Following last week’s Frosh/Soph and Varsity Delta League Championship titles, the Marauders traveled to Angels Camp which serves as a qualifier for next week’s Section Championship meet at Willow Hill in Folsom.  With 4 teams competing in the Freshman, Sophomore, JV, and Varsity Division I races, Jesuit’s overall depth would be challenged over the hilly course. 

The day began with the Freshman Boys Division I and II race and a packed field of well over 200 runners.  Led by Talon Krieger and Caelin Sutch, the Marauders positioned themselves nicely towards the front of the main pack heading into the hills which start at the ½ mile mark.  Once in the hills, Krieger and Sutch moved up into the top 10 followed by Eric Huitt and Jayson Leach.  Coming out of the hills, the top 4 were positioned nicely with Krieger and Sutch in the top 5, Huitt in the top 10, and Leach in the top 20.  A nice surprise for the Marauders were 5^th and 6^th men Connor King and Josh Noll, who passed significant numbers of runners in the hills and closed the gap between them and the top 4 runners to 12 seconds.  Jacob Weil rounded out the top 7 for Jesuit who will compete next week.  Jesuit qualified first with a team score of 42 points (2-4-7-12-17) and a team time of 60:56 to edge Davis 50 points, Sheldon 78 points, Cosumnes Oaks 148 points, Monterey Trail 173 points, and Modesto 214 points as 6 teams advance to next week’s Section Championship meet.  Freshmen David Dardis 17:36 and Riley Goebels 18:28 completed their season as 8^th and 9^th men for the Marauders.

Next up was the Sophomore boys Division I race.  In this race, Jesuit’s top 7 ran as a pack throughout the 2.05 mile race, remaining near the front of the main pack.  At the finish a mere 5 second gap separated the scoring 5 with 6^th and 7^th men 4 and 10 seconds further back.  Colin Brannan led the way in 10^th, Anthony Rogado moved up in the last ¾ of a mile to finish 11^th, Bobby Canalas 12^th, Steven Noll 14^th, Russell Kustic 16^th, Hunter Smith 20^th, and Todd Russell 24^th made up the top 7 who finished first with a team score of 56 points (9-10-11-12-14) and team time of 59:51 to pull away from second place Davis 84 points, 3^rd place Cosumnes Oaks 123 point, 4^th place Franklin (EG) 140 points, 5^th place Gregori 144 points, and 6^th place Lincoln of Stockton 162 points.  Four additional sophomores dipped under 13 minutes on the course led by Vicente Lamera 12:28, Nicholas Gamette 12:37, Seamus Caslin 12:51, and Greg Neves 12:54.  Seven sophomores improved on their times on this course with the biggest improvements recorded by Saverio Bernardi of 1:58 (15:26 down to 13:28), Russell Kustic 1:30 (13:31 down to 12:01), Anthony Rogado 1:07 (13:04 down to 11:57), and Nicholas Gamette 0:42 (13:20 down to 12:38).

The JV boys were the next Marauders to take the line in the Division I and II race.  Senior Alex Tyree was the early pacesetter leading the field for the first mile over the flat portion of the course.  Sophomore Miles Worthen and senior  Patrick Caslin positioned themselves a few spots back with juniors Kyle Young and Cole Baer along with seniors Tim Brannan and Anthony Flores running in the main pack.  Junior David Vincent who has been battling injuries for several weeks hung back early on heading into the hills to conserve his energy.  Coming out of the hills at 2 miles into the race, Worthen had surged into the lead and Caslin had also moved up and the early pace setting began to take its toll on Tyree as they headed towards the last hill climb.  Kyle Young was still followed by Baer, Brannan, Flores, and Vincent who began to move up in the field over the last mile of the course.  At the finish, Davis claimed the team title with 43 points, followed by Bella Vista 54 points, Jesuit 66 points, Woodcreek 129 points, Sheldon 187 points, and Cosumnes Oaks 194 points as these 6 teams advanced to next week’s Section championship meet.  Seniors Patrick Caslin, Alex Tyree, Tim Brannan, Anthony Flores, and Ed Perez all recorded personal best times on the course with Ed Perez finishing his high school running career with a 3 minute and 7 second improvement over last year’s time! 

In the Varsity race, Jesuit fielded a team of only 6 runners to allow room for a 7^th runner next week to be added to the field for the Section Championship race.  In a tactical race with many teams opting to run conservatively, Jesuit did a good job of doing just that as seniors Ben Holland and Brendan Jones ran side by side the entire way to finish 2 tenths of a second apart in 6^th and 8^th place.  The next 4 Jesuit runners, junior Jordan Rahe, sophomore Colin Ryan, senior Robert Bell, and freshman Nicholas Salonites ran together for most of the race with Salonites surging near the finish to end up 13^th, Rahe and Ryan finished with identical times in 21^st and 22^nd to round out the scoring 5 and Bell finished 43^rd in 17:17 as the team qualified 1^st with a score of 70 points, ahead of Woodcreek 94 points, Armijo 126 points, McClatchy 139 points, Davis 140 points, Modesto 160 points, Gregori 166 points, Cosumnes Oaks 203 points, Oak Ridge 217 points, and Sheldon 219 points as these 10 teams advance to Sections.

Next week there will be no holding back as Jesuit will seek team titles in all 4 races at Willow Hill reservoir in Folsom and the Varsity team hoping to return to the State Championship as one of the top 2 teams that qualify for that meet.  The action will get underway at 9 a.m.  Come out and support the harriers and they look to continue Jesuit’s long tradition of excellence.