The girls’ varsity cross-country team has come to qualify for States, they have never accomplished this achievement before, but this year they have. Coach Barr, Coach Pinney, and Coach Maniscalco spent the whole summer conditioning the girls and preparing them for this moment.
Head Coach, Brantly Barr has been at Coral Springs Charter for only two years, but he has already made a significant influence on our cross country program. Barr has been coaching cross country for over 25 years. His assistant coach, Ryan Pinney has been the cross-country coach for many years at Charter as well as being a Physics/Forensics teacher. Second assistant coach, Laura Maniscalco has been at Charter for three years now and has been Coach Barr’s right-hand man when it comes to coaching.
All three coaches have made such a positive impact on the runners, through numerous practices and workouts. The efforts of our girl’s cross-country team are paying off, placing highly in many meets, including the BCAA Championship, where they finished fourth out of 19 teams. Kendall Parrot, an eighth-grader is the fastest on the team with a time of 20:33 followed by Lily Richardson and Alyson Thomas who are ninth-graders finishing in the top 20 out of 150.
Other prominent runners include Mackenzie Maniscalco, Cecilia Kozlowski, Sydney McDougall, Hailey Lockawitz, and Taylor Hartley. They are all amazing runners that qualified for Regionals. Mackenzie, the team captain, who has been running on the cross country team since sixth grade, is now a senior hoping to make Charter history with her teammates.
On October 29th, the team competed in Districts, placing fourth out of 18 teams. Once again our fastest runner was Kendall Parrot with a season best of 19:45. Kendall placed third overall out of 145 runners. After this game the team qualified for Regionals. Due to their amazing work at Regionals the girls have advanced to the State Championship in Tallahassee, Florida, which is on November 16th.
The team was close last year to qualifying but fell short due to injuries and illnesses. Captain Mackenzie Maniscalco says, “All we have to do is go out there, run our best, and try to make our coaches and teammates proud.” The girls have a great chance this year to qualify for States and make Charter history. Hotels in Tallahassee have already been reserved because the team is confident.