Winter SPC

WRESTLING
The varsity wrestling team participated in the SPC Tournament held at Fort Worth Country Day School on Saturday, February 12, and took third place as a team. This steady performance keeps the program in line with their 2020 mark where they finished third; however, the Lions are closing the point differential between them, St. John’s (SPC Champions), and Episcopal Houston (SPC Runner-ups). Of note, St. Mark’s finished the tournament with the same number of champions as St. John’s (5x SPC champions), and SM improved from nine to eleven place winners from their 2020 showing (2021 SPC was cancelled due to COVID-19).

In total, 11 out of 14 St. Mark’s Wrestlers placed at the SPC Tournament:

               1^st at 106lbs – Sophomore Quina Perkison

               4^th at 113lbs – Freshman Teddy Fleiss

               4^th at 120lbs – Junior Pierre Martinez

               4^th at 126lbs – Sophomore Sebastian Kiehn 

               4^th at 132lbs – Sophomore AJ Ball

               1^st at 138lbs – Junior Hayward Metcalf

               1^st at 145lbs – Senior Jedidiah Kim 

               1^st at 152lbs – Senior Sal Abbasi 

               3^rd at 160lbs – Freshman Wyatt Loehr

               1^st at 195lbs – Senior Elijah Ellis

               2^nd at 220lbs – Junior Stice Neuhoff

Highlight win of the tournament, not to discount the five championship wins, was junior Stice Neuhoff’s comeback victory in his semi-final match against a powerful Episcopal of Houston opponent. Also, noteworthy, this was the first SPC tournament in recent past for which the Lions had a full wrestling squad; a recipe for current and future success. The Lion Wrestlers represented St. Mark’s well, gained some great experience, and are poised for success in the Prep State tournament (February 19 at St. Thomas HS in Houston), which qualifies the top three wrestlers in each weight class for the Prep National Tournament in Washington D.C.

 

The varsity swim team competed in the SPC Championships on Friday, February 11 at the brand new Arlington ISD Natatorium. Senior Brett Honaker would get the meet started for the Lions posting a season best of 1:48.12 in the 200 Free which was good enough to have him seeded 4^th for finals. Juniors Michael Gao and Sammy Larkin both started off the meet with personal best times, Gao a 1:58.69 good enough for 13^th overall and Larkin’s 1:54.13 was good enough to make the top 8 and earned him a second swim that evening. Freshman Leo Scheiner dropped 1.73 seconds off his personal best posting a 2:03.00 good enough for 14^th. In the finals that evening, Larkin and Honaker would have personal bests, Honaker getting 5^th overall and dropping 4 seconds from the morning swim and 3 seconds from his previous personal best of 1:44.30. Larkin would drop another second from his morning swim PB to 1:53.66 which was good enough for 8^th overall. Up next was the 200 IM where sophomore Anderson Selinger and freshman Daniel Deng were in the first heat together. Selinger would post a personal best 2:18.16, good enough for 9^th overall, and Deng would post a 3 second drop 2:20.51 for a new personal best which placed him 11^th overall. In the final heat of the 200 IM, sophomore Adrian Lutgen and senior Matthew Fan would post times that would get them in that evening’s finals. Lutgen’s time of 2:08.82 was a new PB by over 3.5 seconds and Fan swam a 2:16.97. In the evenings final, Lutgen would finish 7^th overall, and Fan would post a PB of 2:16.06 good enough for 8^th. The 50 Freestyle, aka the “Splash and Dash,” saw freshman Benjamin Chen post a personal best by over half a second at 24.12, good enough for 13^th overall, senior Sam Reitich would drop his personal best to a 24.48 good enough for 16^th place, freshman George Hoverman would drop his PB by almost a full second going 23.74 good enough for 10^th overall. Sophomore Adam Kappelman would post a PB 22.82, seeding him 4^th in the finals where he would end up just that with a time of 22.83. 

