Oxford, Fla. — The Villages High School cross country teams posted a 1-2 finish as hosts of the Buffalo Invitational on Saturday at Brown and Brown Farms in Oxford.
The Buffalo boys squad finished first out of eight teams competing, paced by senior
David Probola's first career first-place finish as a cross country runner, while the VHS girls took second out of six teams in attendance.
Probola, who broke the school record (16:31.5) earlier this month, clocked a time of 17:01.73 on Saturday to finish nearly nine seconds ahead of Forest's Zach Vickerman and fellow VHS senior
Nate Burton (17:29.45) in third. The championship run made for a memorable moment shared between the sixth-year veteran and his father, especially after the former's career has been recently marred by injury.
"It was just a really special day for our family," said Buffalo head coach JP Probola, David's father. "(David) has not really enjoyed cross country for a good part of the last year or two just because of injury and what he's gone through. So for him to win today, to do it at our home event, and with my wife and daughters all here and together to watch him ... it's just a really great moment for us."
Fellow Buffalo senior
Roberto Carmona-Rivero finished ninth individually at 18:19.94, while
Deegan Rude placed 22nd (19:52.96) and
Christian Ducharme (20:21.40) was 29th for the boys.
In the girls competition, VHS took second behind only Wildwood in the team race. The Buffalo were led by their ever-reliable duo of junior
Annison Chandler (7th, 23:00.04) and senior
Catherine Easley (10th, 23:33.85), as
Hannah Campbell took 17th,
Elenna Ventura was 19th and
Norah Oni finished 20th.
"I was really proud of our program today," Probola said. "The boys were obviously led by our three seniors at the top, but I was really happy with some of the younger guys stepping up to finish how they did. And I thought the girls ran a really strong race. We weren't quite at full strength, but they pushed and had a really good effort."
The annual competition was held at Brown and Brown Farms for the very first time, after having previously been held at other locations throughout the area such as the Silo Oaks events venue in Sumterville and The Villages Polo Club.
"The course was great and the staff was great to work with," Probola said. "We have to mention those (people), but also our event and parent volunteers. We can't do this without them."
Cody Hills can be reached for questions or comment via email at cody.hills@tvcs.org.
