Tuesday, September 7, 2021

McDowell Invitational Recap

 

On Saturday, the cross country team made the journey to Erie, Pennsylvania to run at the McDowell Invitational.  The meet was held at the beautiful Brown Farm in the Asbury Metropark.  Being that this was the first time SJA had ever competed at this meet, many new challenges presented themselves like a new course and unfamiliar competition.  The Jags found a beautiful course with great footing and a great stretch of trail through the woods, but they also found more hills than the previous meet in Painesville and many turns that would make following the right path difficult at times.

The varsity was the first group to run.  Early on, they felt out their competition, but it didn’t take long for the Jags to realize it was time to move.  Spectators quickly realized that the team from Ohio was the one to beat.  In the end, SJA won first place out of 14 teams and was ahead of 2nd place by almost 60 seconds.  The team was led by junior Ali Blouch, who won the overall race with a time of 19:45.  Sophomore Erin Hvizdos was next across in 4th place.  Then a group of seniors, Carlee Blankenship, Emma Hvizdos, and Anna Duesenberg finished in 10th, 11th, and 12th to round out the scoring.

The JV race was a Jaguar showcase as we had over half of the field.  After many wrong turns by most of the team at various times, the Jags still took the top 11 spots and 15 of the top 20 to shut out the field.  Freshman Addy McGee was the overall winner in 22:29 and was followed closely by junior Susie McGowan who was completing her first cross country race ever.  Juniors Erin Hyland and Anna Khuri were next, followed by sophomore Rachel Garlock who rounded out the first score for the Jags.

There were many great performances for the Jags, but Garlock was named the team’s Athlete of the Meet for her incredible performance.

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