August 20, 2025
Tavares Red Sea Running Club Win High School Preseason Cross-Country Race
By Kyle Coppola
Tavares Red Sea Running Club Win High School Preseason Cross-Country Race
In a fantastic early-season cross-country preseason race, the Tavares Red Sea Runners middle and elementary school girls team dominated a field of high school powerhouses to win the Mike Gibson Summertime Run 5K High School Preseason Invitational on Saturday at Lake Mary High School.
Seventh-grader Alice Ilea took the overall individual title in 19:50, while fourth-grader Aliana Alvarez crossed the line just behind in 20:22, good for second place. Their 1-2 punch propelled the Red Sea Runners to the team victory over 13 other high school programs, including Class 4A standouts Lake Mary, Oviedo, Lake Brantley, West Orange, and Timber Creek.
This is a huge moment for the Tavares Red Sea Cross-Country team as they showed they can compete at the high school level despite runners being in middle school or high school. It just goes to show you why head coach Kevin Von Maxey who coaches with his wife April Von Maxey continue to be one of the strongest programs in the state of Florida.
Ilea, who was the 2024 Florida Middle School State XC runner-up while representing Tavares Middle, surged in the final mile to pull away from the pack. Alvarez, already an elementary school state champion in the 1500 meters and national elementary cross-country champion, held off a late charge from Rachel Judy of Master’s Academy, last year’s invitational champion and the fourth-place finisher at the 2024 Class 1A State Meet.
(The Tavares Red Sea Runners impressed against many high school teams across Florida. The win by the girls team was an incredible accomplishment.)
Rounding out the scoring for Tavares were Kayla Santos (14th), Isabella Neal (15th), and Emma Williams (22nd), securing the win in a field of 136 runners.
The Red Sea boys also impressed, finishing fifth overall in the high school team standings. Eighth-grader Navid Lozano placed third individually with a time of 18:12, leading the charge for a young squad that included Gabriel Garback, Jack Ilea, Emmitt Maldonado, and Benjamin Rios who also scored points.
(The Tavares Red Sea boys team finished in 5th place overall. A great showing.)
“This meet was about opportunity — letting young runners see what’s possible,” says Coach April Von Maxey. “They didn’t just show up. They competed and they won.”
Congratulations to both teams and especially that girls team. That is a massive accomplishment to go out and compete with high school athletes. It’s even more impressive to go out and win the race outright. Way to go Tavares!
Photo Credit – Kevin Von Maxey
Kyle Coppola was born in Newton, Massachusetts and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communications from Curry College in 2016. After traveling to Florida on a family vacation, he decided he could not get enough of the warm weather and made the move from snowy Massachusetts to central Florida 8 years ago.
For the last decade Kyle has gained valuable experience in social media content creation, marketing and sales, writing, video production, sports announcing and even broadcasting for local radio stations, such as FM 102.9 in The Villages and FM 91.5 in Massachusetts. Every year he volunteers at The Villages Charter High School as a play-by-play sports announcer for the football games as well as a public address announcer for the basketball games, including the annual Battle at The Villages Tournament.
Outside the office Kyle is a husband and father to two beautiful girls along with their cat. In his spare time he likes to spend time with his family, travel, play golf and swim. He is also a huge sports junkie and even bigger motorsports fan and loves to attend racing events when he can.
