SARASOTA
The Sarasota Sailors don’t harbor any illusions about filling the running shoes of 2015 Class 4A state cross country champion Adam Bradtmueller this season.
They know it will take an all-hands-on-deck approach to try to make up for the loss of the two-time HTPreps Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year, who also captured individual crowns last year en route to team titles for Sarasota at both the district and region meets.
Bradtmueller is now in his freshman season at East Tennessee State, running alongside stellar ex-Sailors teammate Zack Summerall, who is entering his second season competing for the Buccaneers.
But the loss of Bradtmueller isn’t the first time Sarasota High cross country coach John Stevenson has had to fill a major void due to graduation. “We hated to lose Zack, too,” Stevenson said. “It’s easy to get used to having that one big stud running out there. But you don’t just go out and replace someone like Adam.”
In addition to Bradtmueller, the Sailors also lost their No. 2 and No. 3 runners, Brady Hill and Renier Escalona-Diaz, to graduation. Hill was 15th and Escalona-Diaz was 63rd on the unforgiving 5K course at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee at the state meet, as Sarasota finished seventh in the team standings.
So this season Stevenson is looking to a pair of seniors for leadership. As juniors, Jordan Gonzalez (100th) and Ivan Plancarte (113th) also ran at last fall’s state competition.
“We’ll need those guys step up with some good times,” Stevenson said. “We’ll try to progress throughout the year and compete. We’ll have a nice mix from last year. We’ll run in more of a pack this year than we did last year.”
Stevenson is also hoping that some of the youngest of Sailors will make an impact. “We have a good group of freshmen coming in,” he said. “But they are going to need some time to develop.”
Senior Sage Lyons will lead the Sailor girls, who finished second in the team standings at the Class 4A State Meet, behind only Winter Park. Lyons, a two-time district champion, was Sarasota’s top finisher in sixth place as a junior last fall.
Sarasota lost 13th-place state finisher Allison Wright, now running for Florida Southern, to graduation. Otherwise, the girls squad remains pretty much intact.
Senior Aubrey Kilduff, who snared 19th place at the Class 4A State Meet, is among the returnees.
Last fall was the first time in school history that the Sailors have won both boys and girls team championships at the region and district levels. “We’ll have to to see how the season progresses,” Stevenson said. “We have to find those top five or seven runners who are ready to compete.”
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