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The St. Cloud Girls’ golf team made history last weekend with a fourth-place finish at the FHSAA Class 3A state tournament, the highest finish ever by county team. PHOTO/RYAN ADAMS
Snake bit. That’s how to describe Osceola’s 2023 football season that ended Friday with a 28-0 loss at Treasure Coast, the top seed in Region 4S-3. Osceola finished the season with an uncharacteristic 4-7 record, but a ton of extenuating circumstances went into that.
Playing perhaps the most difficult schedule in the state (six opponents earned playoff berths, and all won Friday), Osceola was besieged by injuries all year–losing two key players for the season and another half-dozen starters for weeks at a time. Still, Coach Eric Pinellas had a plan to pull an upset.
“We were going to go Osceola ‘old school’ by putting our athletic young corner Kyri Watson at quarterback and running the wishbone with three running backs. We practiced it all week and it was looking good and the night before the game, I get word Kyri had a medical issue and ended up in the hospital. We had to scrap our plans that morning.”
Pinellas said his defense played well enough to win Friday, but a pick-6 and a busted assignment that went for another touchdown was too much to overcome.
“We fell behind and we just did not have the type of offense to play from behind this year,” Pinellas said. “On the other hand, we also know that no one in this county or on our schedule is going to feel sorry for us. We have a lot of talent coming back next year and we refocus this spring.”
In bowl-game action, St. Cloud (45-6 over Lake Region) and Tohopekaliga (49-9 over Lake Howell) ended their season with bowl game wins on Nov. 8. The Bulldogs (8-3) finished the season on a six-game winning streak and won eight games for the first time since 2009. Logan King threw five touchdown passes for Bulldogs, who were playing their first true home of the season on their new artificial turf field.
Tohopekaliga’s Sabby Meassick threw three touchdown passes as the Tigers went to 6-5 with the win. Meassick finishes the year among the nation’s leaders in passing yards (3,843) and passing touchdowns (39).
Read about the bowl wins online at https://www.aroundosceola.com/sports/st-cloud-tohopekaliga-finish-football-season-big-bowl-game-wins
In golf, the St. Cloud Lady Bulldogs set some historical program marks. Not only were they the first team (boys or girls) from Osceola County to qualify for the state tournament for three consecutive years, they also set a county record for the highest team finish. Their two-day total of 332-327-659 was good for fourth place in Class 3A, just four shots shy Niceville for third. As expected, Lake Mary ran away with the state title (600.
Sophomore Karolyna Adams (78-79-157) and senior Cayden Challacombe (82-78-160) led St. Cloud. Also posting counting scores were Maddie Burda (82-80-162) and Tess Sheive (90-90-180). Olivia Siegel (99-103-202) rounded out the team.
“I’m extremely proud of this team and their accomplishments this year,” first-year coach Alejandro Sanchez said. “A little lapse at the end of the second round cost us a chance of second-place, but this team won their own invitational, took Orange Belt Conference and district titles, tied for the regional championship and then had the highest finish at state’s in both school and county history. There’s a lot for us to be proud of.”
Celebration senior George Aguilera advanced to the 3A state boys tournament as an individual and shot 76-79-155 in a tie for 36th.
The Tohopekaliga boys cross country team will also have an opportunity to reach new heights as they qualified for the state championship Friday (Nov. 17) at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee.
Cameron Ford (26th-17:44), Marc Rodriguez (30th-17:52), Jeremy Delgado (36th-18:06), Nick Boone (46th-18:23) and Jared Lopez (56th-18:40) helped the Tigers easily qualify for the state meet with 194 points and a sixth place finish at the Region 4A-3 championship last weekend at Austin Tindall Park.
Harmony (12th) and St. Cloud (14th) did not qualify for the state meet, but Longhorns included Anakin Barbour (38th-18:09) and freshman Riley Ramirez (55th-18:29) and St. Cloud freshman Brody Ansbaugh (63rd-18:40) were their top runners.
St. Cloud (11th) and Harmony (13th) participated in the girls’ regional won by Winter one-meter competition with a 13th place finish.
Longhorn sprint specialist Aaron Stephenson qualified and competed in the 50 and 100 free and Celebration freshman Mahmoud Morcy competed in the 100 back. St. Cloud’s Silas Gorchado qualified for the 3A state meet in the 50 freestyle.
Park. Harmony junior Lailana Decker finished 8th (19:54.2) and will move on to states as an individual. Top girl runners from Osceola County included Celebration’s Claire Reburn (25th-21:41) and Cadence Edwards from Harmony (36th-21:41). Kyla Perez (47th–22:00) and Jada Shroyer (60th-22:31) led the Bulldogs.
Harmony, Celebration and St. Cloud all sent competitors to the FHSAA state swimming and diving championships in Ocala last Saturday. Harmony divers were the big story among the Osceola contingent. Meredith Wagner (seeded 11th) and Haley Kurth (seeded 15th) more than exceeded expectations– finishing fourth and seventh respectively in the onemeter event– accounting for all 22 team points scored by the Longhorns. On the boys’ side, Longhorn Angel Acevedo also placed in the
