Prose and Kohn: Sarasota High runner has chance at top-five finish

Before the North Port XC Invitational, held Sept. 11-12, Sarasota High senior boys cross country runner Orlando Cicilioni was required to wear his mask until he toed the starting line and the officials said "Go." 

He ripped it off, then ripped off the best run of cross country career. 

Cicilioni raced through the course at North Port High in 16:01.49, good for a fourth-place finish out of 176 participants in the event's Elite division. His previous best time was 6:19.20, which he set at last season's Florida High School Athletic Association regional meet at Lake Region High. Time isn't always the best way to evaluate cross country runners since the courses themselves can delay or accelerate things based on difficulty, so we can get even more direct. The last time Cicilioni ran the course at North Port, at last year's FHSAA district meet, he finished in 16:34:30.

That means Cicilioni cut 32.41 seconds off his time for that course in one offseason. That's impressive and consistent with the time he's cut from his best runs in other years. It means Cicilioni, who finished 44th at last year's state meet in Tallahassee (16:24.93), has a chance to climb the leaderboard in 2020, perhaps into the top 10. 

He'll have to do it during a pandemic. Cicilioni said his work has not been as affected by everything happening as other sports, since most of his work is done outside, without too many people around. In fact, it may have helped him. Cicilioni said he had more time to self-evaluate, to hone on his weaknesses and figure out a plan, along with his coaches, to combat them. Now, he said, he feels great about where he's at. 

"I do a 25 minute warm up just get the legs going," Cicilioni said. "Then six miles worth of tempo work, and then a three or four mile cooldown." 

Still, the pandemic gives everything a strange feel. Wearing masks takes getting used to, he said. But ultimately, Cicilioni is happy to be getting this opportunity at all. 

"When everything got canceled [in the spring], our track and field team had just qualified for the FSU meet, which is one of the biggest on our schedule," Cicilioni said. "Then we lost the whole season. It was a bummer knowing I was not going to be able to race for a while. Now that we're back, it's great. I love competing. I missed it."

Cicilioni said in lieu of a specific time, his goal for the year is to finish in the top five at the state meet. It's not a one-to-one comparison, but if he improves his state meet time by approximately 32.41 seconds, like he did at North Port, that would give him a time of 15:52.52. Last year, that would have placed him seventh overall, and four of the finishers in front of him have since graduated. 

This is, admittedly, an inexact science. The course at Appalacian Regional Park, where the state meet is held, is notoriously tough. There's no guarantee that his improvement will carry over that much, and even if it does, things can go wrong in the midst of a race. But if nothing else, it's enough to prove that Cicilioni has a shot to accomplish his goal.

I can't wait to watch him try.