Belen’s Ruiz and Carrollton’s Hermelee are Dade Cross-Country Coaches of the Year
Frankie Ruiz has helped set a standard higher than any cross-country program in Miami-Dade County history at Belen Jesuit.
Ross “Dylan” Hermelee has seen his teams at Carrollton take the first steps toward potentially becoming a state championship team itself.
This season, each coach kept their respective squads at the top when it came to dominance at the highest levels.
For this reason, Ruiz and Hermelee repeat as the Miami Herald’s Dade Coaches of the Year for cross-country.
Ruiz guided Belen Jesuit to its eighth consecutive state championship and a state-best 16th overall with another dominant performance to capture the Class 3A title with relative ease.
The Wolverines placed five runners in the top seven at the state meet, six in the top 13 and seven in the top 19.
Leading those efforts was sophomore Marcelo Mantecon, who is already well on his way to becoming not only one of the best runners in his storied program’s history, but statewide as well. Mantecon became the fifth runner in Belen history to win a state individual title with a time of 14:57.
Ruiz has been at the helm of 15 of those 16 state titles and guided the Wolverines to a 12th-place finish at the Nike Cross Nationals in early December.
Hermelee has seen Carrollton come close to winning its first state title in recent years. This season, he guided the Cyclones to a fourth-place finish in Class 2A, which was the highest in any classification for any Dade team this season.
Carrollton’s Grace Aldrich not only led the Cyclones, but was Dade’s top girls’ individual finisher, running a time of 18:13.6 to earn state runner-up honors in the Class 2A. Sophomore Daniela Hernandez also cracked the top 10 individually, finishing eighth and will look to lead Carrollton’s next wave of runners.
