Lion Sports Update (03/26)

TRACK & FIELD
Under chilly morning temperatures and misty conditions which eventually turned into a beautiful afternoon, the varsity track & field team came out roaring at the Split H Relays, hosted by Hockaday at their beautiful new Gupta Family Track & Field complex.  With 35 PR’s (personal records) throughout the day and numerous seasonal best as well, the Lions were present in all the events.  Mateu Parker returned to action after some time for an injury and promptly won the 110 Hurdles and 300 Hurdles, both in PRs.  He capped off the day with a great anchor leg on the 4x400 Relay to bring home the victory.  Noah Roby won an exciting 1600M with a great stretch drive to victory.  Bobby Strauss threw a huge PR in the Shot Put (42’ 7”) to finish 2nd overall.  Brady Wyatt matched him with a huge PR of his own in the discus (125’) and finish 2nd as well.  Ethan Singleton dipped under 51.0 in the 400M for the first time with a time of 50.89.  He was followed by Tripp Schoellkopf with a big PR of his own in 52.63. The 4x400 Relay finished off the day in first place with a season best of 3:31.10, an improvement by 6 seconds over the previous seasonal best.  Many, many outstanding performances throughout the afternoon.  More results can be found HERE.  This week a small group will travel to the Texas Relays to compete in the 4x100 Relay and 4x400 Relay.  The following week, Saturday, April 6,  St. Mark’s will host the Bradley V. Urschel (BVU) Invitational on the campus of Hockaday where 19 schools are welcomed back to the prestigious meet.  We need a lot of volunteers to make this a memorable meet. 
 
GOLF
On Wednesday, March 20, the St. Mark’s varsity golf team competed in the All Saints TAPPS 5A Preview at Hawks Creek in Fort Worth. Feeding off the adrenaline rush of fighter jets roaring through the sky from nearby Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, the Marksmen posted some of their best scores of the season. Seniors Hudson Brown (73) and Henry Hoak (72) both shot personal bests with Hoak’s score good enough to earn individual runner-up honors. The only player in the field to beat him? St. Mark’s sophomore Duff McKay, whose 5-under 67 is among the best individual performances in recent team history. Freshmen Luke Rogers and Sam Merryman rounded out the lineup, which won first place overall among all participating teams. A great start to the post-spring-break schedule!!

TENNIS
Varsity tennis players Patrick Flanagan, Amogh Naganand, Arnav Lahoti and Nathaniel Hochman traveled to Austin to compete in the St. Stephen’s Invitational tennis tournament this past weekend. Although he lost his first round, Patrick won the entire back draw on his way to the consolation championship! Amogh and Arnav teamed up at doubles, played and won a great first match, but lost in their 2nd round against a tough team (who went on to win the whole tournament). Nathaniel teamed up with a Hockadaisy to play mixed doubles! They represented both schools well, and although they lost in the semifinals, they were having fun and playing hard! SM Tennis is busy this week with away matches on March 26 at ESD and March 28 at Oakridge.
 
BASEBALL
Last Tuesday, the varsity baseball team squared off at home against the Mansfield Knights. Junior Deven Pietrzak competed well for two innings until a couple hits, multiple walks, and untimely Lions' errors on the infield eventually gave the Knights a three-run cushion in the third. Red-hot hitting junior Jackson Williams (2 hits, 1 RBI) smashed home a double to CF which plated senior Grayson Redmond while senior Mitch Galardi's infield single scored junior Jack Frary. These would be the only runs scored by the Lions as the pitching staff gave up thirteen runs on eight hits and nine walks in the blowout loss. The Lions will look to rebound next week as they start their counter season on the road against ESD on Tuesday at 4:30 pm and away at Oakridge (rescheduled from 3/22) on Thursday at 5 pm. 
 
LACROSSE
The varsity lacrosse team returned from spring break with a solid week of practice, but disappointing results on gameday, losing 14-4 to Southlake and 17-5 to Westlake.  Progress continues to made each day and valuable lessons are being learned from each game.  Next up is a battle with rival ESD on Thursday, March 28 at 7 pm at ESD.