Cypress Bay’s Monks, Dillard’s Gill are Broward cross-country coaches of the year
Davidson Gill has helped turn the Dillard girls’ cross-country team into a perennial state-title contender, and 2022 was no different. Joseph Monks, meanwhile, helped guide the Cypress Bay boys’ cross-country team to one of its best finishes at state ever this year.
The two, as a result, are the Miami Herald’s 2022 Broward cross-country coaches of the year.
For Gill, the Dillard girls’ team finished as state runners-up in the Class 3A state championship meet, the highest finish in school history and the third time they have finished in the top five since 2019 — the Panthers finished third in 2019 and fifth in 2021 (they did not compete in the state series in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic).
Junior Christiana Coleman once again paced Dillard by finishing sixth individually in the field of 231 runners with a time of 18:31.6. It was Coleman’s third top-six individual finish at state after finishing third as a sophomore in 2021 and sixth as an eighth grader in 2019.
Junior Raquel Edwards was Dillard’s second-best finisher in 22nd place followed by three middle schoolers — sixth grader Miley Gil (31st), eighth grader Peyton Williams (33rd) and eighth grader Ja’liah Gammage (38th) — to round out the team’s point scorers at state.
Monks, meanwhile, oversaw a turnaround season with the Cypress Bay boys’ team. They won the BCAA team title for the first time in 12 years, won their district title, finished third at the regional meet and 16th at state in Class 4A — a nine-place improvement over last season and the team’s highest finish at state since finishing 15th in 2007.
The secret to the group’s success was consistency among its top runners. All five of Cypress Bay’s point scorers finished within 43 seconds of each other, with junior Blake Lorenzo leading the way with a time of 16:58.4 that was good for 58th place. The rest of the Lightning’s point scorers at state: senior Dante Thompson and juniors Matiz Thompson, Adrian Garcia and Ethan Sawyer.
This story was originally published December 23, 2022 at 7:00 AM.