Lion Sports Update (04/26)

This week, the SPC Golf Championships are on Monday and Tuesday, followed by the SPC Championships for tennis and track & field on Friday and Saturday, April 29 & 30 in Houston. You can follow the action at @SMTXtennis and @SMTXcctrack on Twitter or on the SPC website (www.spcsports.org).

 

The varsity crew competed in the Texas State Rowing Championship this last weekend at White Rock Lake in Dallas. The windiest Spring in recent Texas history made no exceptions for high school rowing. Eleven high school programs came to town to race 210 boat entries in 43 men’s and women’s events. Unfortunately, high winds mean troubled waters, making racing rowing shells even more challenging. An early morning coaches meeting on Saturday laid out a modified schedule putting sculling events on Sunday with lower predicted winds. Yet the wind did not decrease enough to avoid having to cancel novice events and 2V 2x races. The good news was that in the events we were able to compete in, Marksmen came through in flying colors. In the Varsity 2x, Paul Valois and Spiros Hallax came in 1^st place to win the State Championship 2x trophy. 3^rd place was won by Evan McGowan and Drake Elliott.  In the 2v 4x event, the Lions placed 4 boats in the top 5: 1^st place was won by Soham Verma, CJ Ness, Ian Lin, and Brendan Kelly.  Nate Wilson, Roome Becker, Zack Goforth, and Kevon Moustafipour came in 2^nd, 4^th place was taken by Thomas Goglia, Ian Dalrymple, Ashrit Manduva, and Miles Thornburg, and  5^th in the event was Anish Guddati, Alex Nelson, AJ Ball, and Miller Wendorf.  While the racing conditions were not ideal, the racing left the boys ready and excited for the Central Youth Championship regatta in Oklahoma City in two weeks.

 

In their first game, the #1 Lions took on Denton Guyer, it was all Lions in this 24-3 victory. In the semifinal, the Lions took on Flower Mound who is the only HS Team in the North Region to defeat the Lions this season. This time the Lions came out and defeated Flower Mound 15-2, advancing to the finals were they took on the #3 seeded Southlake Carroll. The first 2 quarters were all St. Mark’s leading 10-4 at the half. However, Southlake wasn’t finished and showed tremendous grit in the 2^nd half outscoring the Lions 7-5. Fortunately for the Lions, it wasn’t enough as the last few possessions were controlled by SM and the Lions were able to ice the game and repeat as the North Region Champions. North Region Honors: Brett Honaker 1^st Team, and Region MVP, Ethan Gao – 2^ndTeam, Sammy Larkin – 2^nd Team, & Adam Kappelman – Honorable Mention. St. Mark’s has secured the top seed for the North in the State Tournament at the University of Houston on May 6^th & 7^th! 

 

Last Tuesday, the varsity lacrosse program traveled to Highlander Stadium to take on the Scots of Highland Park. The Scots jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead before the Lions were able to respond. One minute into the second quarter midfielder Murphy Paul opened the scoring up for the Lions. The Scots responded with a goal of their own after a failed clearing opportunity from the Lions. Senior captain Ian Mize created a scoring opportunity, dodging from behind the cage and sneaking one past the goalie to make the score 2-5 with just under nine minutes to go before the half. The Scots scored again, and Mize created another scoring chance which was reminiscent of his first goal, making the score 3-6. Junior midfielder Henry Boykin received a pass on the high from Ian Mize and took it to the middle of the field creating a great scoring opportunity. Luke Stallings complemented with a great scoring opportunity of his own by dodging down the wing from the same spot as Boykin and shovel passed the ball to open Henry Piccagli which brought the Lions within 1 with 1:10 on the clock in the 1^st half. Early into the first minutes of the second half, Boykin, with his patented rollback, tied the game a 6-6. It was an extremely physical contest and the game was shaping up to be a finish with whoever had the ball last would come out on top. The Lions fell behind 9-11 with under 2 minutes to play, but found pay dirt when Mize drew a double team and located an open Henry Piccagli for a stepdown snipe to bring the score within one, 10-11 (1:10 remaining). Face-off specialist Alex Geng won the ball forward and the Lions used their final timeout to draw up a play, but the shot flied wide of the cage. This was the first in-state loss for the Lions this season. 

 

The Lions then entered the SPC Championship weekend as the top seed and were scheduled to play #4 seed Episcopal High School (Houston) in the Friday semi-final. The Lions jumped to a commanding lead early, scoring 10 goals in the first quarter. Goaltender Ian Williams managed a shutout for the opening three-quarters of action. Sophomore Thomas Clancy got in the action making several outstanding saves, even coming out of the goalie crease area to capture a high flying shoot that he leaped for that look as though it had a chance to score. The final was 21-1, allowing the Lions an opportunity to play on Saturday for the Championship against local rival ESD. On Championship Sunday, the Lions squared off against the Eagles of ESD. The first quarter went back and forth with the Eagles scoring late to take a one-goal lead. Almost two minutes into the second quarter, Murphy Paul scored to tie the game. The next four minutes for the Lions weren't their best. The Eagles scored four unanswered until midfielder Luke Stallings served up a nifty twister shot that was squeezed by the goalie. Henry Boykin from outside 12-yards bounced the ball passed the goalie to make it a 1-goal game. After several penalties and some unfortunate mistakes by the Lions, ESD went on a 5-goal run that simply left the SM players out of sorts. The final goal for the Lions that afternoon was by attackman Henry Piccagli that brought the score to 5-11. The Eagles then scored the last 3 goals of the game and won 5-14. The Lions were able to secure the #4 seed in the THSLL Class AA State playoffs which will begin this Saturday, April 30th. The Lions will host #5 Southlake at home for a 4:00 p.m. first-round match-up. We hope that everyone will come out to support the SMLAXers as they begin their State Tournament Run. 

