Running on the Range Under the Lights, Run Through the Race Simulator: Three Boys' Teams Inside Five Points, Red Sea Holds the Girls' Race, and a Saturday Night 3k in Middleton

Running on the Range Under the Lights, hosted by The Villages Charter School. The Villages Middle School, Middleton campus, 2453 Stampeder Trail, Middleton. Saturday, September 19, 2026. Gates open at 6 p.m., elementary girls at 6:30 followed by the boys, middle school girls at 7:30 followed by the boys. Twenty-one schools and clubs registered, 423 individual entries.

A night meet on The Villages Charter School's new Middleton campus, with a course that starts on the infield, takes one lap of the track, runs two laps around the practice fields and the softball field, and comes back into the stadium to finish on the back stretch. Two thousand meters for the elementary kids, three thousand for the middle schoolers, custom medals for the first fifteen finishers. We took the entry list, dropped every named athlete into our Race Simulator, and scored all four races. Each runner is entered on the best thing he or she has run in 2026, leveled to a common course for the middle school races and on the raw clock for the elementary ones.

The short version. Hillsborough Harriers, Red Sea Running Club and the host Villages Charter Middle School finish inside five points in the boys' 3k, 39 to 42 to 44, and those are three teams from three different FLYRA divisions who will not see each other at the state meet. The Harriers win on either clock; the order behind them does not move. RJ Destremps and Colton Jobe, the two boys who went one-two at the Horse Park two weeks ago, are one-two again. Red Sea's girls win the 3k by 33 with three of the first five, and Alice Ilea is the girl to beat by 48 seconds. In the elementary races, the Harriers are the only club on the list with five 2k marks to score, and Aliana Alvarez, the top-ranked elementary girl in Florida, is entered.

About the times. Every mark below is the time the runner actually ran, and where. For the middle school races the last column is what that time is worth on the reference course, Jim Ryun for the boys and the Horse Park for the girls, and that is the number the scoring uses. A dagger means the course has no rating yet and the raw time stands in. A team needs five entered runners with a 2026 mark to score. The entry list names athletes, so a runner who is on a club's roster but not on Saturday's list is left out, and a runner entered in the 2k is not scored in the 3k. The simulator does not project, so nobody is entered on last year.

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Middle school boys: three teams inside five, and the front two from the Horse Park

Hillsborough Harriers score 39, placing 1-5-9-11-13 on an 85-second spread. RJ Destremps (8th) is the class of the field. He won the Horse Park in 9:53.8, the first middle schooler in Florida under ten minutes this year, and the simulator enters him on his 10:08.4 from Jim Ryun because the Horse Park rated fast for middle school boys. Either way he is first by 25 seconds. He is No. 1 in our middle school boys top five. Behind him Wesley Taylor (7th) is fifth on 11:14.4 from Jim Ryun, Alex Geisel (7th) ninth on his 10:39.0 at the Horse Park, and Ace Hallinan (7th) and Landon Healy (8th) close the five at 11th and 13th, both on Jim Ryun marks. Max Day is 15th and Jackson Stubbs 17th, so the sixth and seventh men are close enough to matter in a tiebreak.

Red Sea Running Club is second at 42, and their case is the pack. Five runners in 29 seconds, 4-6-8-10-14, nobody in the first three and nobody outside the first fourteen. Jack Ilea, a sixth grader, leads them in fourth on 11:07.9 from Jim Ryun; his 10:34.3 at the Horse Park is the fourth-fastest raw time on the list. Gabriel Garback and Joel Cordero are sixth and eighth on their Nights of Thunder runs, Alexis Hernandez tenth and Alejandro Hernandez 14th. Their sixth man, Elijah Rivera, is 24th, so if one of the five has a bad night the drop is steeper than it is for the Harriers.

Villages Charter Middle School, the host, is third at 44, and on the front end they are the best team here. Colton Jobe (8th) ran 10:05.2 at the Horse Park, second to Destremps and the second-fastest raw time in the field, and the simulator scores him on his 10:44.5 from Seffner Christian, worth 10:33.1, because the Horse Park rated fast. He is No. 3 in our middle school boys top ten. Jace Lewis (7th) is third the same way, 10:48.8 at Seffner worth 10:37.4, with a 10:31.3 at the Horse Park in his pocket. Karter James (8th) is seventh and Eduardo Andrade (8th) twelfth, both under 11:33 leveled. The gap is the fifth man: Grant Reeves (8th) is 20th, and Leo McPherson is right behind him at 21st. That is a 2-3-7-12-20, and it is why a team with the best top four in the race is third. Move the fifth man up six places on Saturday night and the Villages win. Our FLYRA checkpoint called them the best charter team in the state by a wide margin, and this is the night they get to test it against the two best clubs on the list.

