Palmer, Ransom, Belen, Carrollton runners earn Dade Cross Country Runner of Year honors

Palmer Trinity’s Henry Stark and Ransom Everglades’ David “Chuli” Serra ended their high school cross-country seasons with individual titles. Marcelo Mantecon was integral in helping Belen Jesuit keep its dynasty going. And Grace Aldrich’s individual efforts this season paced a breakout season for Carrollton.

It’s for these reasons the quartet is the Miami Herald’s Miami-Dade Cross Country Runners of the Year. Start, Serra and Mantecon are splitting the Boys’ Runner of the Year, while Aldrich is the outright Girls’ Runner of the Year.

Let’s start with Stark and Serra, the seniors who brought home individual hardware in their final seasons.

Stark cruised to the Class 1A individual title in a time of 15:30.8, nearly 18 seconds ahead of the next closest competitor in Largo Indian Rocks junior Blake Young (15:48.7).

It was the culmination of a masterful rise for Stark. He raced at state every year since 2019 when he was an eighth grader. That first year, he finished 228th out of 232 runners in the Class 1A meet, clocking in at 22:01.33. He shaved nearly two minutes off his time as a freshman to finish 101st in 2020, then another three minutes as a sophomore to finish 28th in 2021 and then yet another minute as a junior for a sixth-place finish in 2022 before winning it all this year.

For Serra, this is his second time as a co-Cross Country Runner of the Year after also being one of the winners in 2022. Serra was the Class 2A runner-up a season ago in his first cross-country season. He followed that up with a run of 15:19.5 this season, seven-and-a-half seconds faster than his performance a season ago.

Serra and Stark’s victories marked the first time that multiple Dade runners have won state championships since 2011 when Belen’s Elliot Clemente and Ransom Everglades’ Bert Irigoyen each won individual titles.

As for Mantecon, he finished as runner-up in Class 3A with a time of 15:09.9 — a time that would have won the state title in both Classes 1A and 2A. Mantecon’s time was 15 seconds faster than any other freshman at the state meet and it paced a Belen team that had five of the top 13 runners in the Class 3A meet en route to their state-record 15th team state championship overall and seventh consecutive state title.

Three of Belen’s top five runners were seniors, so coach Frankie Ruiz will look to Mantecon to lead the charge as the Wolverines reload in 2024.

Aldrich, a junior, finished fifth in the Class 2A girls’ meet in a time of 18:27.4, 25 seconds faster than anyone else from Dade at state.

Her effort led a Carrollton team that also finished fifth, a 16-place improvement after finishing 21st as a team last season.