West Orange Invitational draws record numbers

When John Layton took over the West Orange cross-country program, there was a question that arose pretty early on: “To keep or not to keep?”

The thing in question was the West Orange Invitational — the annual cross-country race held by West Orange High School.

“It was awesome to be able to host our West Orange Invitational,” Layton said. “I was on the edge of, ‘OK, am I still going to keep the tradition going of actually hosting it, because I’m a first-year coach?’ I was nervous about it and didn’t know if I would be able to handle all the things as a first-year coach.”

Layton would decide to do his best and make it happen, and it’s a good thing that he did, as this year’s Invitational ended up being the largest in the race’s history with 38 teams — a total of 252 runners overall.

The 5K race was largely dominated by Windermere High, which occupied half of the top-10 spots in the varsity boys race conducted on West Orange High School’s fast home course. Windermere totaled 21 points – led by a 1-2-3 finish from the senior trio of Onix Ortiz, Liam Pirie and Noah Ellenback – to easily separate itself from the remainder of the massive field.

Ortiz clocked a winning time of 16.14.72 and Pirie followed with a 16:32.75 performance. Ellenback crossed the line in 16:42.51, while teammates Noah Siegel (16:49.61, seventh place) and Hailemariem Buck (17:00.69, eighth place) provided the Wolverines with two additional single-digit scores.

Meanwhile, Dr. Phillips would take home runner-up honors in the varsity boys standings with 128 points, as junior Ilyas Semlali ran to a fifth-place individual finish (16:48.44). Kai Komatsu’s 17th-place time of 17:15.60 helped Olympia place fourth (153), while host West Orange was seventh (212), Ocoee was 20th (536) and Foundation Academy 21st (593). The First Academy came in 33rd (899).

The top-10 finish for the Warriors’ boys varsity team was strong in such a talented field, but there was the hope that they could outmatch powerhouse Windermere.

“The big school in our area is Windermere … and a lot of those guys used to go to West Orange, and some of those guys are friends with our runners,” Layton said. “So going into the race, two of my top three — so Colton (Berquist) and Reeves (Oakman) — they were pretty pumped.”

Berquist — a junior — led the pack for the Warriors and finished in 11th place with a time of 17:04.41, while Rajay Preddie (22nd, 17:24.94) and Oakman (25th, 17:31.33) rounded out the top 25 for West Orange.

While you won’t see Jake Baldauf’s name in the top 20, Layton said Baldauf’s improvements have been a real highlight this year.

“Coming in last year, his PR was 19:50, and he has just been running amazing this season,” Layton said. “He dropped his PR once again — it sits at 18:12 now — and I’ve never seen him look this good and this in-shape. He never thought he would go sub-19.”

Other area schools also found some success, as Foundation Academy sophomore Mehari Van Der Reit rounded out the individual top-10 standings by clocking a 17:03.56, while junior Evan Kowalski led Ocoee High with a 46th-place time of 17:49.41.

The varsity girls race — which led off the morning’s races — featured a three-point separation between champion Timber Creek (70) and Harmony (73). Meanwhile Windermere (125) and Dr. Phillips, (141) completed the top five teams, Olympia came in seventh (236), West Orange ended up 14th (390) following a tiebreaker with Auburndale High, Windermere Prep finished 21st (566) and Foundation Academy (697) was 28th.

West Orange’s Ava Baldauf crossed the finish line 23rd overall in 20:53.92 — the aforementioned sophomore’s time was good for 21 points with regard to the Warriors’ team total – and senior teammate Caroline Schmitt had a 68th-place time of 22:36.00.

“My girls’ side performed very well,” Layton said. “My top girl — Ava Baldauf — she’s been dropping consistently every race since the start of the season. My second girl — Caroline Schmitt — she had a really good season best, and not far off of her personal record.”

*Photos by Chris Mayer