It’s No. 1 vs. No. 2 in FHSAA girls basketball playoff power rankings Thursday night in Orlando.
Colonial (21-2), rated No. 1 in Class 7A and for all classifications, hosts Lake Highland Prep (16-5) on Thursday to close out the girls basketball regular season.
Lake Highland is No. 1 in 4A and No. 2 in the state behind the Grenadiers, who have reached state semifinals each of the past two seasons.
The Highlanders have won four consecutive state championships.
Back-to-back state champ Dr. Phillips (19-4) ranks No. 3 in the state and No. 2 in 7A behind Colonial. Those teams play in separate regions and would not meet until the state semifinals at the earliest.
DP won 73-70 vs. LHP on Jan. 24.
Thursday’s game will be preceded by a 6:30 p.m. ceremony honoring the life and legacy of former Colonial principal Dr. Paul V Mitchell. He died June 24 following a long bout with leiomyosarcoma, a form of abdominal cancer.
Mitchell hired Colonial coach Cindy Richardson in 2002. Now in her 21st season, Richardson has compiled a 380-186 record and reached the state tournament four times, including a state runner-up finish in 2015.
District tournament seeding and pairings are posted on FHSAA.com boys and girls basketball pages. Girls will play Monday, Wednesday and Friday according to the FHSAA web site.
Soccer surprises
Edgewater’s girls and Olympia’s boys pulled off district semifinal soccer upsets last week to keep postseason hopes alive. Both beat previously undefeated opponents.
Edgewater (10-4-3) scored a 1-0 win over top seed Oviedo (12-1-3) in 6A District 5 on a goal by junior Mackenzie Daley. Senior goalkeeper Lily Strange recorded the shutout.
The Eagles were in danger of missing the Region 2 playoffs with a No. 12 ranking but solidified their spot with a 2-0 district final victory vs. New Smyrna Beach (7-4-3).
The FHSAA releases the eight-team region brackets Friday at 2 p.m. Each will have four district champions and four at-large qualifiers based on rankings.
Olympia’s 3-2 win vs. top-seed Windermere High (13-1-1) in 7A-5 should secure a berth for the Titans (11-6-1), who were on the bubble as a No. 7 team. Olympia plays for the district title Wednesday night against Lake Nona (14-0-2), which won its semifinal against Cypress Creek (12-3-3) on penalty kicks.
“You beat an undefeated team and then you go and get another one,” first-year Olympia head coach Raymond Bornacelli said with a laugh. “We only won three games here last year, so to go from that to regionals shows the kids have worked really hard.”
Two 2023 boys state champions, Clermont East Ridge and Trinity Prep, slipped up in separate district semifinals.
The season is over for East Ridge (10-7-1), which was ranked No. 10 in 7A Region 1 before losing 4-3 on penalty kicks vs. Lake Brantley (11-5-1) in District 3.
Trinity Prep (3-6-3) might also be left out. The Saints, No. 6 in 3A Region 3, gave up a second-half goal against Crescent City (8-7-4) before falling 5-4 on PKs in District 9.
Cheers
DeLand Foundation Academy, Freedom, Hagerty, Harmony, Lake Mary, The First Academy, Windermere and Winter Park were the Orlando area teams who won divisional titles at the Region 2 competitive cheer competition at Hagerty High.
The FHSAA state finals will be held Feb. 2-3 at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland.
Boys hoops
St. Cloud (17-5), with Class of 2015 alum Tommy Billiteri in his first year as head coach, defeated Gateway 47-40, Harmony 54-52 and Poinciana 43-36 to win the Orange Belt Conference tournament. That marked the first OBC championship in boys basketball for the Bulldogs, who will finish above .500 for the first time in at least 20 years.
St. Cloud’s top six scorers are underclassmen, led by junior guard Alex Springs, who averages 17.4 points per game.
Oak Ridge (21-3) remained No. 14 in the MaxPreps national Top 25 after its 2-1 showing at the Montverde Academy Invitational Tournament.
Edgewater (17-7), coming off a 61-55 win against 7A No. 4 Olympia (17-6), moved up to No. 1 in Monday’s FHSAA 6A rankings. One day later the Eagles wrapped up their regular season with a 60-51 loss to rival Evans (14-8), but that doesn’t factor into the rankings until next week.
Eustis (19-4), up to No. 10 in 4A, scored a 70-64 home win against 7A No. 8 Seminole (19-4) on Monday night. That came after the Panthers avenged two previous losses to Leesburg with a 71-64 overtime victory at home.
Lake Highland Prep (19-3), No. 5 in 4A, claimed The Citrus League championship with a 54-42 win against 3A No. 4 Windermere Prep (17-6), which beat the Highlanders a week earlier.
No. 7 7A Windermere (16-7) has won six straight going into a Saturday date with 3A No. 4 Santa Fe Catholic (19-3) of Lakeland in the two-day, 11-game Mosaic Stinger Shootout at Bartow.
Hagerty’s Caden Douglass had 30 points and 12 rebounds for the Huskies (15-7) in a 72-64 win against Lake Mary.
Boys district tournaments will be played Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
Weightlifting winners
Area district title teams in girls weightlifting Traditional style (bench press and clean & jerk) competition were East Ridge, Hagerty, Harmony, Lake Brantley and Timber Creek in 3A; Leesburg in 2A; and Windermere Prep in 1A.
East Ridge, Hagerty, Timber Creek and Windermere Prep also won Olympic style (snatch and clean & jerk) titles. They were joined by Eustis and Apopka, which scored 40 points to edge Evans (39) and Edgewater (39) at the 3A District 6 meet.
Region meets begin with 3A Region 1 at Flagler Palm Coast and 3A-2 at Lake Brantley on Thursday. The 1A Region 3 meet is Friday at Villages Charter. On Saturday, St. Cloud hosts 3A-3.
State finals are Feb. 16-17 in Lakeland.
Here are the area’s top district performers in each weight class with the pounds they lifted (T denotes Traditional; O denotes Olympic):
101 pounds
Mileysa Lebron Escudero, Leesburg, 250 (T)
Kaitlynn Brady, Leesburg, 240 (O)
110 pounds
Ashley Aun, St. Cloud, 300 (T), 270 (O)
119 pounds
Amy Barrelle, Winter Springs, 335 (T), 330 (O)
129 pounds
Aexandria Green, Winter Springs, 385 (T), 355 (O)
139 pounds
Zeta Zachman, Eustis, 340 (T)
Alexa Woodman, Tohopekaliga, 325 (O)
154 pounds
U’nitee Brown, Winter Springs, 415 (T), 385 (O)
169 pounds
Calista Sonner, Oviedo, 375 (T), 350 (O)
183 pounds
Taylor Rice, Winter Springs, 365 (T), 30 (O)
199 pounds
Reese Butler, St. Cloud, 375 (T), 350 (O)
Unlimited
Nevaeh Wells, Leesburg, 475 (T)
E’Mia Jones, Leesburg, 400 (O)
FHSAA reclassification
The FHSAA rolled out the rest of its fall sports reclassification plan for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years on Wednesday (fhsaa.com). Unlike football alignments, finalized last week, the landscape doesn’t change much for girls volleyball, cross country, golf, swimming and bowling.
Extra points
• Three spring sports, boys weightlifting and water polo for girls and boys, are underway for regular season play this week.
• Lacrosse and tennis open on Monday. Baseball, softball, girls flag football and track and field crank up officially the week of Feb. 19. Beach volleyball starts the week after that.
JC Carnahan and Varsity Content Editor Buddy Collings can be reached by email at [email protected], [email protected].