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Diaz and Pujals are King of the Hill - King of the Hill XC Opener 2014Published by
Diaz and Pujals are King of the Hill
by Jim McCurdy
MIAMI -- Kurt Convey didn't want to give away anything. Nick Diaz was ready to take whatever he could get. And Alyssa Pujals got off to a good start.
Welcome to South Florida cross country's season-opening meet, where Diaz, of Miami Sunset, and Pujals, of Gulliver Prep, each won their respective races Thursday at the King of the Hill 5K race at Tropical Park.
Diaz won the boys race in a course record 16:00.41, narrowly edging Convey, of Coral Reef, who clocked a 16:04.57 in a race where all signs pointed to a three-headed battle to open the season.
"This whole summer I just put down great hard work of training," Diaz said. "It's just been a lot of hard work that's put in this summer, and hopefully that will be able to show this season."
Diaz was about 20 seconds shy of a season best, which he ran in a recent time trial.
Convey crossed the finish line 16 seconds ahead of teammate Carlin Berryhill, who settled for third in 16:20.33
"Obviously, I want to win. I don't like to give Nick any free wins," Convey said. "It was relatively close until about a half-mile to go. So I'm content with it. I haven't done too much speed work, and that's sort of what it came down to."
Pujals won the girls race in 19:48.81. She beat Lourdes Academy's Sabrina Quijano by 37 seconds. Quijano crossed the finish line in 20:25.95. John A. Ferguson's Lauren Gavulic was third in 20:31.55.
"I've been practicing more than usual, so I just wanted to see my practice pay off," Pujals said. "For my strategy for this race ... especially to work the hill and just pump my arms, bring my knees up, especially to get over that first hill and then just try my best for the whole race and see how my stamina holds up for the first race of the year."
Pujals, who also devotes her time to tennis, has put an emphasis on hitting the outside terrain this fall. Right away it paid off as she set a personal best, bettering her 19:54 at last year's state meet.
Quijano set out to run her fastest race right from the get-go.
"I knew the course pretty well, and I was planning to PR, I guess," she said, only to fall short of her best time. "I'm not very satisfied with it, but I have a lot more to progress until November."
 Our Lady of Lourdes - Girls Team Champions
Lourdes won the girls team title with 33 points, clocking an average time of 21:32. Coral Reef was second with 75 points, and Ferguson third with 79.
 Miami Sunset Boys - Team ChampionsSunset claimed the boys title with 56 points. Ferguson was the runner-up, clipping Coral Reef by a point, 67-68.
"We were a little disappointed finishing third," Convey said of his boys' team finish. "We thought we could come away with a W as a team. Overall, our one through four is there. It's just a question of finding a fifth man, which can happen a lot in cross country. But I think with our team we're pretty motivated. We have a clear goal."
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