Lovejoy Fall Festival
Arriving well before the sun came up, the Jesuit Cross Country team looked to keep up their great start to the season. This past Saturday, September 17th the Rangers competed in the Lovejoy XC Fall Festival, one of the premier events of the Cross Country season, drawing teams from all over the state, including teams from the Austin and Houston areas.
The Rangers finished 17th out of the 33 teams that competed in the event. Junior Charlie Thorton finished 35th overall in the Varsity Elite race with a time of 16:26. This was a personal record for Thorton and he finished 35th out of 258 runners. Also competing in the Varsity Elite race was senior Ben McKinney with a PR time of 17:07. Junior Francisco Almaguer also competed in this race posting a time of 17:18. Seniors Jack Betz and Aldo Avila posted times of 17:22 and 18:03 respectively, rounding out the Varsity Elite team.
The second race of the day was the Varsity Open race. The Rangers had 5 runners in this event, with Junior Drew Lamberson posting a new PR of 17:55. Senior captain Griffin Fellows ran an 18:03, and Junior Jackson Schutze ran an 18:15. Both of these were new PR times for each runner. Rounding out the Varsity Open race were seniors James McKinney and Jacob Ovenshire. McKinney posted a time of 19:07, and Ovenshire a 20:18.
Moving on to the Junior Varsity race, the Rangers finished 12th out of 45 teams, with Freshman Ethan Irroboli placing 6th and posting the fastest time among all Jesuit runners in the event. (18:13) Also leading the charge for the Rangers were Freshmen Alex Shomin and Jaxon Tanner.
Following the race, the Rangers announced their runners of the week. The varsity runner of the week was Drew Lamberson who ran a new personal record. The Junior Varsity runner of the week was Jaxon Tanner who ran a 19:09, the third fastest time among freshmen. Newcomer of the week went to Alex Shomin, who ran the second fastest time among freshmen. The Most Improved Runner of the week went to Sophomore Jantzen da Silva, who improved his time from last week by over thirty seconds.
Garmin/Milesplit Invitaional
Last Saturday, September 24th, the Rangers participated in the Garmin/Milesplit Invitational. This meet was the most competitive the Rangers have seen, featuring teams from all over Texas, as well as teams traveling from Arkansas.
The varsity elite race was very competitive, with the Rangers finishing 18th out of 35 teams. Junior Charlie Thorton was the fastest finisher among Jesuit runners with a time of 16:49. Thorton finished 63rd out of 235 runners competing in the race. Also in the Varsity Elite were seniors Ben McKinney who ran a season-best 17:00 and finished 78th, and Jack Betz who ran a 17:22. Juniors Francisco Almaguer and Drew Lamberson participated in the Varsity Elite race as well posting times of 17:32, and 17:52, and new personal record of Lamberson.
The second race of the day was just as competitive, the Varsity Open race featured 5 runners who all finished in the top 125 runners out of the 233-runner field. Senior Aldo Avila paved the way with a time of 17:46. He was followed by seniors Griffin Fellows (18:27), James McKinney (19:12), and Jacob Ovenshire. Also competing in the Varsity Open race was junior Jackson Schutze, with a time of 18:37.
Last but certainly not least was the Junior Varsity Open race where the Rangers finished second as a team in the event. The JV team was led by a trio of freshmen. Ethan Irrobali placed second in the race with a time of 19:20. Finishing fifth was Jaxon Tanner, with a time of 19:58, and coming in eleventh was Alex Shomin with a time of 20:17. This also placing highly in the race were juniors Ben Albus (21:27) and Zach Pollard (21:56).
The runners of the week were given out this week, with Varsity Runner of the Week going to Ben Mckinney, and JV Runner of the Week going to Ethan Irrobali. The Most Improved awards went to Aldo Avila and Zach Pollard, while the Newcomer of the Week award went to Andre Cornejo, who competed in his first meet of the year.
The Rangers will continue their season this Saturday, October 1st in Dallas at the Jesuit XC Classic where they will look to close out their regular season on a high note.
 Stay tuned to more news over Cross Country!
