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.