Del Valle Wins NXN Southeast; No Teams Qualify

 

With Armando del Valle wining the NXN Southeast championship, Florida won three out of four individual regional championships this weekend.  Del Valle was favored and got the 15:14 victory, his second time winning a big meet on the course this year after winning Great American there in October.  Unfortunately, things did not fare as well for either of Florida's boys teams who were projected to advance to nationals.

 

Del Valle's Columbus and Trinity Prep both had decent enough days, but not good enough given the competitive race.  Only 25 points separated the second and seventh place teams, with the top two qualifying for nationals.  Columbus and Trinity Prep were 6th-7th.

 

Coach Ken Vinal of Trinity Prep had this to say after the race: "We had a bad start, played catch up the whole race, and despite some heroic efforts, we could not close the gap. I am very proud of my team for refusing to quit. To finish 7th after being in 18th place at the 2.5k mark says a lot about the character of the Trinity Prep boys. We hoped the ending of our 2010 season would be in Portland, OR instead of Cary, NC. We fell short of that goal today, but we did not fall short of an incredibly successful season. It is fitting that Florida’s two best teams, Columbus and Trinity Prep, finished together as we did all season. We fought the good fight, we finished the race, we kept the faith."

 

For the girls, Lily Williams was the top finisher with her seventh place.  Holy Trinity and Chiles were also 6th and 7th place.  

 

Results, photos, and videos are posted now...

 

Armando del Valle Interview