A smear of brown mud slashes across red, puffy cheeks and pale, muscular legs as brightly-colored shoes splash directly into the shallow puddle of damp grass and dirt. The atmosphere reeks of stale rain and sweat for all of the wide-eyed faces of onlookers. The heavy panting coming from the runners sprinting past the crowd is drowned out by the high-pitched yells and cries that can be heard from all over the course.
The Jesuit cross country varsity and JV teams competed in their third race of the season, hosted by Flower Mound High School on September 17th. Both teams ran 3.2 miles each, adding up to a total of 6.4 miles covered for the entire Jesuit team. The varsity team sprinted their way into the top 5 schools at the event, taking 5th place.
Joey LoRocco ’17 commented on the course’s challenges, mentioning that “part of it included a huge hill which we had to run up twice.” He explained how he saw the team and its performance, being one of the four team captains for this year’s season, saying, “It felt good [to lead the team to 5th place in varsity]. The team is at a great place at this point in the season; most of our JV runners are improving greatly. I anticipate even better performances in future races.” Joey finished in 31st place for Varsity with a time of 17:31.
The 1st place winner of the Flower Mound Race for varsity was Flower Mound, with Coppell in 2nd, Marcus in 3rd, Lewisville in 4th, and Jesuit not far behind in 5th. Coach Robinson 
described the strengths he sees in these runners as “perseverance and passion for their sport. They are committed to being the best they can be and making this team the best it can be.” He went on to point out some of the obstacles and challenges of this race, acknowledging that “we had some key members of our varsity who were missing due to injury or availability. But that also proved to be an opportunity for others to step into those positions and show what they could do. It worked to our favor when Sullivan Curry [‘17] and Maxwell Schutze [‘19] moved up to varsity and responded with their personal bests. The other challenge was running on a new course. Being unfamiliar with a course and its layout often causes runners to hold back, but I thought, for the most part, our team handled that well.”
Connor O’Neill ’17 reflected on the new course at Flower Mound being “a little tough to navigate. Overall it was fun to run a new course, and it was very fast, which was good for our overall confidence.” As a leader for the rest of the team and having the position of one of the four team captains, he commented on what it is like to lead all of the members of the team, recognizing that “it felt really good leading the team to a great overall finish. I really like having the leadership position as captain, and I am very comfortable leading others. I want to inspire and help the underclassmen and lead them to be as best as possible.”
The team has just started their season, and they already have 3 strong and excellent races in the books. Coach Robinson looked back at the team’s performance and turned toward the future and all of its potential success. “I was pleased with our efforts at Flower Mound. Over 90% improved performances from previous meet, many of which were PRs; and some guys, who were moved up to varsity positions, made significant contributions,” he said. “We still have a lot of work ahead of us, but this competition proved we are headed in the right direction.”
Their next race is the Lovejoy XC Fall Festival this Saturday, where the entire team hopes that they will perform even better and race with even faster times as a team and individually.
Photography by Francis Celli
