Foot after foot, step after step, the runners of the Jesuit Cross Country team force themselves forward. Ignoring their heavy breathing and pain in their stomachs, they continue forward. Up in the front, Varsity senior Dillon Smith can see the finish line. He pushes himself past his body’s limit, sprinting for the finish despite his exhaustion. He breaks the finish line, finishing first and taking home the gold for Jesuit.
The Jesuit Varsity and JV ran at Norbuck against other schools such as Lake Highlands, WT White, Sunset, and Skyline, and both teams placed first overall with landslide victories. Zachary Schutze ’15 described the team as “ecstatic” as they “listened to Jesuit runners constantly being called up to receive trophies.” Although the team lost to Lake Highlands last year, they were able to decimate them this year.
Those who placed on varsity include Dillon Smith ‘14 (1st), Andrew Pott ’14 (3rd) , Connor Garvey ‘16 (4th), Kyle Wolf ’14 (5th), Michael Spamer ‘15 (12th), John Garvey ’16 (13th), and Zachary Schutze (15th). The top JV finishers were Connor O’Neill ’17 (1st), Gio Montesdeoca ’16 (2nd), Gus Baldwin ’17 (3rd), Miles Burrow ’17 (4th), Nick LoRocco ’15 (5th), Nick Hayes ’14 (7th), Jake Maras ’15 (8th), and Stephen Yaeger ’14 (10th).
LoRocco commented that the team did amazingly well and that “most of our guys broke their personal records.” Also, although the Rangers will be losing the seniors next year, the freshman will step up and rise to the challenge because “they will be able to run varsity.”
Defeating Lake Highlands, the runner-up, by 32 points, the Jesuit varsity took 4 of the top 5 spots. Also placing first overall, the JV took 8 of the top 10, and they received a perfect score of 15. Schutze also noted that “overall, the team did very well,” and the JV’s success can be notably attribute to many of the runners who “really stepped it up and showed impressive improvement, notably Nick LoRocco, Stephen Yaeger, and Ben Luzarraga ’14.” Schutze also mentioned that he felt very good about his own performance, and that his true goal in the race was to simply pass all Lake Highlands runners. Schutze said the team viewed the Wildcats as the toughest competition, which made Jesuit’s commanding performance all the sweeter.
Due to their success, the team was crowned district champion and was then invited to the Region 2 Championships at Lynn Creek Park in Grand Prairie.
At the Region 2 Championships, Jesuit was, as expected, extremely successful, placing fifth out of 24 teams with 192 points! This was the best regional finish that Jesuit has ever had!
Those who placed here include Seniors Andrew Pott (18th), Dillon Smith(20th), and Kyle Wolf (66th). Sophmores Connor Garvey and Gio Montesdeoca placed 48th and 70th, respectively.
According to Dillon Smith, the race caused much axiety. He personally commented that state was “in my mind since the beginning of
summer,” and that he was “full of mixed emotions going into the regional race” because every single day of intense training had led up to this one day. This meet in particular was extremely nerve wracking for many of the guys running. With only the top 10 in the region advancing to state, Smith was 12th going in, meaning he needed to excel in this race, and although there were the top teams competing, it was “a chance I had to take. Although he didn’t quite meet his goals, he is grateful for his success and “thanks God for even giving me the blessing and capability to run” in a race like this.
The race opened fiercely with the fastest first 200 meters in the season. The pace began to settle down after a while. To put it into perspective, to be in the top 10 after the first mile required about an elite pace of a five minute mile, a pace that each contestant would have to keep for the remainder of the race. As Pott and Smith began to fall further and further back, they continued to give it their all. At the end of the race, they were greeted with high fives and hugs from their teammates, and alhtough they might not have won, they felt on top of the world.
With many of the varsity team’s members being underclassmen, the team has a great amount of room to improve. The team seemed relatively pleased with their results, and the seniors expect great things from the underclassmen, believing that they will pick up the slack and make state next year.
Sophmore Connor Garvey, who was noted by his peers as showing great potential, mentioned that although he didn’t do quite as well as he had hoped, he was still “very pleased with [the] team’s performance,” and he “[feels] like next yearI will race a lot better,” through his hard training and racking up miles. Connor also mentioned that in order to improve, new runners have to push theirselves mentally and, especially, listen to their coaches and to believe in their training.
One thing is for sure, Jesuit runners are truly dedicated, waking up early everyday, cranking out 10 miles before the sun even comes out, and finishing their runs before other students are even awake.
