Windermere girls cross country, Horizon boys finish second at last regular season meet

Windermere High girls and Horizon High boys cross country teams finished as runners-up at the last regular season meet of 2024, the Hawks’ Last Chance Open.

The Lady Wolverines had three top-15 finishers — Annabella Ekebergh led the way with a personal best time of 19:49, finishing 11th — and a combined team score of 104, 30 points behind Lake Minneola High, finishing higher than any other West and Southwest Orange County girls team. 

Following close behind Windermere were the Lady Hawks of Horizon in fourth, as they set a new school record with a combined time of 102:27.48 thanks to personal bests from each of their runners. 

Thomas Lightbody | TK Photography

Horizon finished with a score of 110, with its speedy sophomore Abigayle White finishing third and setting a new school record time of 18:50.35.

White had the best time of all the area’s girl runners participating. Olympia High was the next fastest area girls team at the meet, finishing eighth, led by senior Emily Knopfle, who came in fourth.

On the boys side, the Hawks finished second with a score of 61 behind Oviedo High’s score of 48 — and like the girls team — they set a new school record with a combined time of 83:33. 

Horizon had all five of its scoring runners finish in the top 20, with Jacob Finch topping the area’s runners with a third-place effort — finishing just six seconds behind first and establishing a new school record time of 15:56.50. 

West Orange High’s Jaiden McKee was the next fastest area boys runner, finishing eighth, just 1.1 seconds ahead of Horizon’s Maleik Lewis. Windermere’s boys team was the next best area team finisher, coming in seventh. Ocoee High finished eighth and West Orange finished 10th.