district recap

The SJA cross country team started their post-season push this past Saturday at the Madison district where they finished 2nd overall in the 18 team field.  Despite the rain from the previous week, the competitors found the course conditions to be nearly ideal as times were fast as the competition picks up at the most important time of the year.

The Jags were once again led by the powerful duo of senior Grace Rowell (3rd overall) and freshman Sofia Koons (4th overall).  Rowell's time of 18:44 ties her for 5th all time on the SJA list.  Next in for the Jags was freshman Avery Stives, who caught over 10 people in the second half of the race to finish 10th overall with a new personal best of 19:33 (tying her for 23rd on the school's all-time list).  The last two scorers for SJA were junior Bridget Mullen who was 23rd in the race, and senior Maddie Jarc who finished 30th in the race.  Right behind Jarc was sophomore Amelia Litten who knocked 40 seconds off her personal best time.  Junior Grace Harris was the next Jag in at 47th place.

By being one of the top 6 teams in the race, the team now advances to next week's regional meet at Boardman High School.

Busy weekend for the Jags!

This past weekend the SJA cross country team split up to attend two separate meets, and both groups came away with hardware!

Seven runners took an overnight trip to Cedarville to compete in the Midwest Catholic Championships hosted by Dayton Carroll High School.  The runners enjoyed their first visit to the permanent cross country-only facility by winning the whole meet over 19 other programs.  Freshman Sofia Koons and senior Grace Rowell led the race together from the first step and ended up finishing first and second overall.  Freshman Avery Stives continued her incredible season by finishing 15th overall and 3rd for the team in a PR of 20:13.  Senior Maddie Jarc was 21st and Junior Bridget Mullen was 25th overall and threw in a PR of 20:36 as well.

The rest of the team traveled to Black River for the JB Firestone invitational where they finished 2nd overall as a team behind Div 3 state-ranked Rittman.  Amelia Litten ('26) was the top Jag and 6th overall.  Her scoring teammates stacked in behind her with McKenzie Riley ('24) 11th, Jezebel Kostecke ('27) 15th, Bridget Collins ('24) 16th, and Addy McGee ('25) 17th.

Next weekend the team travels to Madison for the U-Wanna-Come-Back invitational - a flat, fast course and site of the District competition that will be hosted 3 weeks later.

Massillon Jackson Hexspacular Recap

This past Saturday the Jaguars attended the "Hexscapular" hosted by Massillon Jackson.  This is a smaller meet, but the competition was quality as SJA took home first place over state ranked competition on a beautiful, cool morning.

SJA packed a great 1-2 punch with freshman Sofia Koons and senior Grace Rowell, who finished 2nd and 3rd overall.  They both PR'd and moved up the all time list at SJA, with Koons' time of 18:52 moving her up to 6th all time and Rowell's time of 18:55 moving her to 7th all time.

Senior Maddie Jarc was the 3rd Jaguar and broke 20:00 for the first time ever completing the 5000 meter course in 19:49.  The next 4 runners for SJA, Keira Leneghan ('24) 20:21, Avery Stives ('27) 20:31, Bridget Mullen ('25) 20:39, and Grace Harris ('25) 20:49 also ran personal best times boosting SJA to the best team performance of the season so far.  

In all, 40 runners achieved their best time of the season, and in some cases by a minute or two.  The team voted Sienna Stephens ('25) and Grace Harris ('25) athletes of the meet for their hard work, tremendous improvement, and great races.

Next week the team splits up with the top 7 runners attending the Midwest Catholic Meet in Cedarville while the rest of the team competes at the JB Firestone Invitational at Black River High School.

First meet in the books!

The 2023 cross country season is off and running as the SJA harriers took to the trails at Solon's season opening invitational against some strong competition this past weekend.  SJA finished 3rd of 5 teams, but came away from the meet feeling good about how the season will progress.

Leading the way for SJA were 3 seniors - Grace Rowell (8th place) , Maddie Jarc (12th place), and Keira Leneghan (23rd place).  Close behind Keira were Sofia Koons ('27), Bridget Mullen ('25), Grace Harris ('25), and Erin Hvizdos ('24).  The Jags had 45 athletes finish the full distance, with 14 completing their first high school 5k ever!  The team has a nice combination of youth and experience, which bodes well not only for this year, but for years to come.

The team voted for two athletes of the meet based on their contributions to the team.  This week Brigid Coyne and Grace Schmidt took home those honors (and a t-shirt).

The next meet for the Jags will be this Saturday at Avon Lake's Early Bird Invitational held at LCCC.

A new season is right around the corner!

With the school year and spring sports officially over, it is time to recover for a moment and start thinking about the fall.  Cross Country season is coming up soon, and with that are summer miles, meeting new people, and challenging our own personal limitations.

We will begin our summer conditioning as a whole team on Monday, June 19th at South Mastick Picnic area in the Rocky River park, but there will be a new runner's only conditioning day on Friday June 16th at the same spot.  This is meant to give new runners a little familiarity before the whole group shows up.

This year we are welcoming 3 new coaches to the fold joining Coach Jarc and myself.  Sheila Peters Vance ('01) is a grad of the program and has come around occasionally to get a few miles in.  She will be joining another alum, Alexis Bloor ('15) as first-timers to our cc staff.  Coach Bloor has been the PV coach for the track team the past 3 years, but she has a new-found appreciation for longer runs and would like to be involved.  Also joining the staff will be Christina Actis, the new PE teacher at SJA.  Mrs. Actis comes to us from St. Angela's where she taught PE and coached the cc team.  Welcome to all!

Running is a simple activity, but racing is another beast all together.  In order to race you must train, which is a structured form of running.  The most successful programs do this TOGETHER.  Let's set the tone early this summer and get going with our summer miles.

Go Jags!