Lion Sports Update (12/07)

WRESTLING
On Tuesday, Nov. 28, the varsity Lions wrestled and beat Fort Worth Country Day (24) to St. Mark’s (51). During the dual, the Lions only lost one match. FWCD’s points, other than the one match, were from St. Mark’s forfeiting weight classes. On Friday and Saturday, Dec. 1 and 2, the Lions wrestled at the Rumble @ Rockwall. This tournament had some of the best 6A and 5A schools from across Texas including the Dallas/Fort Worth area, Houston and Amarillo schools. St. Mark’s placed 21st out of 30 teams with one place winner. Senior co-captain, Quina Perkison, continues his unblemished record and brought home the gold in this tournament.  
 
BASKETBALL
This past week, the varsity basketball team competed in the Lewisville Invitational Tournament. In the first round against Denton HS, St. Mark’s senior guard Bryan Graham bolstered the attack with 12 first-half points on 3 for 4 three-point shooting. Fellow classmate Ethan Singleton also played well out of the backcourt, earning a pair of first-half steals, drawing a charge, and attacking the rim relentlessly. With the score tied at halftime, two more seniors started stuffing the stat sheet, as Lucas Blumenthal and CJ Ness combined for 13 points, 10 rebounds and 4 assists to help forge a hard-fought 54-45 Lions win. On Friday, the squad competed against a pair of UIL 6A teams, Richardson Berkner and Grand Prairie. Freshman Dawson Battie‘s 23 points paced the blue and gold, but late-game heroics were needed, as the team trailed by 3 with under a minute to play at the end of regulation and again in overtime. Luke Laczkowski’s putback and-1 earned the squad additional time, and then Bryan Graham hit a gutsy 3-pointer in overtime to propel the team to a heart-pounding 2-point victory. The Lions then had to quickly regroup and face a veteran Grand Prairie team. A blistering shooting performance from the Lions augmented multiple breakaway dunks by Laczkowski. For three quarters, the team looked altogether unfazed by fatigue. Juniors Shyam Maddukuri and Jack Baker extended the lead from deep, but Grand Prairie trimmed a 24-point deficit all the way down to 6 in the fourth quarter before several clutch free throws finally sealed a St. Mark’s victory and earned the team a spot in the tournament’s final four. On Saturday against 6A Rock Hill in the semifinals, a hot start from Laczkowski (17 points and 9 rebounds in the first half), combined with Lucas Blumenthal’s best game of the season (13 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals) helped forge a huge lead. However, the Marksmen once again struggled to cruise after building a lead of more than 20. Another dicey finish forced starters to log lengthy minutes to preserve the 69-65 win, and it showed in the finals. The host school, Lewisville, converted on their first four 3-point attempts and made a whopping 13 threes in the first half alone. St. Mark’s made a couple of nice pushes to get back in the game thanks to the likes of junior Matthew Jordan who notched a season-best 8 points. Ultimately, though, the Lions could not finish off the five-game sweep and ended up taking home second-place honors. Battie and Laczkowski were selected to the all-tournament team, and the Lions moved to 8-3 on the season.
 
SOCCER
The varsity soccer team had a busy week with three matches in a four-day span, including the first match against an SPC opponent, Kinkaid. On Monday, the Lions faced Prestonwood Christian. St. Mark’s demonstrated excellent form and took the lead in the twenty-seventh minute through junior Aydin Sumer’s goal that was set up by splendid play from junior Vikram Singh and senior captain Alex Soliz. Near the midway point of the second half, junior Alden Reagins found the back of the net after being set up by Sumer and Soliz. Strong team defense that included standout play from senior captain John Ma, junior Alex Abel, and senior goalkeeper Tyler Tang saw the Lions record their first shutout of the season. The following night, the Lions hosted Trinity Christian Academy. A sluggish start for St. Mark’s led to a Trojans’ goal within the quarter hour that would have TCA leading at halftime. For the second half, Coach Cory Martin employed a wholesale change to the line-up which paid dividends in the form of an equalizer ten minutes into the half. Soliz scored from an excellent service by senior Max Levy and a timely redirect from senior Sharang Vyas. The Lions took the lead in the 63rd minute with a goal from Reagins assisted by Singh and senior Temi Balogun. Seven minutes later, Reagins made it a brace with Singh providing the assist. Just before the full-time whistle, Singh opportunistically scored when he redirected Sumer’s parried shot into the TCA goal giving the Lions a 4-1 victory. Two nights later the Falcons of Kinkaid wasted no time in converting a penalty kick which gave them the lead within minutes of the kickoff. The pace of the match proved somewhat frantic with the Falcons dominating possession in critical areas of the field of play. Nevertheless, Kinkaid found themselves under duress from the pressure applied by the Lions leading to an own goal in the eighteenth minute. Gradually, Kinkaid started to dictate the majority of the play and were rewarded with a second half goal that proved to be the match winner. The Lions now have four wins and one loss for the season as they head to Austin this weekend to play in the St. Andrew’s Winter Classic. 
 
SWIMMING
The varsity swim team has its first swim meet of the season as members host Cistercian and ESD on Thursday in the Rogers Natatorium at St. Mark’s.  Races start at 5:45 pm.