ORANGE PARK - In one of the strongest districts, regions and classes of fast swimming, Orange Park High freestyle specialist Sebastian Lopez was among the elite.
In the Raiderdome, the girl's basketball team was anchored by senior center Mychaela Parker who developed into one of the more agile post players in the area while also being a dominant track athlete for a second year.
For Lopez, a junior, and one of the top freestyle sprinters in the 50 and 100 free events, plus a masterful breaststroker, the swimmers in the pools that he had to battle on his state-run; 12th in 100 free and eighth in 100 breaststroke at Class 3A championships, were among the best in the nation with two swimmers from Nease, the Class 3A team champion and two from 3A runnerup Chiles, taking four of the top 10 spots in one of the fastest overall championship events of the day.
Lopez, with a scintillatingly fast 47.79-second finish for 12th, was in a pool of sharks with Chiles' freshman sensation Owen Ekk winning in 45.29 and the top 10 finishers all under 47 seconds. Lopez rattled off a 47.17 in his prelims as well.
In Class 4A, 100 free was won in 45.83 with 48.77 eighth place.
In Class 1A, with the Bolles machine dominating with a first through fourth finish less than 45.20, the 100 free was won in 44.53 with 47.19.
In Class 2A, the winner was 45.83 with 48.77 in eighth place.
In Lopez' second state event, the 100 breaststroke, Lopez again had his best race in prelims with a 1:00.29 finish for 14th place to get into the B Final, then a 1:01.36 to finish for 16th overall with the winner at 55.45 and eighth place at 1:01.50.
On the basketball court, where Parker has conditioned herself to be among the most versatile big players on the court she controlled the lane to be the second-best scorer (11.8 pts), top rebounder (204 rebounds) and a top assist disher (25 assists) for the Lady Raiders.
In the paint, Parker improved from a four and five points per game scoring average in her first two years to eight in her junior season and, in her senior, season 11.8 with a 55 percent field goal percentage.
Parker was one of the top shot blockers with 30 blasts after being disciplined enough to move her body into position without making contact to incoming shooters.
Off the court, on the track in the spring, Parker used her strength to score points for the weightlifting team and to also be a top five thrower in both the shot put and discus for the Raider track team with a district shot and discus title, a region shot title (sixth in discus) and a seventh in 3A shot put finish. Parker's best throw was a 42'-2.25" shot put to win the district title. Parker also took firsts in a handful of meets throughout the season; Bear Classic, Chandra Cheeseborough, Don Hall and Bronco Invitational as well as 11th at the Bob Hayes and second at Ponte Vedra's Craig Speziale.
For their excellence in their sport of choice, Lopez and Parker are selected as the Clay Today/Orange Park High athletes of the year for 2023-2024.

FALL

Football saw a near-miss playoff season for second-year coach Marcus Wimberly behind the solid quarterbacking of Gabe Taylor (1651 Yds passing, 15TDs) and a sporadic offense that put points on the board with speedster Jermel Brown and wideout Quinton Moore with Jaden Paulk a solid pass catcher. Josh Johnson was a workhorse running back with Dylon Ruiz the other half of a tough running duet.
Volleyball, with junior dual athlete Ryanne Robinson, also a soccer standout, amassing 344 kills and senior defender Lexi Pacheco, also a track state long jump qualifier, adding 267 digs followed by the lead of senior Hailey Revak, another dual athlete, with 174 digs and 66 three-pointers on the basketball court.
On the golf course, Brock Buhnerkemper was the top finisher for Raiders with a share of the district title with a 70 scorecard, but an 80 at regions keeping him from a state ticket.
Cross country was led by senior Ty Obermeyer who finished strong with a 21st at districts and 34th at regions with times in the 17:30 range with senior Charlotte Wilson improving to also get a strong district finish (37th) and a 53rd at regions with a 22:37.3.
For the swim team, with Lopez leading the way, coach Susan Johnson had a cadre of fast relay boys-to-man relay squads; Raedy Holloway, Gavin Dobson and Aston Danninger with Nicholas Santana and Thomas Crawford in free relays earning state spots of 10th in region medley, 15th in 200 free and 13th in region 400 free relays.
Dobson also finished 20th in 100 fly at regions and 20th in 100 breaststroke.

