- December 23, 2025
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Stories of success weren't hard to find locally in 2025.
An array of high school athletes distinguished themselves from the field. Some became champions, while others became record-holders. Some even became both.
Here are my picks for the East County athletes of the year:
Weightlifting is part of Payton Mangay-Ayam's very nature.
Dating back to her freshman year, the now-senior consistently has been ranked in the top-10 in the state. At the 2025 FHSAA state championships Feb. 14-15, she placed second in Olympic and fourth in Traditional for the 154-pound weight class as a junior.
Mangay-Ayam is also a recently-minted record-holder as she begins her 2025-26 season. On Dec. 5, the senior broke the Florida Weightlifting Federation state record in the snatch (72 kg), clean and jerk (95 kg) and total for the 63-kilogram weight class.
She has helped Braden River go back-to-back as regional champion the past two seasons to go with district titles in the last three. The Pirates set 25 school records in the process.
Mangay-Ayam ranks as the second-best lifter in the U.S. for her age (17) and weight class (139 pounds)j. She's a favorite to take home gold at the 2026 FHSAA state championships, which would be a first in program history.
Head Coach Jordan Borges also reckons there's something greater ahead for her. He said Mangay-Ayam is on pace to lift for Team USA at the 2025 World Weightlifting Championships.
Four straight title game appearances. Four straight runner-up finishes.
Before the 2024-25 season, Cardinal Mooney girls basketball only knew defeat on the championship stage. Kali Barrett suffered through three of those shortcomings.
So she delivered the greatest individual season in program history, completing a one-of-a-kind legacy. The Cougars finally got over the hump.
Lakewood Ranch's Barrett averaged 16 points, 9.5 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game as a senior forward/guard. She scored a team single-season record 513 points, and in doing so, became the all-time leading scorer in program history with 1,632 points.
Cardinal Mooney won its first state title by defeating Jacksonville Bolles, 64-54, on March 1 at RP Funding Center in Lakeland. Barrett posted 20 points and 11 rebounds in the triumph. During the season, she led the state with 24 double-doubles.
The Cougars won 17 games in a row to close the season after losing five straight, and Barrett's impact was a big reason why.
Her name should forever hang in their gymnasium rafters.
Mia McGuire didn't come to high school as a setter.
Had it not been for a foot injury to her older sister, Mary-Allison McGuire, in 2023, she might not have played the position.
But she happily embraced it as a sophomore. That's where she's thrived ever since.
As a senior this season, Mia McGuire became the all-time assists leader for Braden River girls volleyball, finishing with 1,418 in all. She racked up 808 of them in 2025 alone — a new Pirates single-season record.
Better yet, her assists total this season was the most of any player in both Sarasota and Manatee County by more than 100. McGuire averaged 27 per match, as well as 221 total digs and a sparkling 98% serve rating on 365 service attempts.
Braden River finished 19-11 and won District 5A-12. It reached the regional finals for the first time since the school opened in 2005.
McGuire's knack for making plays happen was unlike any other in the area.
Running competitively wasn't exactly on Kevin Gyurka's radar as a kindergartner at Tatum Ridge Elementary.
One day, though, he was awarded a Run Gasparilla 5K medal from his teacher, Laura Graber, just for being a good student.
It still hangs in his bedroom over a decade later. And it's got plenty of company.
Gyurka, a senior at The Out-of-Door Academy, placed seventh among 235 competitors in the 2025 FHSAA Class 1A cross country state championship. He clocked a 16:19.30 in the boys' 5K on Nov. 22 at Tallahassee's Apalachee Regional Park.
Earlier in the season, he set the boys' 5K school record with a 15:48.7 on Sept. 20 at the North Port XC Invite. He then proceeded to break it again with a 15:48.6 on Nov. 1 at the Tri-County Championship.
He holds additional ODA records in track and field for the 3,200-meter race and 4x800-meter relay race.
With the 2026 track and field season still to come, Gyurka could further expand his medal collection.
The gridiron has been much like a playground for Allen Clark. The senior running back spent the better part of four seasons making defenders look silly.
He will graduate from ODA in May as one of the school's all-time football greats.
Clark finished his career with 4,178 rushing yards and 60 touchdowns, departing as the program’s all-time leader in both. He pitched in 1,524 yards and 22 scores on the ground last season — both single-season records.
In 2025, he was a driving force once again for the Thunder, producing 1,159 rushing yards on 7.3 yards per carry with 14 touchdowns. The Thunder finished 8-3 and reached the quarterfinals of the SSAA 11-man state tournament, falling to eventual champion Jupiter Christian.
Still evaluating his future, as of Dec. 17, Clark prefers to remain in Florida for college football. He had official visits to Bethune-Cookman and Keiser on Oct. 25 and 6, respectively.
Whichever program he winds up with will be getting a tried-and-true workhorse.
