A familiar name raced to district gold last week when the Dolphins of Marathon started off the postseason for Monroe County runners.
The 1A Dolphins kicked things off Nov. 4 at the District 8 Championships at South County Regional Park in Boca Raton. This year, sophomore Antonin “Tony” Bursa did what older brother Vance did in 2024 when he broke the ribbon and captured the district championship. Bursa cruised to a 17:19 personal record to win the title.
Behind Bursa was another sophomore, Allan Taylor, whose 18:01 was also a PR and good for an overall seventh-place finish. Senior Caleb Shelar kept the PR theme going, finishing strong in 11th in 18:40, then it was freshman Lucian Burns, who traded his walking boot in for a racing flat. Burns finished in 19:10 – quite a bit off his own personal best, but still in the top 20 overall at 18th, and more than respectable considering it was his first race back after a stress fracture.
Seventh-grader Anthony Vargas PRed with a 19:31. Completing Marathon’s top seven were junior Landon Anderson and sophomore Thomas Torres. Both ran personal bests, with Anderson finishing in 19:55 and Torres in 25:37. Marathon’s boys finished second overall, easily qualifying for regionals with their strong performance.
The Lady Fins will join the gentlemen at regionals after finishing seventh overall. Seventh-grader Molly Joly was first for the Dolphins, finishing in 23:23. Joly was 18th overall. Behind Joly were junior Mylana Loza (24:23) and sophomore Danaica Bessy (26:30). Both runners broke their personal records. Next were junior Kayla Skaarup (28:21) and freshman Ariella Dworniczak (28:45). Sofia Konyk (30:34) and Natalia Perez Franco (34:32), both sophomores, each ran a new personal best race and earned a spot at regionals by finishing in the team’s top seven.
Two days later, the ’Canes and Conchs traveled to Larry & Penny Thompson Park in Miami for the FHSAA 2A District 8 Championships. Sophomore Ali Wheatley blazed to a second-place 20:22 finish. Wheatley led the team to a fifth-place finish overall, advancing the team to regionals for the first time in over a decade. Also helping to advance the team were Kate King (23:17), Olive Welch (25:13), Aria Boonton (25:39) and Iabelle Jacobs (26:18). The Lady Hurricanes’ performance set the tempo for the boys, who pooled their talents to join the girls at regionals.
The senior-heavy boys team captured fourth place overall, automatically advancing the entire team to regionals. Leading the charge was Jamie Cary, who finished 16th overall in 18:36. Alaric Rodriguez was next (19:35), followed by Tristian Rios (19:47), Nathaniel Shugarman (20:18) and Tristian Sanchez (19:50), the lone junior in the group.
Key West headed into districts ranked 12th, well out of a shot at regionals, but somebody forgot to tell the Conchs they were out of the running. Sophomore Sawyer Hill and senior Prometheus Delacerda paced one another to finish 27th and 28th, respectively. Hill completed the course in 19:11, outpacing Delacerda by two seconds. Alejandro Caridad (19:39) crushed his previous personal record by 18 seconds, starting a trend that gradually boosted Key West’s standing in the race. Colin Palmino (22:04) dropped 44 seconds and Charlie Delashmit (24:38) shaved 27 seconds from his personal best to steal the eighth overall team win and the final spot at regionals.
The Lady Conchs entered just three runners in the race, two short of eligibility for a team. The individual runners represented the Southernmost City well, with Emma Bradshaw (24:09) crossing first, followed by fellow freshman Ryah Bushey (25:45), who ran a personal best. Junior Violet Jangraw (25:51) finished strong to round out Key West’s finishers. Bradshaw was one place out of an individual spot at regionals, setting the stage for a strong 2026 season for the young squad.
In all, three dozen runners advanced to the next level of competition. Key West’s boys plus both Marathon and Coral Shores’ teams will put it all on the line this week at regionals in hopes of securing a coveted spot at the start of the state meet in Tallahassee later this month. For regionals, Keys runners will converge on South County Regional Park in Boca Raton on Nov. 14 for a series of races with staggered start times.
