also finished third in the Region 3-1A meet (nine points out of second) and were 15th at state, where they entered as the 19th-ranked team in the FLRunners.com FACA rankings. Quotable: “This was a great season for our cross-country program. Our athletes worked very hard, and the results started to show toward the end of the season. The highlight of the year was our district championship. We had depth on the team this year, and the competition in practice really helped everyone run their best.”
BLAKE BACHMAN
Lincoln Park senior Season-best time: 17:29.50 District 14-2A meet: 17:50.93 (fourth) Region 4-2A meet: 17:45.81 (19th)
HERNAN BALTAZAR
Okeechobee senior Season-best time: 17:04.60 District 14-3A meet: 17:40.28 (seventh) Region 4-3A meet: 17:59.30 (23rd)
SEAN BARRICKLOW
Martin County junior Season-best time: 16:28.20 District 9-4A meet: 17:18.56 (first) Region 3-4A meet: 16:28.22 (third) Class 4A state meet: 16:30.78 (32nd)
CHRISTOPHER ARNOLD/TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS
Martin County High School’s Tyler O’Brien is the 2013 All-Area Boys Cross-Country Runner of the Year.
Competitive & consistent Martin County senior placed second in regional meet with a personal best time
MARK ANTHONY BOZZO
Treasure Coast senior Season-best time: 17:06.70 District 9-4A meet: 17:50.83 (third) Region 3-4A meet: 17:06.67 (12th) Class 4A state meet: 18:07.26 (151st)
JAYMES COLE
Vero Beach senior Season-best time: 17:03.80 District 9-4A meet: 18:36.50 (ninth) Region 3-4A meet: 17:15.56 (20th)
HUNTER DUBOIS
Jensen Beach senior Season-best time: 17:38.6 District 14-3A meet: 17:39.74 (sixth) Region 4-3A meet: 19:30.70 (79th)
ZACH GARLAND
Martin County senior Season-best time: 17:02.90 District 9-4A meet: 18:07.06 (seventh) Region 3-4A meet: 17:17.77 (21st) Class 4A state meet: 18:33.61 (169th)
RYDER PEPPLER
South Fork senior Season-best time: 17:37.95 District 14-3A meet: 17:37.95 (fifth) Region 3-4A meet: 18:02.50 (24th)
By Laurel Pfahler
Runner of the Year
laurel.pfahler@scripps.com 772-978-2282
STUART — Tyler O’Brien went out to win every race he competed in, and more times than not he put himself in a position to do just that. The Martin County High School senior placed in the top five at six of 10 meets this season, including two wins and three runner-up finishes. He was in the top 25 of every race. No other local runner, aside from teammate and district champion Sean Barricklow, beat him. Along the way, O’Brien became one of the state’s best runners. For his consistent success on the local and state level, O’Brien is the Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers All-Area Boys Cross-Country Runner of the Year for a second consecutive season. “He is just very competitive, and he works harder than anyone I know,” Martin County coach Justin Browning said. “He strives to be the best, and he does whatever he needs to get there. He really pushed himself in speed workouts and had his miles up. “He was driven by goals, and he accomplished them pretty much on his own will.” O’Brien said he was motivated by the goal of breaking 16 minutes, something he just fell short of. He ran a season-best time of 16 minutes, 30.63 seconds in 2012 and picked up right where he left off this fall.
TYLER O’BRIEN
Martin County senior Season-best time: 16:15.7 District 9-4A meet: 17:34.43 (second) Region 3-4A meet: 16:15.66 (second) Class 4A state meet: 16:23.68 (24th) Coach Justin Browning: “His work ethic is what defines him. He is one of the hardest workers I’ve ever worked with in sports. He had goals, and he took care of them himself. He worked outside of practice, and he was just always running. That’s why he’s successful. He wants to be the best, and he’s not afraid to put it out there.”
Despite hitting a late-season wall, he set his personal record at 16:15.66 in a gutsy Region 3-4A performance, placing second in what he said was a perfect race. “I was just really trying to break 16 the whole season,” O’Brien said. “I got so close, and I felt I should have broken it earlier in the season, but our schedule wasn’t that great, so I didn’t have a chance. You can’t run your best when there’s no competition. You need someone in front of you,pushing you to run the time you want. “From the start of season to the finish, I still felt I improved a lot. I got my time down, and I believe I
did my best.” The FLRunners.com and UF Mountain Dew invitational races were exceptions to the lack of competition and O’Brien still performed well in both meets. He was seventh in a 329-runner race at FLrunners. com and 20th out of a field of 417 at UF, where the top five were all under 16. O’Brien had his worst four times after UF, including a second-place finish at the District 9-4A meet in which Barricklow beat him. He responded with his best race the next week at regionals and followed that with a 24th-place standing at state. “I think he would have gone out and competed regardless, but he had a little extra chip on his shoulder after losing that (district) race,” Browning said. “Every race he ran, he went out to win. He didn’t like losing that No. 1 position on the team, and he went out to take it back.” O’Brien said he was pleased overall with his career, though, looking back, he wished he would have taken his training more seriously earlier in his career to match what he did as a junior and senior. Now he just hopes he gets a chance to continue his improvement in college. O’Brien is looking at schools such as Florida Atlantic and Florida Gulf Coast University. “I probably could have done more if I had put more thought into my training early in my career, but I can’t go back now,” O’Brien said. “There’s always college.”
All-Area Schedule
HONORABLE MENTION PAUL EDWARDS Martin County sophomore RYAN EDWARDS Pine School senior JUSTIN ESCOBAR Vero Beach senior EMMANUEL GAONA Okeechobee junior JOSEPH GRANBERG Vero Beach sophomore THOMAS GRIMSDALE Martin County junior MICHAEL HURT Martin County freshman A.J. LETTENGARVER Pine School junior SHELBY LICKLITER Lincoln Park senior AMILCAR LOPEZ South Fork senior SCOTT MORGAN John Carroll sophomore LUKE OWEN Sebastian River sophomore LUIGI RICARD Martin County senior ETHAN SCAMMELL South Fork freshman
The Team
The 2013 All-Area Boys Cross-Country team was compiled by Laurel Pfahler.
All-Area Teams
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SATURDAY
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