St. Johns Spotlight: Creekside quarterback Sean Ashenfelder commits to Rutgers football
Add one more quarterback to St. Johns County's list of major college commitments.
Creekside junior Sean Ashenfelder announced his commitment Sunday to Rutgers, selecting the Scarlet Knights among more than a dozen college offers.
Listed at 6-2 and 185 pounds, the dual-threat quarterback has completed 43 of 104 passes for 605 yards and four touchdowns so far for Creekside, while rushing for 257 yards and six scores. Last year, he completed 60 percent of his passes for 923 yards and nine touchdowns along with 354 yards rushing, splitting time with now-graduated Wilson Edwards.
He also earned All-First Coast honors on the baseball diamond at shortstop for the Knights, batting .333 with four doubles, three triples, 25 stolen bases and a .970 OPS.
Ashenfelder is the first Creekside quarterback to commit to a Football Bowl Subdivision program since Tai Lavatai committed to Navy in the 2019 class. Lavatai is now a senior starting for Navy.
He joins a growing list of college-bound prospects from a bumper crop of Northeast Florida quarterbacks in the 2024 and 2025 classes. In St. Johns County alone, Bartram Trail senior Riley Trujillo committed last year to UCF and St. Augustine junior Locklan Hewlett chose Wake Forest.
Ryan rockets onto all-time list
The time: 15:02.90.
That's how fast Nease senior Matt Ryan ran Saturday at the adidas XC Challenge in Cary, N.C., a time that launches the 2022 state champion ever higher on the list of Northeast Florida's fastest ever in cross country.
Only a handful of Jacksonville-area runners have gone below 15 minutes in high school cross country, including former Nease star Rheinhardt Harrison at New World Golf two years ago in 14:45. Colin Barker (Bishop Kenny), Jimmy Clark (Creekside) and Charles Hicks (Bolles) are the area's only other runners on record to go lower than Ryan's 15:02 in 5K competition.
Nease placed second to Maryland's Calvert Hall College with 202 points, placing Sai Jayaraman, Finn Thomas, Nate Corkran and Wyatt Pittman under 16:22 along with Ryan.
In Saturday night's Katie Caples Invitational at Bishop Kenny, Ponte Vedra's girls team finished second behind the host school despite placing three runners (second-place Lindy White, fifth-place Daisy Ross and sixth-place Hilaree Vega) in the top 10 of the elite division. Creekside's Alyson Johnson came in third behind champion Annabella Tomasic of Orlando Lake Highland Prep.
Creekside's Tanner Simonds (16:17.20) led St. Johns County runners in the boys race at the Katie Caples meet as the Knights finished third in team standings to Bolles and Gainesville Buchholz.
Bishop Kenny principal Todd Orlando and athletic director Mark Thorson also presented a commemorative plaque to former coach Steve Lyons, who is scheduled for induction into the Florida Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame. Lyons coached cross country at Bishop Kenny and later Nease and Ponte Vedra.
Heading this week's cross country schedule is Saturday's Bale-N-Trail Original at Bartram Trail.
Frank Holleman meet set for Saturday
Where are Northeast Florida's top swimmers going this weekend? For a few hundred of them, the answer will be Saturday's Frank Holleman Invitational at Planet Swim near Ponte Vedra.
In all, 20 schools are scheduled to race at what has become one of the area's most prominent regular season meets. All eight St. Johns County public schools are expected, in addition to Bolles, Fleming Island and several others.
Unlike most regular season events, the invitational is divided into preliminaries in the morning beginning at 8:30 a.m. and finals in the afternoon starting at 4:30 p.m.
At the 2022 meet, Raymond Prosinski won the 200 free and 100 back to lead Bartram Trail to first place, while Ponte Vedra lifted the girls trophy after victories by Annabelle MacAdams, Penny Zarczynski and Times-Union swimmer of the year Annie Wohlgemuth.
Around St. Johns
Ponte Vedra junior midfielder Abby Wooten committed to Samford women's soccer. … Ponte Vedra junior attack Stella Lynch committed to Denver women's lacrosse. … Creekside's Riley Bader committed to Lee University women's lacrosse. … Menendez junior Meghan Dawson was selected to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at last Wednesday's Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp game against the Gwinnett Stripers.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: High school football 2023: Sean Ashenfelder commits to Rutgers
