On Saturday, September 13th the Jesuit Cross Country team traveled to Paschal High School to race in the Fort Worth Invitational. The team finished second overall with two individual top ten finishes. Sophomore Connor O’Neill ran a time of 15:28.34, finishing second. Junior Connor Garvey came in seventh overall with a time of 15:50.89. Both O’Neill and Garvey were major factors in the team’s second place finish out of 23 teams.
The race was arguably the best of the year for the team, individually, as senior Michael Spamer finished 16th with a time of 16:09.00, junior John Garvey finished 20th with a time of 16:15.16, and sophomore Gus Baldwin finished 24th with a time of 16:29.08.
Garvey said that “The second place finish at the Fort Worth invitational will affect the rest of our season because we know we finished behind a top tier team, but can never be satisfied”. Part of being a runner is setting goals for yourself, and for the rest of the team. Connor’s personal goals as a captain are “to create a team of runners that know we are capable of doing what a Jesuit cross country team has never accomplished, making it to the state meet”. Similarly, his personal goals are “to finish in the top four at the regional meet and qualify for the state meet in Round Rock on November 8th”.
Coach David Robinson looks at the second place finish as “being part of something bigger.” He also pointed out that the individual times at the meet reflect the amount of training and preparation the runners put in on a daily basis. He believes that the times are “a testimony to the quality of training our guys are putting in. What I liked about that race was the focus of our team. We maintained a margin of 61 seconds from our first runner through our 5th. In cross country that’s where the good teams separate themselves from the pack.”
Photography by Joyce Schaer