On best times the Harriers win more comfortably, 33 to Red Sea's 43 and the Villages' 48, because Destremps, Geisel, Taylor and Healy all ran their fastest at the Horse Park and get that clock back. Red Sea and the Villages stay in the same order on either toggle.

The rest. Bayshore Project is fourth at 129 on Julian Ruiz (16th) and Peter Worley (8th, 19th), both from Seffner Christian. Buffalo Ridge Middle School, the other Villages Charter campus, is fifth at 174 and Lecanto Middle School sixth at 179, and both are entered entirely on the Inverness Middle School Meet, which has no rating yet, so they are on raw times. Michael Giddens of Lecanto is 18th on 11:59.6 there and Josef Gepega of Buffalo Ridge 22nd on 12:12.0. HTTR Tornadoes are seventh at 189 with five inside 66 seconds and Osceola Middle School eighth at 201 with five inside 32. The Cornerstone School, Imagine South Vero and Liberty Middle School round out the eleven scoring teams.

Not scoreable: Round Lake Charter has two entered boys with a 2026 mark. Ocala Distance Project entered one boy in the 3k and he has no 2026 result in our database. Spring Creek Charter School, Ina A. Colen Academy, Fort King Middle School, Howard Middle School and Westlake Christian School are not in our database at all, and three unattached entries have no team. One of them matters: Drake Matyka (8th), No. 7 in our middle school boys top ten, ran 10:19.3 at Jim Ryun, which would put him second in this field, between Destremps and Jobe, if he were scoring for anyone.

Middle school boys team standings

Middle school boys, first ten

Middle school girls: Red Sea by 33, Ilea out front, and a five-deep Tornadoes squad

Red Sea Running Club scores 31, placing 1-4-5-9-12. Alice Ilea (8th) wins it on 11:05.9 from Jim Ryun, worth 10:05.4, and her 10:35.5 at the Horse Park is the fastest raw time on the list by more than a minute. She is No. 2 in our middle school girls top five, behind only Colette Heffernan, who is not entered. Kayla Santos and Lilliana Gutfreind (8th) are fourth and fifth on Jim Ryun marks, Amelia Hernandez, a sixth grader, ninth on her Indian River run, and Alizeah Miller twelfth. Hope Nesmith and Meadow Sadlemire are 13th and 14th, a tenth of a second apart on their Horse Park times, so Red Sea's sixth and seventh are better than most teams' fourth. Red Sea wins on best times too, 25 to 55.

Hillsborough Harriers are second at 64. Bailey Eggleston (8th) is second in the field on 11:53.8 from Jim Ryun, worth 10:53.3. Maysen McDonald, a sixth grader, is tenth on 12:11.0 from the Horse Park, and the next three, Lucy Dory, Helene Waters (7th) and Sienna Arguello (7th), are 16th, 18th and 20th. On best times the Harriers are second by 47.

HTTR Tornadoes are third at 74 on the strength of their front three. Layne Schiebel (7th) is third in the field: she ran 11:47.1 at the Horse Park, but the simulator scores her on her 12:47.9 from Seffner Christian, worth 11:07.3, because Seffner rated slow for middle school girls. Mary Widlak (7th) and Lucy Bellteau (7th) are seventh and eighth on the same arithmetic. Then it is a gap to Christinia Rodan (8th) at 25th and Marilynn Tucker (8th) at 31st, and that is the whole squad: five entered girls with a mark and no sixth. On best times the Tornadoes slip to 102, behind the Harriers and just ahead of the Villages, because the Seffner lift goes away.

Villages Charter Middle School is fourth at 81, and it is the same shape as the boys: good front, thin fifth. Aubrey Bollenback (8th) is sixth on 12:59.8 from Seffner, worth 11:19.2, and she ran 12:47.1 at the Horse Park. Macie Roussin (8th) is 11th and Bethany Roy (8th) 15th, then Adrianna Rose (6th) at 23rd and Chloe Davenport (7th) at 26th. Seven points separate the Villages from third place leveled, and on best times they are fourth at 105, three behind the Tornadoes.

Lecanto Middle School is fifth at 131, with Aubrey Sunseri (8th) 19th on 13:00.7 from Inverness, unrated. Osceola Middle School, Buffalo Ridge Middle School, Imagine South Vero, The Cornerstone School and Liberty Middle School complete the ten scoring teams.

Not scoreable: Bayshore Project has four entered girls with a 2026 mark; Round Lake Charter has three. Ocala Distance Project entered one girl in the 3k. Aliana Alvarez, who ran the 3k for Red Sea at Nights of Thunder, is entered in the 2k on Saturday, so she is scored there and not here. Liberty's entry lists Sophia Saldino in the boys' race; she ran the girls' race at the Horse Park and we have not scored her anywhere.

