September 16, 2025
East Ridge High and Tavares High Dominate Hammond Cross-Country Invitational
By Kyle Coppola
East Ridge High and Tavares High Dominate Hammond Cross-Country Invitational
This past weekend marked the Third Annual SSG Hammond Invitational on Saturday morning. Saturday’s cross-country meet was in honor of the late Abraham Hammond, a Staff Sergeant in the United States Army. SSG Hammond served his nation with valor whose awards and decorations included Meritorious Service Medal (Posthumous); Army Commendation Medal (4); Army Achievement Medal (1); Army Good Conduct Medal (3); National Defense Service Medal; Global War on Terrorism Service Medal; Korean Defense Service Medal; NCO Professional Development Ribbon (2); Army Service Ribbon; Overseas Ribbon; North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Medal; Certificate of Achievement; and Recruiting Badge. SSG Hammond passed away in February of 2022 at the age of 27. Members of SSG Hammond’s family were in attendance at Saturday’s meet. Coaches, athletes, and spectators participated in a memorial walk around East Ridge’s track to commemorate Hammond’s life.
Tavares High and East Ridge High would dominate with both schools claiming victory. Tavares High won the girls team overall with East Ridge High finishing 2nd while East Ridge High’s boys team would take first place with Tavares High finishing second.
In the women’s race it was Lake Nona’s Arabella Duffell taking the win with a time of 18:52.2. Arabella is only a sophomore and there was no beating her on this day. Still a determined Cheyenne Thomas of Tavares High would take 2nd place in front of her two teammates with a time of 19:35.0. Jimena Nava Garcia a freshman for Tavares took 3rd with a time of 19:43.5 while Laken Hartley another freshman took 4th with a time of 20:02.0.
East Ridge High was able to secure enough points for a second place finish with freshman Hortance Sallault finishing 7th with a time of 20:49.9. Taylor Walker and Jessie Volz finished 8th and 9th with Helen Robertson and Adriana Mustin finishing in 12th and 13th. It was a great performance from East Ridge High but Tavares High did just enough to score 42 points compared to East Ridge High’s 49 to win the meet.
Meanwhile in the boys race East Ridge High dominated and won by a hefty margin. Junior Axel Sallault finished first with a time of 15:54.4. That was nearly a half minute in front of Lake Nona’s Gabriel Lozano Martinez who finished second. East Ridge would place 5 runners in the top ten to solidify their win. Senior Caleb Walker finished third with a time of 16:38.8. Tavares High Liam Ilea finished 4th with a time of 15:45.6. Ilea was in a battle with East Ridge High’s Watson Dunham and pulled away in the final stretch as Watson finished 5th.
East Ridge High also place sophomore Aubin Sallault in 7th with 17:12.5, Jonahel Vazquez in 8th with 17:23.4 and Dylan McCleary finished in 12th. All of those points were able to secure victory for East Ridge High. Other Tavares High notables was Omar Castillo finishing 9th and Eric Chen finishing just inside the top 15 for a 14th place finish.
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.