 

Last week, the varsity tennis team had multiple conference matches, starting with senior night on Tuesday against Cistercian where the Lions won 4-1. Great showing from our number 2 doubles team of Will Grable and Arnav Lahoti. On Friday, SM traveled to FWCD and notched another 4-1 victory to end our conference season. This match was highlighted with good, consistent tennis from Shreyan Daulat at #2 singles. Sandwiched in between these two counter games, the Lions went to Hockaday on Wednesday and played a fun mixed doubles event with the Daisies and shared some pizza afterward. Then, on Thursday competed against Highland Park in the final non-conference tune up before the SPC Championships on April 29 & 30 in Houston. Against HP, Jeremy Yu had a strong singles win at line 1 singles while Will Grable and Shreyan Daulat won at line 2 doubles. 

 

The varsity track & field team finished off their last meet prior to the SPC Championships at the SPC North Zone. Competing with key people sitting out and leaving some events very thin, the team was still able to finish second. Highlights of the meet included Sahil Dodda breaking his own school record, once again, in the 3200m. This time he ran solo much of the race and still ran 9:06.39. He later came back to win the 800m. Under very windy conditions, the team did manage 16 PR’s throughout the day. The following athletes enjoyed new PRs in their events: Temi Balogun & Elijah Ellis in the 100m, Baker Long & Andrew Jin in the 200m, Raja Mehendale & Parker Steinbrueck in the 800m, Akash Raghunathan in the 110m hurdles, Julian Carlson & Jonah Perez in the shot put, Julian, George Genender, Sewanu Whenu, & Jonah in the discus, Winston Lee in the pole vault, and Blake Malouf & Mateu Parker in the long jump. A successful day, despite the weather. The Lions will be in Houston this Friday and Saturday for the SPC Championships at Awty International School. St. Mark’s will be trying to defend its SPC Championships from last year!

 

Last Tuesday, the varsity baseball team hosted Cistercian in a must-win-to-get-in counter game for the SPC Tournament. The Lions opened the scoring when senior 2B Will Pechersky singled in sophomore Alex Barrett, who had previously doubled. Adding to their lead an inning later, the St. Mark’s offense was bolstered by another run when junior Silas Hosler scored on senior Toby’s Barrett’s RBI single to LF. Through four innings of solid work, Hosler had shut down the Hawks before suffering a line-drive foul ball off his ankle in the bottom of the 4^th inning while waiting to bat in the on-deck area. Battling through the untimely injury, Hosler recorded two quick outs after giving up a single in the top of the 5^thbefore a couple of third strike unblocked balls handed Cistercian two baserunners. With bases loaded and two outs, the Hawks then plated two runners to tie the game after two ground balls made their way into the Lions OF. Having reached his pitch count, Hosler gave way to senior Elijah Baker, whose quality and steady work in relief had kept the Lions in many games this season. However, Baker surrendered a lead-off double and got into additional trouble after a kicked ground ball, passed ball, and double near the RF line gave Cistercian a two-run lead. After going 1-2-3 in the 6^th, St. Mark’s last gasp was snuffed out when the Hawks’ LH relief pitcher picked off the Lions baserunner at first base, ending the game at 2-4. Officially out of SPC finals contention, the Varsity team headed over to Fort Worth Country Day for its final game of the season. Senior Camden Reeves turned in three innings of work, but unfortunately, wasn’t able to contain FWCD’s potent offense, whose aggressive baserunning and extremely fortunate placement of batted balls put the Falcons in firm control of the game. Down 0-6 early in the game, sophomore Alex Barrett blasted a HR to left center field, which would end up being the only Lions’ run of the game. Senior Cole Norman threw the ball well in relief in the bottom of the fourth, but passed balls and a defensive error led to two more Falcons’ runs. St. Mark’s went 1-2-3 in the top of the fifth, and the game became final with FWCD reaching the ten-run rule after 5 innings.     

 

 

Reece Rabin ’18, a pitcher for the Princeton University baseball team, threw 5 2/3 innings of shutout baseball against #8 ranked Rutgers, allowing just one batter to reach base while striking out 3. The Tiger bats scored 3 runs in the 8^th and 9^th innings and Reece was credited with the win in Princeton’s first victory over a ranked opponent since 2017. You can read more about the game HERE.  Reece then followed that effort up with a save against Harvard and has now thrown 10 innings with no earned runs and 8 strikeouts over the week which earned him Ivy League Pitcher of the Week honors. 

 

Over the weekend, Parker Dixon ’16, a senior outside hitter for the Princeton University men’s volleyball team, helped the Tigers win the EIVA Tournament Championship. They defeated #2 ranked Penn State in the semifinals in what was a huge upset, and then carried the momentum into the championship game where they defeated New Jersey Institute of Technology 3-1. Parker had 9 kills, 2 aces, and 2 blocks in the championship match and 9 kills, 1 ace, and 2 blocks in the semifinals. The win puts Princeton (15-12) in the NCAA Championship bracket and they will face North Greenville University (20-5) on May 1^st at UCLA’s Pauley Pavillion. The winner will then face defending NCAA champion Hawaii (24-5) on May 3^rd.