WINTER

In boys basketball, coach Derek Kurnitsky got some thrills with senior Archieve Triggs III hitting a few buzzer beaters but the Raiders fell on their own court to a buzzer beater with Fleming Island knocking the Raiders out of the district tournament with no time on the clock. The Raiders rocked six games to end the season with a final over a tough University Christian team; a 2A region finalist.
Soccer girls had a stellar season behind the double dynamite scoring of sisters Ryanne and Rylynn Robinson; 30 and 26 goals, respectively, with the Lady Raiders, 14-3, getting to district finals and in region playoffs with losses to Beachside and Clay ending their season.
Boys soccer finished 7-6-3 with a district tournament loss to Beachside as well. Kelvin McLeod, sophomore, and Lennox Dunkley, senior, had double-figure goals for the season; 15 and 10, respectively.
In wrestling, Orange Park got region berths to Joseph Sneed at 106, Jonathan Garland at 126, Joseph Ellis at 138 and Justin Garay at 144.

SPRING

In one of the best baseball seasons in nearly a decade, the Raiders, led by coach George Eldredge, pulled off a 14-win season (14 losses), a 6-0 district title win over Clay and a thrilling 1-0 region playoff loss to region finalist Lincoln. The Raiders also beat Keystone Heights twice and had a tough 3-2 loss to Oakleaf.
Top stats came from Devon Moore; .411 batting average, and 15 RBIs; Yaziel Del Valle; .329, four doubles, a triple and a homer; Josh Taylor, .386 batting average, six doubles, 10RBIs with Taylor getting 43 strikeouts on the mound and Robert Barnett whiffing 40 batter.
Softball had its highlight reels in junior slugger Zoe Pascoe who hit an astounding .542 with 19RBIs, three doubles and seven steals and senior pitcher McKenna Bejarano blasted 190 strikeouts with a .451 batting average, 19RBIs and seven steals. Addison Toledo, a junior, had 11 steals, and hit .315 with 12 RBIs, four doubles, two triples and a homer.
Flag football, led by Alanna Kenndy and Jada Blanton with outside speed from Malia Mazerac finished 4-6 with a playoff loss to Fleming Island in round one.
On the track, sophomore Nethan Verger was the busiest guy with eighth in 110 hurdles and a sixth in the long jump while Aaliyah Abassi, a junior, scored a 15th in the high jump and long jumper Lexi Pacheco finished seventh at regions and 16th at state.
Kayleana Henry was second at regions in 400 in 58.79 with a 16th at state in 59.98.
In weightlifting, Orange Park got a district championship from David Lava at Traditional at 169 with Gavin Gapinski second at 169, Tyler Ridgdill eighth at 199 and James Waters eighth at 183. Bryce Sagar was second in Olympics at districts at 169 but missed his three Olympic Snatch lifts at regions.

For Alexander, a season that started strong got the Lady Raiders on a roll behind Alexander's 14.5 points per game; double digits in all but two games, and 4.7 rebounds, but also 51 steals on defense; second to senior Autumn Nesmith's 53, with a 6.4 rebound per game average; second to center Mychaela Parker.
With her stats reflecting action at both ends of the court, Alexander had her best games against 4A region semifinalist Bolles (19-9) with 25 points (3-3Ptrs) and 22 points (2-3Ptrs) against South Carolina powerhouse James F. Byrnes High (5A state Second round finisher, 17-9), was the pivotal player for coach Michael Nesmith with her consistency keeping the Lady Raiders in the hunt all season.
Alexander was also a track athlete for Orange Park.

Iera "Ice" Alexander was the jack-of-all-trades player who took command at both ends of the court to deliver the goods for a Lady Raiders team that had a hot start with six straight wins but then ran into a gauntlet of tough teams to finish at 12-12.