Coral Park’s Sosa makes school history again with another state championship
Penelope Sosa already had a special place in the athletics history of her high school.
After becoming Miami Coral Park’s first girls’ track and field state champion last season when she won the 3,200-meter race, the meaning of the accomplishment didn’t hit her right away.
Neither did what Sosa did Friday morning.
“It hasn’t hit yet. It took me like a week the last time,” Sosa said. “It takes a long time to process. I’m very slow.”
Whether it’s on the track or on the course, Sosa is the complete opposite of slow as she demonstrated again by becoming Coral Park’s first individual cross-country state champion regardless of gender when she won the Class 4A girls’ race at Apalachee Regional Park.
Sosa cleared the rest of the field by almost 15 seconds and finished with a time of 18 minutes, 12.4 seconds to become the first girls’ runner from a Miami-Dade County public school to win a state title since Braddock’s Alina Pinto in 1994.
“I was so nervous before and after the race,” Sosa said. “This isn’t the first time I’ve gotten nervous, but it was the first time since my sophomore year.”
Sosa, a senior, has come a long way when it comes to controlling her anxieties about running.
When she first began her career, Sosa backed out of her first race believing she was not good enough to compete. In her early years, she often would throw up during races hindering her from potential strong finishes. Over time, Sosa learned to push through and has since become one of the state’s best.
Even this season was no picnic for Sosa after she contracted COVID-19 early in the school year and later dealt with an injury before the Pre-State Invitational. Sosa said she couldn’t train as hard as she wanted to on the way to state.
Friday’s victory meant a little more to Sosa than just winning a state title.
Sosa has family in Cuba who were keeping tabs on how she was doing, primarily her grandfather, through updates sent to them by her father, who was in attendance.
“The last couple of days I thought if I just got top four, I would be happy,” Sosa said. “I never in my life thought I could do this.”
OTHER NOTABLES
Miami St. Brendan had the best finish of any South Florida girls team when it secured the runner-up trophy in Class 2A. The Sabres finished with 161 points behind state champion Jacksonville Bolles to secure their highest team place in school history.
Junior Emma Hencock led St. Brendan with a fifth-place finish individually with a time of 18:46.2.
Plantation American Heritage sophomore Ashley Fitzgerald was the individual runner-up in Class 3A with a time of 18:13.2, one spot ahead of Fort Lauderdale Dillard’s Cristiana Coleman (18:20.1). Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas finished third in Class 3A as a team.
RESULTS
Class 4A Girls team: 1. Gainesville Buchholz 114. Top 10 Dade/Broward finishers: 7. Braddock 239; Girls’ individuals: 1. Penelope Sosa (CP) 18:12.4. Top 15 Dade/Broward: 7. Annabella Cardona (BR) 19:07.0.
Class 3A Girls’ team: 1. Ponte Vedra 114. Top 10 Dade/Broward finishers: 3. St. Thomas Aquinas 191, 4. Lourdes 212, 5. Dillard 232. Girls’ individuals: 1. Caroline Wells (Winter Springs) 16:56.6. Top 15 Dade/Broward finishers: 2. Ashley Fitzgerald (American Heritage) 18:13.2, 3. Christiana Coleman (Dil) 18:20.1, 6. Olivia Fraga (Lou) 18:39.7, 12. Grace Finneran (STA) 18:59.6.
Class 2A Girls’ team: 1. Jacksonville Bolles 56. Top 10 Dade/Broward finishers: 2. St. Brendan 161. Girls’ individuals: 1. Jillian Candelino (Bolles) 17:53.2; Top 15 Dade/Broward finishers: 4. Brooke Hooper (Pine Crest) 18:44.7, 5. Emma Hencock (StB) 18:46.2.
Class 1A Girls’ team: 1. Cambridge Christian 26; Top 10 Dade/Broward finisher: 6. Carrollton 234, 9. South Florida HEAT 331. Girls individual: 1. Caroline Lehman (CC) 17:53.3.
This story was originally published November 12, 2021 at 3:23 PM.