The Coyotes were howling on the Ridge!

New Port Richey,Fl-Are there wild coyotes roaming the streets of New Port Richey?! There were on Saturday morning as the pack known as Cypress Creek XC dominated the 2025 River Ridge Invitational,taking three out of the four individual titles, the boys varsity and JV  team titles, and the girls varsity team runners-up!

In the boys race, Coyote Skylar Manatt pulled away from 8th grade phenom Dominic Sadonis of Angeline in the final 800 meters to take home the boy’s championship with a 7 second win over the younger Archer. Also placing very well for Cypress Creek was freshman Micah Oliver, notching a 4th place finish with a near PR time of 16:43. The boys from “The Creek” placed their top 5 runners in the top 14 places to secure the team title with a 26 point win over host River Ridge.

On the girl’s side, sophomore Emma Poekert finally got the sub 19 “monkey” off her back running a new PR of 18:59 and taking the girl’s title with a 1:06 victory over the other 8th grade protege for Angeline, Malina Bunwat, who also had a huge PR, lopping almost a minute from her previous best mark. And just as the Cypress Creek boys did in the boys team battle, Angeline girls placed their top 5 in the top 14 places to eek out the team win, 52-58 over Cypress Creek.

In the JV races, Ethan Hopkins contnued the winning ways for the Coyotes by winning in 19:43.  The duo from Classical Prep, Lana Kehoe and Taylor Farmer took 1st and 2nd respectively in the girls JV race.

Looking Ahead

On Tuesday  TRC will see what all of Hillsborough County freshman and sophomores have to offer as The Hillsborough Freshman/Sophomore County Championships return to Mary Help of Christians Center.