 

After a small break came to the 100 Butterfly where all but 1 swimmer would post personal bests in their morning swims. Senior Miki Ghosh swam a 58.99 (a PB by well over 1 second) which was good enough for 15^th, sophomore Ethan Gao would drop his time by almost 2 seconds to a 56.95, good enough for 11^th overall, and senior Nico Gomez would post a 51.38 (almost a full second PB). Freshman Daniel Deng had a 3 second PB in the 200 IM giving his best effort by posting a 1:02.33 good enough for 17^th overall. The evening swim saw Gomez come back again dropping about a half second with a 50.92, a new PB and good enough to get 3^rd overall. The 100 Free was more of the same for the Lions. Junior M. Gao was back in the pool with a PB of 53.29 (over a full second faster than his previous best), which would be good enough for 9^th overall. Honaker posted a 47.55, good enough to move on to the finals and freshman Chen would post a PB 53.90, almost a full second better than his previous best. Sophomore Kappelman would post a new PB 50.42, a full second better than his previous and would also move him into the finals with Honaker. The evenings swims for both Honaker and Kappelman were great, Honkaer getting second with a 47.20 (13 hundredths off his personal best) and Kappelmans 50.54 would again earn him 4^th place (2 hundredths off his PB morning swim). 

 

The 500 Freestyle saw junior Larkin and freshman Scheiner both make it into the evening’s finals where both Larkin and Scheiner would again drop time, Larkin’s 5:13.08 good enough for 6^th and Scheiner’s 5:35.24 another new PB good enough for 8^th. The 200 Freestyle Relay saw the team of freshman Hoverman, senior Reitich, junior M. Gao, and senior Honaker post a 1:33.25 good enough for 5^th, however there was a DQ on the event. The 100 Backstroke saw sophomore E. Gao swim a 1:04.33 good enough for 18^th, sophomore Selinger posted a PB 1:00.95 good enough for 12^th place, senior Fan would drop about 1 second for his new PB 1:03.70 for 16^th place, and senior Gomez would post a PB 53.55 in the morning session and then a 55.19 in the finals for 4^th place overall. In the 100 Breaststroke, senior Jonathan Yin posted his PB of 1:15.76 good enough for 19^th overall, while sophomore Lutgen had a PB of 1:03.7 and freshman Hoverman had a PB 1:04.92 as both dropped 2 and 3 seconds, respectively, off their bests which advanced them into the evening’s finals. Sophomore Dawson Yao also dropped 3 seconds with a 1:07.23 good enough for 11^th place.

 

In the evening swims, Lutgen and Hoverman would again drop their PB, Lutgen to a 1:03.43 for 5^th place and Hoverman to a 1:04.89 for 8^th. The 400 Freestyle relay, the final race of the day, would be the most exciting race of the evening. Senior Gomez, junior M. Gao, sophomore Kappelman, and senior Honaker come in 2^nd place with a 3:16.65. Gomez got the team out fast and in 3^rd overall after his leg of the race and junior Gao maintained that position. Sophomore Kappleman propelled the team into 2^nd and senior Honaker would hunt down the 1^st place St. John’s swimmer to take the lead finishing his leg with a 46.06 (a PB by over 1 second). However, the 100 Freestyle champion for Kinkaid was up to the challenge, going a 43 second 100 and out touching the Lions by 2 hundredths of a second for 1^st place.  A beautiful race for the Lions that would later turn out to be a DQ, an early start of .02 putting a stop to a great finish. Overall, the Lions would finish 4^th in what was the fastest SPC meet ever, as over 9 SPC Records were broken. The Lions would finish the season with every swimmer breaking a new personal best in at least 1 of their events at SPC, with senior captain Brett Honaker leading the way with 3 of his 4 events being new PBs.  

 

The varsity basketball team had a terrific showing at the SPC tournament in Fort Worth this past weekend. At Thursday night’s first-round game at Ft. Worth Country Day, the third seeded Lions faced off against the South Zone’s sixth seed, Kinkaid. Junior Rapha Mitterer-Claudet had the hot hand early, converting on both of his three point attempts and initiating in transition to help propel St. Mark’s out of the gate. Sophomore Lucas Blumenthal attacked the rim for four first-half layups, and the navy and gold shot out to a 20-0 lead and cruised, perhaps unexpectedly, to a 68-39 victory. Senior Caleb Vanzant finished the game with the teams only triple-double of the season (10 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists). 

