Belen’s Magoulas and Ruiz, Coral Park’s Sosa are Dade’s Cross Country Runners of the Year
Penelope Sosa and Adam Magoulas both overcame injuries to win state championships in 2021, but Magoulas couldn’t have done it without the help of Joshua Ruiz.
It’s why all three are the Miami Herald’s Miami-Dade County Cross Country Runners of the Year.
Sosa, a senior at Coral Park, only ran in two meets during the regular because of a bout with COVID-19 and an iliotibial tract injury in her hip, but came back to set a personal record at the Class 4A championship and win her first state title. Magoulas, also a senior, was Belen Jesuit’s best runner in the first part of the season before he had a stress reaction in the fifth metatarsal bone in his foot, which sidelined him for six weeks and opened the door for Ruiz, a sophomore, to finish second at the Class 3A championship and lead Belen to its fifth straight state title.
As Miami-Dade’s lone individual state champion, Sosa is the Girls’ Cross Country Runner of the Year. As the top two runners for the county’s only team champion, Magoulas and Ruiz are the Co-Boys’ Cross Country Runners of the Year in Dade County.
“The moment I crossed the line, I started crying, I was like a huge baby,” Sosa said. ”I still didn’t believe that I won. I still don’t believe I won.”
Said Magoulas: “It obviously didn’t feel good that I wasn’t out there, but it felt amazing to watch almost like a new generation take over.”
Sosa ran nearly 30 seconds faster than she did in any other meet at the state championship -- she had set a personal record less than a month earlier at Pre-State -- and her time of 18:12.4 was nearly 15 seconds ahead of second place in Tallahassee.
On the day of the meet, she was just hoping to finish third and improve on her fourth-place finish from the year before until she saw a chance to make a run at the title during the final stretch.
Magoulas, who signed with the Florida Gators last year, was one of only three runners in Florida to crack 15 minutes this year, but he didn’t compete for more than a month before the state championship because of his injury. A 22-minute run the day before the 3A championship was the only time he ran between the injury and the final, and he still finished ninth with a time of 16:16.1.
Magoulas hasn’t run since the championship.
Ruiz, meanwhile, posted a time of 15:37.4 in Tallahassee to finish second and lead the Wolverines to their 13th state championship.
“To see him go out like that, it was hard,” Ruiz said. “In the back of our minds, I think we always knew that we could do it, that we could win without him.”
