West Broward High School runners Isabelle Amaro and Sanders Payne each won individually, and St. Thomas Aquinas swept the team titles at the District 6-4A Cross-Country Championships at Quiet Waters Park on Thursday in Deerfield Beach.

``My goal was to win it,'' said Payne, who finished runner-up last season. ``My goal at region will be to PR, leave it all on the field, and our team goal is to go to state.''

The Region 3-4A Championship, a qualifier for state, is Nov. 12 at Tradewinds Park in Coconut Creek.

At districts, West Broward's boys placed second thanks to Ontario Alvarez (fifth), Corey Ulloa (25th), Matthew Hardy (26th), Cameron Carnahan (28th) and Payne (16:23.83). The Bobcats edged Taravella by four points. Trojans senior Eric Weiner was seventh, and Tristan Gray, the rugby player, ran a good portion of the 3-mile race holding one of his running shoes, finishing 10th.

A young, winning Raiders' team received stellar efforts from Thomas McCarthy (fourth), Nicholas Bauer (sixth), Kevin Cress (11th), Julian Urrutia (15th) and Daniel Reynolds (16th). Flanagan's 1-2 punch of Courdel Smith (16:27.85) and Coray Freeman (16:30.88) were second and third, respectively.

On the girls' side, Amaro (18:53.9) continued the winning trend set by older sister and Cypress Bay graduate Emilie, who is at Stanford. Isabelle received a good luck phone call from Emilie who also offered some advice. Two quality athletes, they are supportive of each other, and Isabelle uses Emilie's accomplishments as motivation.

Teammate Chloe Sell was second in 19:30.68.

St. Thomas Aquinas standout sophomores Alex Payne (third) and Giselle Suarez (fourth) caught Cypress Bay's Ashley Lesnik with 200 yards to go.

With No. 3 runner Kirsten Nieuwendan out with the flu, Raiders' seniors Julia Daggett (seventh), Natalie Sesto (12th) and Samantha Garcia (14th) stepped up for the champs.

Cypress Bay had four in the Top 16 with Lesnik, Alexis Dugan (10th), Therese Germain (15th) and Aliette Barboza (16th) for runner-up team honors.

West Broward was third. Monarch did a good job, and South Plantation had three runners (Brittany King, Chelsea Hazlett, Frederica Frederic) in the Top 20.

Flanagan's Sydney Harris, who ran with some pain from tendinitis, gutted a sixth place finish. Senior Heidi Bartels (24th) and Harris helped lead the Falcons to a region berth.

Results: District 6-4A: Girls: Team (top six advance to region): 1. St. Thomas Aquinas 40; 2. Cypress Bay 72; 3. West Broward 87; 4. Monarch 106; 5. South Plantation 116; 6. Flanagan 130.

Individuals (top 15 advance to region): 1. Isabelle Amaro (West Broward) 18:53.9; 2. Chloe Sell (WB) 19:30.68; 3. Alex Payne (St. Thomas Aquinas) 19:46.09; 4. Giselle Suarez (STA) 19:47.18; 5. Ashley Lesnik (Cypress Bay) 19:48.82; 6. Sydney Harris (Flanagan) 20:51.64; 7. Julia Daggett (STA) 20:53.93; 8. Samantha Ripley (Monarch) 20:59.04; 9. Brittany King (South Plantation) 20:59.46; 10. Alexis Dugan (CB) 21:02.20; 11. Chelsea Hazlett (SP) 21:05.54; 12. Natalie Sesto (STA) 21:08.16; 13. Kimberly Jones (Nova) 21:08.57; 14. Samantha Garcia (STA) 21:10.18; 15. Therese Germain (CB) 21:18.52.

Boys: Team (top eight advance to region): 1. St. Thomas Aquinas 50; 2. West Broward 82; 3. Taravella 86; 4. Flanagan 126; 5. Cypress Bay 148; 6. South Plantation 159; 7. Cooper City 175; 8. McArthur 208.

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@