 

On Friday afternoon, the action moved over to Trinity Valley, where the Lions squared off against Houston Christian. A rematch of the most recent SPC championship game (a 2020 crown for the Lions), St. Mark’s played focused first-half basketball, spearheaded by senior Tate Laczkowski’s 18 points and Mitterer-Claudet’s 8 points and 3 assists. However, Houston Christian was on fire from deep, connecting on 11 of their first 16 threes to forge an 11-point halftime lead. The Lions remained steadfast in their approach coming out of the break, though, and won the third quarter 24-12. From there, junior Arjun Khatti’s grittiness, sophomore CJ Ness’s defensive prowess, and freshman Luke Laczkowski’s court awareness provided sparks off the bench that widened the lead and enabled the Lions to finalize one of their best performances of the season, an 84-68 win over a very quality opponent. But there was very little time to celebrate. The team had to immediately begin preparing for an evening tipoff that afforded them a mere 4 hours of rest. The opponent was North Zone champion, Greenhill, who had just defeated the Marksmen handily on their home court two weeks prior. Greenhill’s size (6’11”, 6’10”, and 6’7”) were formidable, but the scrappy boys of 10600 were fearless. The Lions held a slim lead after one quarter and kept the game tied through the 1-minute mark in the third. Unfortunately, SM had a costly scoring stretch transitioning into the final frame that ultimately led to a 9-point loss in the semifinals. Tate Laczkowski’s double-double (14 points and 12 rebounds) paced the Lions.

 

Saturday was not good to either North Zone team, unfortunately. EHS beat Greenhill on a buzzer-beater in the championship, and St. Mark’s fell to St. John’s in the third place game. Corvin Oprea (21 points) and Tate Laczkowski (22 points) finished their careers in style, and junior Jake Bond (8 points) was one of many bench players to make their mark on the game. The final four finish was the Lions’ fifth in as many tries in recent years. This year’s seniors, captains Caleb Vanzant, Corvin Oprea, and Tate Laczkowski, finish their careers with only 5 losses to SPC opponents. What a testament to their leadership on and off the court!

 

The varsity soccer team began their SPC Tournament against Awty International from Houston in the quarterfinal at Oakridge. St. Mark’s dominated time of possession and created the better chances but missed several opportunities that would have provided a comfortable lead at halftime. There were large windows of time where the ball remained entirely in Awty’s defensive half. To their credit, the Rams made every effort to play attractive soccer, but were often stymied by a stingy Lion defense. Nevertheless, the Lions found themselves down a goal with just over fifteen minutes to play when a shot from outside the penalty area drifted over the head of senior goalkeeper Stefan Moreno. The Lions responded hastily before settling themselves and returning to form by placing relentless pressure on the Rams that was rewarded six minutes from the final whistle. Senior Noah Soliz shuffled to the far post and headed sophomore John Ma’s corner kick across the face of the goal settling just inside the near post for the equalizer. Senior Lars Ochs volleyed Soliz’s goal, burying it into the net leaving nothing to chance. Overtime ensued and with just under two minutes remaining, Ochs converted a penalty kick for the game winner.

 

Moving on to the SPC semifinals that evening, St. Mark’s played the second seed from the SPC South Zone, Kinkaid, at Trinity Valley. Both teams demonstrated the ability to possess the ball and create chances; however, neither team found the back of the net. With less than twenty minutes played, the Falcons took a one-goal lead. At the half-hour mark, the imposing figure of junior Keats Leffel challenged the Falcon goalkeeper for a lobbed service. The Kinkaid net minder was unable to collect or parry the service which fell to the feet of the opportunistic Soliz who scored his second goal in as many matches. Both teams played attractive entertaining soccer with half chances sprinkled throughout the second half and it appeared that neither defense would succumb to the match winner. In the 80 +1^st minute of the match the Falcons found the back of the net on a corner kick when the ball travelled to the far post and was emphatically struck.

 

The next day, the Lions lost to Greenhill, conceding a goal just before halftime and then again midway through the second half. With ten minutes remaining, senior Zack Stone’s tenacious play paid dividends when his tackle in the Greenhill penalty area resulted in the ball coming to rest in front of freshman Alden Reagins who finished from point-blank range. Despite relentless pressure from the Lions, the Hornets were able to thwart several attacks and secure third place with a 2-1 victory. The Lions’ starting lineup against Greenhill included seven seniors: Sam Alfalahi, Axel Icazbalceta, Stefan Moreno, Lars Ochs, Noah Soliz, Will Shoup, and Zack Stone. Matthew Shen, the one remaining senior, was injured and unable to participate. The Lions finished the season in fourth place out of sixteen teams with a record of 17 wins, 1 Draw, 5 losses (8-0-2 in SPC, 7-0-0 for 21 points in North Zone without conceding a goal).