A stellar performance by eighth-grader Naomi Valerdi on Friday helped lead the Marathon High School girls cross-country team to a berth in Saturday's regional meet.</p><p>She finished third overall out of 47 runners in 21:23, helping the Dolphins finish fourth out of 12 teams at the district meet in Miami. The top six teams earned a spot in the regional meet, to be hosted by Westminster Christian School.</p><p>Miami Country Day took the overall girls district meet with 32 points, followed by Florida Christian (65), Palmer Trinity School (71), Marathon (83), Dade Christian (128) and Archbishop Curley (129).</p><p>Coach Mike Lettau said Valerdi ran second for most of the 5K (3.1 miles), but faltered slightly in the last mile and lost one place.</p><p>"The last mile, she slowed a bit and the girl caught her and she couldn't get it back," he said.</p><p>But four other Dolphin runners, led by sophomore Marina Kay Wiatt, put on a late charge of their own to ensure the girls moved on.</p><p>Wiatt finished 16th overall in 24:58, followed by sixth-grader Regan Durkin in 21st (25:59), Savannah Schuhmacher at 23rd (25:32) and eighth-grader Nancy Ceja at 24th (25:33).</p><p>"They started the race out slow; they were sticking together," Lettau said. "They just started passing people one at a time. Marina just kind of led them out of that funk."</p><p>The boys team fell just short, finishing in seventh place (189) behind Westwood Christian School (176). Dade Christian won the boys meet with 45 points, just ahead of Palmer Trinity's 48.</p><p>The Dolphin boys were undermanned heading into the race, with junior Manny Perez and sophomore Marco Ceja fighting flu symptoms. Each attempted to run but was unable to finish.</p><p>Lettau said the boys were disappointed to end their season without all the team's runners out on the course.</p><p>"They put everything into it. If Manny would have been healthy, I think we could have gone to regionals," Lettau said. "They were disappointed because the girls made it and it kind of pumped them up for their race."</p><p>Sophomore Thomas Bowersox finished 27th overall in 20:26. He was followed by freshman Riley Durkin in 36th place (21:06), Ricky Ceja in 37th (21:17), Trevor Helms in 40th (21:47) and Ricardo Montejo in 50th (22:57).