Preps

Rams ready to take back the SAC title

Ridgewood has its eye on new district rival and reigning SAC champion Wesley Chapel.

Ridgewood wants what Wesley Chapel has.

The Sunshine Athletic Conference title, that is. If you know anything about Pasco County track, you know how tough that is for the Rams to stomach.

That is because the Ridgewood girls had it once. In fact, the Rams owned it, winning 14 conference titles, six in a row, until last season.

That is when the Wildcats pulled off the upset of the decade, wresting the title from the longtime champions by two points. The Wesley Chapel girls became only the third team in SAC history - joining Ridgewood and River Ridge, which scored an upset in 1997 - to claim the title.

Angela Medvid, running the last leg of the night's last event, the 4x400-meters relay, won the event and conference for the Wildcats.

A year later, Wesley Chapel is the hunted, and Ridgewood the hunter. Only this season, there is even more intrigue: for the first time, both are in the same district.

The Wildcats moved from 2A to 3A and threaten the Rams' other championship streak: 14 straight district championships. Both teams, now in Class 3A, District 7, won their respective districts last season. The county's newest rivalry is ready to take off.

"It's going to be a challenge," said new Wildcats coach Kristi Frye, "but we're going to rise to the occasion."

Rams coach Sue Vien was gracious in defeat last season. But after the meet was another story. Vien and her athletes did some soul searching in a team meeting afterward. Vien pointed out the athletes missed several opportunities to score extra points.

"We sat down and we talked about it and those two points could have been picked up by many, many people," Vien said. "We did not deserve the conference title. If we want the conference title now we need to really, really go after it. We need to be aggressive and do away with all the excuses, because Wesley Chapel is tough.

"They want it and they will take it from us."

The Wildcats will defend the title without Medvid and throws champion Ashley Martin, who graduated. The team took more hits when Dija Phaire and Kendall Smith transferred to Hillsborough County schools, decimating the 4x100.

After two years as an assistant, Frye moved to head coach this season, assuming the title boys coach Brian Colding held. Her cupboard is still stocked. Distance star Stephanie Amerman is one of the county's best, sprinters Melissa Sams and Jasmine Cabrera are back, and sister Jerrica qualified for state in the hurdles as a freshman.

The Wildcats are bolstered by a talented influx of underclassmen, a group headlined by sophomore sprinters Isaria Ranson and Jenice Williams. Will Wesley Chapel miss a beat?

"No, not a beat," said Frye, "and they're stronger this year then they were last year."

Winning the SAC, beating Ridgewood, was all Wesley Chapel thought about last season.

"It was huge, it was our goal all season long, and we mixed the lineup around so we could do it," Frye said. "There's a few girls, the veterans, who know what it means to defend it. The new girls don't know yet, but they will."

Repeating will be difficult. Zephyrhills has a deep team this year and could play spoiler. Ridgewood looks stocked as well, led by seniors like Tiffany Powell and Michelle Cotharin and junior Ashley Krupinski. But the Rams aren't lacking in talented underclassmen. Or numbers. Or motivation.

"We're much wiser from it," Vien said. "Whether we act on it, we'll see. I hope they do, because there's nothing worse than sitting back and saying, "It could have been ours.'

"But you know what? We didn't deserve it then. But this year they're hungry and they want it back."

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