Wildwood, Fla. — The Villages High School cross country teams swept their way to victory at the season-opening meet Saturday in Wildwood.

Both the Buffalo boys and girls squads finished atop a six-team field competing across the campus of Wildwood Middle High School, each starting their respective 2025 campaigns off with first-place team finishes.

The VHS boys posted an average time of 20:14, as five individual runners finished inside the top ten. Nate Burton finished second overall with a time of 18:54.4, while Roberto Rivero (19:04.5) finished fourth, and the trio of Allister Clarke (20:46.2), Deegan Rude (21:12.8) and Gunner Horneij (21:15.0) took eighth, ninth and tenth, respectively.

Legacy finished second in the boys standings with an average time of 20:43 and First Academy (Leesburg) finished third with an average of 22:22.

Over on the girls side, the Buffalo finished with a team-wide average time of 26:34. That paced the likes of runner-up Wildwood (27:08) and Lake Mary Prep (29:18) in third.

Catherine Easley led the way for VHS with a time of 25:31.2 to finish sixth individually, while Aubrey Bollenback (25:34.1) took seventh and Ariel Mills (26:24.9) took ninth. Elenna Ventura finished 11th overall with a time of 27:23.7.

The two teams are slated to return to action Aug. 30 at Whispering Pines Park in Inverness.


Cody Hills can be reached for questions or comment at cody.hills@tvcs.org.