The 4th Annual Florida Horse Park has the potential to be one of the best early season races ever for both the high school boys and girls. The middle school and elementary is shaping up as well with the growth in numbers to the sport in these age groups. Helping that growth is both FLYRA and now the Florida Youth XC Championship Series.

For the high school girls, we have Oak Hall 1A XC Champ, Bolles 2A XC Runner-Up, Satellite 2A XC 3rd, Montverde Academy 2A XC 4th, Chiles 3A XC Runner-Up Winter Park 4A Runner-Up and Lake Minneola. 4A XC 6th.  Individuals coming back to compete this year will be Grace Blair Oak Hall 1A XC State Champion, Caitlin Collier Bolles 2A State Champion and Rafaella Gibbons Winter Park 4A 4thplace finisher.

For the high school boys, we have Bolles 2A XC Runner-Up, Chiles 3A XC Runner-Up, Belen Jesuit XC 3A 3rd place finisher in the 2016 FHSAA finals. Individuals we have Austin Montini Oak Hall 1A 3200 Champion, Charles Hicks Bolles 2A XC Runner-Up, Chase Rivera Bolles 2A XC 10th, Michael Phillips Chiles 3A Champ, Robert Castro Lake Nona 4A XC 6th and Joey Fitzpatrick Vanguard returning for his senior season. Fitzpatrick was the winner of the Inaugural Florida Horse Park Invite out leaning Avery Bartlett of Chiles at the finish line. This year we also have special Guest Hoover High School from Alabama coming down. Last year their girls finished 4th and boys finished 3rd in the AHSAA 7A division.

B3R Sports will have staff all around the course taking pictures and videos of both the races and post-race festivities. All videos and pictures will be free to view after the event on www.b3rsports.com. The course will have 8’ tall mile markers with video boards at the 1 mile & 2 mile displaying the race time so coaches/ parents can get splits and the athletes know where they are at. The course will also have the meter markers out as well as something new this year, Restart Zone markers. That’s right now you will know exactly there 100m ends and if someone falls before they get to the two 8’ tall restart signs then the entire field has to come back and restart the race. With the almost ¼ mile wide starting line this was not a problem last year, but still a cool addition to your race experience.

After the race, you will be able to get that well deserved snow cone and go take your pictures behind the Instagram and twitter photo op. If you see any of the B3R Sports staff walking around with the Instagram, snap chat or twitter icon above their head make sure to stop them and get your picture taken and tag yourself!

This year we did our usual awards with the custom medals, ribbons and team logo stand ups. However, we added something a little extra for the 1st and 2nd place individual winners. We have custom trophies made that can be viewed on our social media pages. Honestly the pictures do not do them justice. My elementary aged son suddenly wanted to start running a little further and a little harder in the hopes he wins one of the boy’s elementary trophies.

This event is what it is because of the efforts of Coach Travieso and his Vanguard parents. They rock the parking area making sure it is organized and taken care of. They make sure there is some hot coffee for those parents who have made the trip to watch their athlete compete so early in the morning and they help clean up the little mess that the teams leave behind. The Florida Horse Park also contributes a lot by moving the stands over to the finish so you the parent can stand on the top of the bleachers to see just a little further of the beautiful course.

If you would like to bring your team or if your athlete is elementary or middle school aged they can sign up as an individual. All information can be found at http://b3rsports.com/florida-horse-park-invitational/                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        8/6/17