A caution on the leveled middle school girls' times. The reference course for middle school girls is the Horse Park, and Jim Ryun and Seffner Christian both graded a minute or more slow against it. Those ratings carry Ilea, Eggleston, Santos, Gutfreind and every Tornado in the first ten, and they are the shakiest numbers in this post. The best-times toggle is the safer read for this race. Red Sea wins on either one; the fight for second through fourth is where the toggle matters.

Middle school girls team standings

Middle school girls, first ten

Elementary boys: the Harriers are the only full team, and DiCarlo leads

Only one entered club has five elementary boys with a 2026 2k mark, so there is no team race to simulate: Hillsborough Harriers score 15 by default. The individual list is worth reading anyway. Logan DiCarlo (5th) ran 8:02.7 at the Horse Park and leads the field; Oscar Molla (5th) 8:13.4, Tristan Deanna (5th) 8:18.3 and Reinsuy Watson (5th) 8:29.2 follow, all Harriers, all from the same race. DiCarlo is No. 7 in our elementary boys top ten and Deanna is on the next-five list there. Sawyer Davies of The Cornerstone School, a sixth grader entered in the 2k, is fifth on 8:35.0, and Daniel Greene, a Harriers third grader, is seventh on 8:40.9.

Round Lake Charter and Ocala Distance Project have entered eleven and ten boys in this race and none of them has a 2k result in our database. Buffalo, the Villages Charter elementary entry, and Westlake Christian School are not in our database. Every time below is a raw clock; there are no course ratings at the elementary level.

Elementary boys, first ten

Elementary girls: Alvarez, then a gap

Aliana Alvarez of Red Sea Running Club won the Horse Park in 7:23.8 and is No. 1 in our elementary girls rankings; she was the state champion in this age group last fall. Nobody else on the entry list is within a minute of that. Lainey Jessup (5th, Hillsborough Harriers) is second on 8:23.9 and No. 4 in those rankings, Avery Maldonado (5th, Red Sea), No. 5, is third on 8:33.4, and those two have split their meetings this year, Maldonado at Jim Ryun and Jessup at the Horse Park. Sophia Dolan, a Harriers fourth grader and No. 7, is fourth on 8:46.5. The Harriers are again the only club with five girls to score; Red Sea has four with a mark, The Cornerstone School three, with Aaditri Komat (5th) seventh in the field.

Elementary girls, first ten

What the simulator cannot see

• Who actually toes the line. The entry list is the best guide we have, and we scored only the athletes on it, but a name on a list in September is not a runner on the infield at 7:30.
• A night race on a track-and-fields loop. Every mark here comes from a daytime course; nobody on the list has run this one.
• Five entered schools are not in our database: Spring Creek Charter, Ina A. Colen Academy, Fort King, Howard and Westlake Christian. Ocala Distance Project has no 2026 results we hold. Conchita Espinosa Academy is registered but has no named entries. Buffalo, the elementary entry from the host campus, is not in our database.
• Buffalo Ridge and Lecanto are entered entirely on the Inverness Middle School Meet, which has no course rating yet, so their boys and girls are on raw times.
• HTTR Tornadoes' girls have exactly five with a mark. One scratch and they do not score.

Notes on the ratings

• A course rating is the gap between what runners ran at a meet and what the same runners ran at last year's FLYRA state meet, re-anchored so the largest sample at each level sits at zero: Jim Ryun for middle school boys, the Horse Park for middle school girls. Boys use the mean of that gap and need at least five paired runners; girls use the median and need at least fifteen, or the boys' figure is scaled up instead.
• The Horse Park rated fast for middle school boys, which is why Destremps, Jobe, Lewis, James, Ilea and Geisel are entered on a slower run from Jim Ryun or Seffner Christian rather than their Horse Park times. If Saturday's course runs like the Horse Park did, the raw standings are the better guide for the boys.
• Seffner Christian and Jim Ryun both rated slow for middle school girls, and those two ratings carry most of the girls' first ten. Nights of Thunder and the Indian River Fairgrounds rated much closer to even.
• The Inverness Middle School Meet has no rating, so Lecanto and Buffalo Ridge are on raw times.
• Elementary races carry no course ratings. Every 2k time above is the raw clock, and in our elementary rankings Jim Ryun read about a minute slow against the Horse Park, so Emma Dolan's 9:44.6 from Jim Ryun is worth more than it looks.
• Middle school fields are grades 6 through 8. A runner with no grade in the results we hold appears without one above.

Results land in our database when the timer publishes them, and the Data section, the rankings and this simulator all update from there. See you under the lights.

The Buffalo Cross Country mark in the featured image is The Villages Charter School's own athletics mark. Meet details are from the school's event flyer and course map.