By Kyle Coppola
Tavares Girls Win Jim Ryun Invitational, Boys Take 2nd
The Tavares High girls cross-country team opened the 2026 season in impressive fashion by winning the Jim Ryun Invitational, while the boys squad delivered a strong runner-up performance against solid competition.
The Bulldogs girls scored 75 points to claim the team title, ahead of Plant High with 93 and Calvary Christian with 105.
Laken Hartley paced Tavares as the top finisher in 21:00.07. Isabella Neal stayed close throughout much of the race and crossed just 12 seconds later in 21:12.7, providing a critical boost to the team score.
Jimena Nava Garcia finished just outside the top 10 in 13th place. Sophia Maldonado placed 24th and Caitlyn Noll finished 31st, rounding out a balanced effort that secured the victory for Tavares in its season debut.
On the boys side, Tavares finished second with 99 points. George Steinbrenner High took the team title with 76 points, while St. Cloud placed third with 103.
Tavares’ top finisher was Liam Ilea, who crossed the line first for the Bulldogs in 16:43.9. A tightly packed group of runners followed, staying together for much of the race to help control the pace and maximize scoring. Nicholas Alvarez and Navid Lozano finished 14th and 15th with times of 17:37.1 and 17:39.6, respectively. Emiliano Lozano completed the pack in 17:45.1. The cluster of strong finishes proved decisive in keeping Tavares near the top of the leaderboard.
Tahjier Neal, Eric Chen and Jonah Myers also turned in solid performances that contributed to the team’s second-place result.
Overall, both the girls and boys squads showcased their potential in the season’s first meet. The meet brought stiff competition, setting up what should be an exciting cross-country season for both squads.
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.
