Hawks hit the ground running

 

On September 14, 2021, the Miami Springs Cross Country team arrived at Ives Estate Park at approximately 2:30 p.m. for their first meet of the season. The team consisted of six members who were completely new to the cross country scene, with a coach learning along with them. Mr. Pablo Bermudez, a security guard of 14 years here at Springs, was asked to step in for the retired coach, and graciously accepted. The six runners he recruited were only able to practice together for a total of 4 weeks, some days just confined to the weight room due to the rain. Still, they were improving amongst themselves, but they had no idea what they would be up against at Michael Krop Senior High’s field.

At the meet, Miami Springs was one of 14 schools competing, with only five girls and one boy to show for it. Natalie Maestre, Madison Ramirez, Victoria Bello, Daisy Rivero, and Sofia Stewart lined up at the start at 4:00 pm, ready to test their abilities for the first time. To the new team’s shock, they held their ground. Coach Bermudez thought that the team did “outstanding… and if it weren’t for the weather issues, we probably could have done better.” Maestre was the first Springs girl to cross the finish line at 25 out of 66 competitors. Then it was Ramirez at 31, Bello at 34, Rivero at 36, and Stewart at 64. Unfortunately, the only boy competing, Alex Torossian, was not able to race.  Only having ran 2.3 miles, the girls were directed to the football field to the finish line. It is speculated, that even though the race started late, the track was cut short to let the boys start on time. Alex was too far to hear the call for the boys’ race.

However, the Hawks returned exactly a week later, with new runners Aaron Bowe, and Jayden Padilla, along with Ashely Amaya and Eleny Gonzalez there to watch. This time, the girls started at 3:05 p.m. in attempt to beat the lightning sirens. Running with a total of 89 female competitors, Maestre finished in 30 minutes and 42 seconds in 33rd place. Following Maestre, Bello came in 39th at 32:33, then Rivero in 51st with 34:37, with Stewart closing the race at 45:31. The boys’ race was delayed 30 minutes after the lighting sirens finally went off, but they would all get to run. Jayden Padilla came in 32nd place with a time of 23:37. Bowe was not too far behind in 47th place clocking in at 25:24, followed by Torossian at 32:14 coming in at 70th place. During this second meet, everyone on the team was able to attend, even if the two newest girls were restricted to the sidelines. Still, it is fair to say that the growing team has a lot of untapped potential and will definitely represent Miami Springs Senior High at the GMAC meet on October 8th-9th.