LAND O’ LAKES — Ana Cecilia Maia Menard intends to lead the pack this fall. She also intends to lead Sunlake’s girls cross country team back to the state meet — and this time, come home with better finishes all around.
The Seahawks have plenty of room to improve. They placed eighth at the Class 4A meet last season, and Menard, then a freshman, took 14th in 18 minutes, 57 seconds, missing the medal podium. Two years earlier, the program finished state runner-up.
Now Menard is a sophomore, the roster is the largest coach Randall Reeves has fielded, and the expectations have climbed with it.
“As an athlete, individually,” Menard said, “I do want to get better and I want the team to get better and not just be, ‘I’m satisfied with my time.’ I do want to be satisfied, but I want to see that improvement.”
She has put a number on it: top 10 at state.
“It’s the experience that’s different,” Menard said of the state meet. “When you’re running with people that you’re just more used to, it’s a lot more different. The dynamic is different. I feel like I’m pushing myself a lot more. And as a team, we’re all just getting better.”
For perspective, Menard would have needed to run about 17 seconds faster in Tallahassee last fall to crack the top 10 — a standard her personal best of 18:16 already clears. The gap at the front is wider. Class 4A winner Madison Muller of Sarasota Riverview crossed in 17:37, 23 seconds ahead of the runner-up.
Menard knows the work in front of her. Reeves, the program’s longtime distance coach, sounds like a man who has already done the math.
“Oh, yeah. She will this year. She’ll be top 10,” Reeves said. “This is the year that they usually separate themselves from others, and she’s been focused pretty hard, so she’ll do well. Maybe better. Maybe top five. She’s been working really hard. She now runs with the boys on a more regular basis. If you don’t have fast enough girls to run with you, they have to run with somebody.”
Depth is the constant at Sunlake. Reeves has built both the boys and girls programs on a steady pipeline from Rushe Middle School next door, and the rosters reload nearly every year, with a new standout stepping up to lead the pack.
He believes Menard can put her name alongside those who came before her.
“She’s not outwardly competitive, but when she’s racing, she’s very competitive,” Reeves said. “And typically, girls don’t have that kind of dig in them, but she certainly does. So it’s a competitive spirit that sets her apart. And she buys into the program. She’s going to be a rock star, a coach’s dream, and this is our biggest girls team we’ve ever had, 26 or 27. And coming off that podium finish, the expectations are high. Especially for Ana.”
Menard sees the same ceiling.
“That’s just something I want to see for our team, for our girls team,” she said. “I think we’re definitely capable of getting top five, getting back on the podium. I obviously wasn’t there for that, but definitely improve on last season. ‘Cause now we have just such amazing girls that just come in and compete, so I’m very excited to see what we can do.”