Mustangs sweep county meet

The Lakewood Ranch High boys and girls varsity and JV cross country teams were all victorious at the Manatee County Championships Oct. 29 at the Premier Sports Campus at Lakewood Ranch.

Led by junior Olivia Ortiz, the Lady Mustangs varsity team scored 15 points to finish well ahead of runner-up Braden River (61).

Ortiz finished first in 17:49 — more than two minutes ahead of the rest of the field. The first seven finishers were Lady Mustangs. Devin McDermott finished second in 19:50 followed by Kristin Zarrella (20:07), Natalie Novak (20:14), Katie Wray (20:36), Ashley Platt (20:51) and Michelle Last (21:25).

Madison Daunt led the way for Braden River, finishing ninth in 22:35.

Lakewood, who has won district and regional titles and finished second overall in the past two Class 3A state meets, will compete in the Class 3A-District 11 meet Nov. 4 at Estero Community Park.

The Lakewood boys varsity team scored 41 points to edge past Manatee (44). Four runners placed in the top 10 — Evan Dipsiner (third, 17:33), Mitch Arnold (fourth, 17:37), Quintin Wampler (eighth, 18:08) and Josh Napier (10^th, 18:15).

Lakewood’s JV girls, led by Emily Perez (first, 22:01), Elizabeth Chandler (second, 23:02) and Megan Wolfe (third, 26:13), scored 21 points to finish ahead of Southeast (47) and Manatee (53).

Meanwhile the JV boys team, led by Steven Estes (second, 19:09) and George Dabbiero (third, 19:16), scored 20 points to finish ahead of Manatee (57), Southeast (77) and St. Stephen’s (86).