Lady Mustangs race to third-place finish

The Lakewood Ranch High girls cross country finished third at the Flrunners.com Invitational Oct. 1 in Satellite Beach.

The Lady Mustangs were invited to run in the prestigious Race of Champions. The team scored 113 points, finishing third out of 16 teams behind Estero (70) and Ferguson (99).

Olivia Ortiz, who had been fighting a cold throughout the week, won the invitational, finishing in 17:35.82 and crushing her previous school record of 18:15.

Kristin Zarrella finished 15^th in 18:56 followed by Devin McDermott (19^th) in 19:00, Natalie Novak (48^th) in 20:15, Katie Wray (50^th) in 20:15, Ashley Platt (60^th) in 20:32, Michelle Last (80^th) in 20:58 and Emily Perez (95^th) in 21:35.

The Lady Mustangs return to action Oct. 8 at the Disney Invitational at ESPN’s the Wide World of Sports.