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!

Back to the state meet!

 This past Saturday the Jags scratched and clawed their way through the 24 team field at the Boardman Div 1 regional to a state meet birth.  With their 8th place finish, the Jags earned the final qualifying spot.  It took a full team effort, starting with the top 3 runners who each put together a strong race at the same time after trying to do so for many weeks.  Senior Ali Blouch was the top runner, finishing 14th overall and bouncing back after an injury prevented her from qualifying last year.  The team's second runner, junior Grace Rowell, finished 21st overall and demonstrating how good she can be with 2 shoes on her feet after losing a spike last week at the district meet.  Senior Sarah Scott, who lost most of her junior year with an ACL injury, bounced back for her senior year with 27th place finish.  All 3 runners would have been individual qualifiers on their own, but the team wasn't done.

Sophomore sensation Bridget Mullen, having never been a varsity cross country runner until the second half of the season, finished as the 4th Jag beating many runners that have beaten her earlier in the season and in previous years.  It was a crafty veteran who pulled out the race of the day, as junior Erin Hvizdos, slowed by injuries earlier in the year, and rested the weekend of districts, finished as the 5th Jaguar punching the team's ticket to the state meet.  Newcomer and senior Tacy Kratt was 6th runner and another sophomore running as varsity for the first time, Grace Harris, rounded out the 7 runners for the Jags.

This marks the 13th time in the past 23 years the Jags have qualified to the state meet, which is now hosted at a venue called Fortress Obetz which is along the I-270 outerbelt in the Southeast corner.  The team will run at 3:45 Saturday, November 5th.

Summer Calendar and Fall race schedule are now posted...see links above!

 The summer conditioning schedule has been set and is now posted in the links at the top of the page.  It follows the same pattern used in previous years, starting with a "new runner" only day on Friday June 17.  On this day, only incoming frosh and new upperclasswomen will meet with the captains and coaches to experience the basics of how a summer conditioning day works.  Just show up with a water bottle and be dressed to run.

Also posted above is this fall's competition schedule.  We have fewer split squad days than last year, and a few new locations as well.  We also have one open weekend on the schedule at the moment (Sept 17), but that will be filled and families will be notified when that happens.

All runners are expected to attend all competitions whether they are participating or not.  We want all runners to be healthy, but the reality is on a team of 60+ runners, some will need a week or two off, so we'll need their help with splits, gear, etc...

Be ready for a great season and don't hesitate to reach out to Coach Kieser with any questions.

Medina and Portage recap

 This past weekend the cross country team split the squad, with the majority of the crew running locally at Medina, while the top 7 made the annual trip to the Portage Invitational near Kalamazoo, MI. 

 

At Medina, the varsity squad finished 14^th out of 26 teams in a very competitive field.  They were led to the line by sophomore Keira Leneghan, who ran a PR and broke the 21 minute barrier for the first time.  Sarah Scott (’23), Anna Khuri (’23), Rachel Garlock (’24), and Alexia Wenzel (’23) rounded out the scoring for the Jags.  In the open race, SJA finished 6^th of 21 teams, showing off the depth of the team.  Captain Morgan Rudolph was the first finisher for the Jags, earning 26^th place overall.

 

In Michigan, the varsity squad face 7 of the top 10 teams from Michigan in a large field, finishing 14^th out of 35 schools.  Ali Blouch was first for the Jags with a time if 19:14, just one second off her PR.  Sophomore Grace Rowell ran another PR and finished second for the Jags in 20:00.  Seniors Anna Duesenberg, Emma Hvizdos, and Carlee Blankenship were the other scorers for the Jags.

Clay Eagle Recap

 

This past weekend the Running Jags woke up early to make the trip west to Oregon, OH to run in the Clay Eagle Invitational.  After winning the meet last year, the team had the goal of coming back to defend their title in dominant fashion, which they did. 

In the varsity race the Jags scored just 29 points to Anthony Wayne’s 75 to win going away.  Junior Ali Blouch led the team with a solid 2^nd place performance and witnessed sophomore Grace Rowell finish as the team’s 2^nd runner for the first time ever with a 6^th place overall result.  Seniors Carlee Blankenship (9^th), Anna Duesenberg (11^th) and Emma Hvizdos (12^th) sandwiched sophomore Erin Hvizdos (10^th).  Freshman Addy McGee finished as the Jags 7^th runner in 14^th place.

In the JV race, the result was even more lopsided as the Jags scored just 23 points behind top ten performances from Anna Khuri (2^nd), Erin Hyland (3^rd), Rachel Garlock (5^th), Alexia Wenzel (6^th), Susie McGowan (7^th), and Kate Boland (10^th).

For this meet, the Jags voted 2 athletes as runners of the meet; Grace Rowell and sophomore Abeany Dek. 

Next week the Jags have a split squad as varsity travels to Portage, Michigan for the prestigious Portage Invite.  The rest of the team will be staying local at the Medina Invitational.

Go Jags!

Black River recap

 

This past Saturday the 2^nd varsity squad took on competition at Black River and faired very well, finishing in 2^nd place out of 9 teams.  This team was led by junior Erin Hyland who earned a varsity letter with a PR of 22:08 – good for 12^th place overall.  She was followed closely by a pack of Jaguars including: sophomore Rachel Garlock (13^th), juniors Anna Khuri (18^th), Alexia Wenzel (19^th), and Susie McGowan (21^st). 

Out of 159 finishers in the race, SJA had 44 of them – over 25% of the field.  The team’s size has been an added value all season long, providing depth, fun, and a loud cheering section.  Next week the team travels to Oregon Clay near Toledo to take on some different competition from Northwest Ohio.

Boardman McDonough recap

 

Boardman and McDonough recap

This past weekend the cross country team split up the squad and attended two separate meets.  The top 8 varsity runners woke up early to trek out to Boardman High School to run the Spartan Invitational, which is held on the same course as the post-season regional race.  Because of this, most of the best teams in NEO travel to this meet to get a preview of the course.  The Jags finished 9^th out of 35 teams – 3 of the teams that were ahead of the Jags were from Pennsylvania and West Virginia.  For the fourth race in a row, Ali Blouch was first across the line on the significantly long (over 5000m) course.  For her efforts running a strong second loop, Anna Duesenberg was named the team’s “athlete of the meet”.

The rest of the team stayed local by running at the 60^th McDonough Invitational hosted by VASJ at Forest Hills Park in Cleveland Hts.  Running against other teams varsity squads, our second unit performed admirably, finishing 5^th of 10 teams.  Junior Susie McGowan paced the varsity squad.

In the open race, it was a Jag festival (as usual) with over half the field being SJA runners.  Using smart tactics and team strategy, junior Clare McCarthy paced herself over the first half but stayed strong to finish first overall in the race.  The Jags had 10 of the top 13 finishers with Maeve Kelly ’25 finishing 3rd Grace Harris ’25 4th, Morgan Rudolph ’22 – 5^th, Kate Mocho ’25 – 6^th, Bridget Mullen ’25 – 9^th, Monica Saurette ’24 – 10^th, Bridget Collins ’24 – 11^th, Isabella Bobe ’22 – 12^th, and Clare Jordan ’22 – 13^th.

The JV will head to Black River next week to again race as a varsity while the top 8 sit out to take a break from racing for a week.