Holy Trinity (Melbourne)

Cecil Field. Five-man average 21:19.4, spread 1:27.0.
Kelly Geraghty 20:28, Taylor Geraghty 20:38, Juelle Maaser 21:43, Caleigh Schmoll 21:53, Abby Connors 21:55, Frances Hale 22:13, Ava Nazareno 25:16.

First by one point, and it is a real one point — the closest margin on any class board this week.

Holy Trinity was fourth in the preseason at a 21:13.5 average with a 2:31.4 spread. What changed is the back of the lineup. Against a field that ran 28.8 seconds slow in August, Schmoll came in 42.9 seconds faster than her state time and Hale 63.5 seconds faster — meaning both effectively improved by well over a minute once the conversion is applied. Kelly Geraghty gave back only 15.3 seconds, half the field-wide tax. And Juelle Maaser, who did not run the 2025 state meet at all, slotted straight in at 21:43 as their third.

The result is a 1:27.0 spread, the second-tightest of any team in the top ten, on a squad that raced without Elizabeth Stewart. Abby Connors was the one who struggled, 63.8 seconds off. This is the most complete evidence any 1A girls team produced this month.

Cecil Field. Five-man average 18:06.0, spread 1:28.0.
Jesus Martinez 17:25, Zamari Blumenberg 17:31, Roman La Starza 18:12, Kaden Nazareno 18:29, Tedd Du 18:53, Alex Darlington 19:00, Jack McFadden 19:04.

The most improved team in Class 1A, and it happened without their best runner. Holy Trinity was tenth in the preseason at a 19:30.3 average with a 6:52.3 spread — one of the worst structural profiles of any ranked team in the class. They are now fourth at 18:06.0 with a 1:28.0 spread.

Three things did it. Martinez took 34 seconds off. Nazareno went from 19:55.7 at state to 18:29 — 86.7 seconds. Du went from 23:50.2 to 18:53, a swing of nearly five minutes that is either a runner who was hurt in November or a runner who found the sport this summer. And Blumenberg, at 17:31, did not run the state meet at all.

One caution. Aiden Darlington, their returning number one at 16:57.9, finished the Cecil Elite race in 21:09. That is four minutes off, and Holy Trinity ranks fourth without a single point from him. It is also the kind of number that is sometimes a bad day and sometimes a timing or identification error — there is a second Darlington in the same race at 19:00. We are reporting it as it appears in the results and not projecting anything from it. If Aiden Darlington is healthy, this team's five-man average has another 30 seconds in it and the top three gets crowded.