September 16, 2024
Alex Sallault Wins West Orange Invitational As East Ridge Cross-Country Dominates
By Kyle Coppola
Alex Sallault Wins West Orange Invitational As East Ridge Cross-Country Dominates
It was a steamy September morning at West Orange High School on Saturday with humidity reaching record morning levels. This also made footing a bit tricky which does not make for typical scorching fast times at the West Orange Invitational. Despite the heat and humidity, the East Ridge Boys Cross Country Knights put together a very solid outing placing fifth overall. The star of the race and overall winner was super Sophomore Axel Sallault. Sallault ran a very smart race as he ran with the lead pack for over two miles of the race.
He was perfectly content to let some of the other front runners dictate the pace. Once those lead runners began to get tired legs, Sallault then made his move as he moved in front with over 800 meters to go and never looked back. It was another beautiful race by Sallault who continues to improve as a runner with each and every race he competes in. Sallault completed the course in a time of 16:26, almost 20 seconds faster than the previous year. Caleb Walker also finished in the top ten with a time of 17:05.70
(For the girls race it was another battle between Rhyen Foley and Viera’s Addison Elwell who have fought for the top positions all season long. Ultimately Elwell took the win but Foley is inching closer to her times as the season goes along.)
For the girls team it was Rhyen Foley who crossed the line in 2nd behind Addison Elwell of Viera High School. Veronica Peterson and Hanna Warren finished 4th and 5th respectively. The girls team was able to finish first overall with just 49 points. The next closest school was Windermere High School who hasd 122 points. Cross-Country is like golf and you want a low score to win. Cudos to the girls team and a great effort put in by them.
(The East Ridge High girls cross-country team placed first overall at the Winter Garden Invitational.)
East Ridge High is having a great start to the season. Both boys and girls teams are coming together nicely.
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.
