By Kyle Coppola
Wildwood Senior Damian Spurrier Wins Wildwood Cross-Country Open
Senior Damian Spurrier opened his 2025 cross-country season with an emphatic statement, capturing the individual title at the Wildwood MS/HS Open with a winning time of 18:49.6.
The win continues Damian’s upward trajectory, following a strong junior season where he claimed the FHSAA Class 1A District 3 championship and went on to finish 8th at Regionals to qualify for the state meet, finishing 37th in Florida. His performance on Saturday proved he remains one of the region’s premier distance runners. This was the 6th overall win in his high school cross-country career dating back to 2021 when he competed as an 8th grader.
(Damian Spurrier has been one of the top cross-country runners in FHSAA Class 1A District 3 for many years. Photo Credit – Wildwood Prep Track Club.)
It was a great way to start off the high school cross-country season. Each year cross-country continues to get more exciting and this year will be no different. While Damian took the overall The Villages was able to put in a gritty effort to win the team overall standings.
That field was led by The Villages’ Nate Burton, who pushed Damian all the way to the finish, clocking in at 18:54.4 to secure second place. Nate’s late surge made for a thrilling final stretch, but Damian held him off by just under 5 seconds. Kyle Pillay of Legacy High School was also in the mix down the final straight and finished just two seconds off of 2nd place for a 3rd place finish.
The Villages showed their depth and dominance on the team side, placing five runners in the top 10. Roberto Rivero secured fourth with a 19:04.5, narrowly edging out Rio Medley of Legacy High School by two-tenths of a second at the line. Medley settled for fifth with a time of 19:05.7.
First Academy-Leesburg’s Noah Mauriell turned in a strong performance for the Eagles, finishing seventh overall in 20:36.1. He led a trio of FA-Leesburg runners into the top 15, with Ryan Taylor and Landon Mauriell also securing solid finishes.
The Villages Allister Clarke (20:46.2) finished 8th. Deegan Rude (21:12.8), and Gunner Horneij (21:15.0) claimed 9th through 10th, respectively. Colton Young rounded out the top 15 for the Buffalo. All of those points added up and sealed a victory with 33 points. Legacy High finished 2nd with 44 points while FA-Leesburg took 3rd with 72 points and Wildwood finishing 4th with 101 points. City of Life Christian and Hernando Christian rounded out the field.
This was a big performance for Damian Spurrier to start the year. He always rises to the occasion and he certainly did that. It will be fun to watch him this season as he looks to win back-to-back district championships.
One Comment
Leave A Comment
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.
Thank yall for the excellent coverage as always