Lion Sports Update 03/22/18

Golf
The varsity golf team competed well at Hawks’ Creek Golf Club in Fort Worth on March 8. The top five players included seniors Rett Daugbjerg, Michael Mahowald, and Ben Clayman, along with sophomores Camp Collins and Romil Mathur. The top four scores totaled 316, which earned second place in the tournament. Rett Daugbjerg’s 69 (which included a pair of eagles on the back nine) was the best in the entire field! Mathur and Collins both turned in their lowest rounds as varsity competitors, shooting 79 and 82, respectively. The remaining six golfers who represented St. Mark’s included senior Clay Cassidy, junior James Rogers, and freshmen Alam Aladina, Rex Corey, Tristan Doan, and Robert Pou. James Rogers fired an 86, which was 3rd-best in the JV division.

Track & Field
The varsity track and field team has had a very good start to the season. The first meet of the season, the Greenhill Relays, started the team on a high note. The team won the meet going away amassing 231 points. Seun Omonije ’18, Matthew Coleman ’19, and freshman Kit Colson led the way in the sprint events. Daniel Garcia ’18 won the 400 and the long jump and anchored the 400 and 800 Relay teams to 2nd and 1st respectively. Pablo Arroyo ’20 won the 800 while Seth Weprin ’19 won the 1600 and finished 2nd in the 3200. Fausto Reyher ’18 finished 2nd in both hurdle races. John Harbison ’19 equaled his PR in finishing 2nd in the pole vault. The Lions faced much tougher competition in the second week at the Volunteer Relays in Arlington. With sprint heavy teams from around the area, St. Mark’s finished a respectable 4th overall. Pablo Arroyo finished 3rd overall in the 800. Seth and Andres Arroyo ’20 finished 2nd and 3rd in the 1600. St. Mark’s finished 7th in the 400 Relay, 4th in the 800 Relay, 5th in the 1600 Relay and 2nd in the 3200 Relay. Clay Morris ’18 won the high Jump with a jump of 6’ 4”. Harbison was 3rd in the pole vault. Omonije was 4th in the Long Jump. Over spring break the team visited the Eaton Eagles in Haslet, Texas, for their first spring break meet. The highlight of the meet was Clay Morris jumping 6’ 6” win in the high jump. That mark put him in a tie for 3rd on the ALL-TIME list at St. Mark’s. Senior Zach Gilstrap threw a PR in the Shot Put to finish 7th overall. That same day a small group competed in the very tough Texas Distance Carnival at Southlake HS. The highlight from that meet was Andre Arsenault ’18 breaking his PR by more than 10 seconds in the 1600m with a time of 4:47.95.

Tennis
On Thursday, March 8, the varsity tennis team took on Trinity Valley in an early season match. Senior Davis Bailey (line 2 singles) and junior Adnan Khan (line 3 singles) both won in two sets. In doubles, Jack Parolisi ’18/Creston Brooks ’19 won in a tough battle 6-3, 7-5 while juniors Matthew Pollock/Rhys Arana won 6-0, 6-0 and played really well. The rest of the team got to compete in some extra doubles and singles matches as well, coming out victorious in all of them.

Baseball
On March 6, the varsity baseball team hosted Shelton. This would prove to be a tough contest, as the Shelton right-hander (a Dallas Baptist baseball commit) completely shut down the offense while accumulating 13 strike outs against the St. Mark’s batters through 5 1/3 innings of work. Junior Daniel Mirochna had the lone hit against Shelton’s ace and was followed up later in the game by senior Jimmy Rodriguez’s double against the lefty reliever. Senior Will Forbes was cruising along through the 3rd inning until walks, errors, and a couple of timely Shelton hits put an end to his day. Rodriguez and sophomore Mason Rareshide also got some work in on the mound during the Lions’ loss (0-8). Next, the team traveled over to Parish Episcopal for a rare night game on March 8. Senior ace Reece Rabin recorded 10 strikeouts and only gave up 2 hits in five innings of work. The Lions’ offense came out swinging and confidently sprayed base hits all over the ballpark. The 5-inning hitting barrage was led by seniors Zach Landry, Canyon Kyle, and Jimmy Rodriguez who amassed multiple hits each. Additionally, junior pinch hitter Jahaziel Lopez smashed a 2-out single into the right field gap while collecting two RBIs in the 14-0 run-rule win.

Lacrosse
The varsity lacrosse team traveled to North Carolina over spring break. In their first game, they played St. Anne’s Belfield (Charlottesville, VA). In a back and forth affair, the Lions came from 2 goals down to tie it at 7 and send it into sudden death overtime. In OT, the Lions had a man up opportunity, but the potential winning shot hit the pipe and St. Anne’s was able to score the game winner on their counter attack. Final score 7–8. In the second game, the Lions faced the defending South Carolina state champions, Wando High School. The Lions played well, winning the game 9-4. Goals were scored by 8 different Lions in the game. The final game of the trip was canceled due to a snow storm on the East coast.

ALUMNI ATHLETE NEWS
Jack Gordon ’15 turned a phenomenal junior season for the Cornell Big Red Men’s Basketball team, who qualified for the Ivy League Final 4 tournament for the first time in program history. Jack was the team’s third leading scorer and was the team’s most accurate 3-point shooter at 43% (40-93). On March 3rd, he posted a career-high 16 points in the team’s must-win regular-season finale vs Dartmouth, which qualified the Big Red for the Ivy League Final 4. Unfortunately, the team was defeated by Harvard on March 10th to dash their hopes of earning the automatic bid into the NCAA tournament.

Will Ingram ’17, a freshman guard on the Middlebury Men’s Basketball team, played in all 3 of Middlebury’s NCAA Division III tournament games to helping the Panthers reach the Elite Eight.