Lion Sports Update (04/14)

Crew
The varsity crew traveled Saturday to the Oklahoma City Invitational regatta. Seven boats entered in three events, six of which qualified for the finals. The boat rowed by Nate Wilson, A.J. Ball, Preston Ghafar, and Skyler Green finished third in the final and the boat rowed by Jackson Whitaker, Ralph Steele, Adam Alfalahi, and Ross Cunningham came in fifth. In the Novice 2x event, the boat rowed by Kevon Mostafavipour and Zack Goforth finished first. In the Varsity 4x the boat rowed by Blake Hudspeth, Paul Valois, Evan McGowan, and Drake Elliott finished in first place and the boat rowed by Soham Verma, Sam Morgan, Will Chance, and Buck Elliott took third. The boat rowed Brendan Kelly, Isaac Song, Tomek Marczewski, and Spiros Hallax came in fifth. The team will have two more chances to race in the next few weeks at a smaller regatta taking place at White Rock Lake on April 17 and at the Central District Youth Championships in Oklahoma City on May 1st and 2nd.
 
Tennis
On Tuesday, the varsity tennis team welcomed Trinity Valley to our “home courts” at Royal Oaks Country Club. Senior Mark Motlow, Junior Jeremy Yu, and Sophomore Patrick Flanagan all won their matches 6-0. In doubles, Juniors Alex Ryan and Ekansh Tambe won their match 6-1, 6-1. Sophomore Shreyan Daulat and freshman Amogh Naganand captured the 2nd doubles point at 6-1, 6-0. The team brought home another 5-0 victory and remained undefeated on the season. On Friday, the Lions hosted Greenhill at Royal Oaks CC for an intense and exciting battle between the two rival schools. At line 1 singles, Mark Motlow had the longest and closest match losing just barely in the third set. At Line 2, Jeremy Yu played a very steady game and pulled off a 6-2, 6-3 victory. At Line 3, Patrick Flanagan was also able to pull away with a 6-1, 6-0 victory. Alex Ryan and Ekansh Tambe went toe to toe with their opponents and were able to win a very fun and hard-fought battle 6-4, 6-4. The line 2 duo of Shreyan Daulat and Amogh Naganand found themselves losing 1-5 in the first set but were able to work their way back into the match and come back and earn the victory. Final score: St. Mark's 4 - Greenhill 1. This week, the Lions host Ft. Worth Country Day on Friday at Royal Oaks Country Club.
 
Track & Field
The varsity track & field team hosted their 2nd meet in the DFW Private School Circuit, the last of the year, and came away with a very successful outing. The 35 Individual competitors for the Lions contributed 53 PR’s (personal records) throughout the meet. The team saw PRs in every discipline: throws, jumps, sprints, hurdles, and distance. Of course, the highlight of the meet was the new School Record in the 100m by senior Kit Colson. His time of 10.67 eclipsed the 39-year-old record of 10.69 by Rosser Newton, set in 1982. The other highlight was the performance by Sahil Dodda in the 1600m. Running solo after the 800m mark, Sahil toughed out the last 2 laps on his own. His time of 4:20.04 places him 4th on the SM ALL-TIME list. The Lions won the meet going away with 328 points. This week the Lions travel down to St. John’s to compete in the Nick Finnegan Invitational on Saturday and will compete against the best SPC schools in the south. It should be an outstanding meet.
 
Baseball
Last Tuesday, the varsity baseball team squared off against perennial Fort Worth foe, Trinity Valley. Unfortunately, the Lions bats were quiet for the majority of the game with Jake Daniels driving in the game’s only run for St. Mark’s as the Lions fell, 1-8. With a North Zone record at 2-1, St. Mark’s hosted Greenhill on Friday for a classic rivalry game. Down four runs in the bottom of the fifth, the Lions bats finally came alive, sparked by hot-hitting Luke Annett’s double to left field. Walks to Marlon Henderson and Silas Hosler and a hit-by-pitch to Abe Echt undid the Greenhill right-hander as St. Mark’s knotted the score at four. In the top of the 7th, the Hornets got a two-out RBI single, sending the Greenhill side into a frenzy. However, the never-say-die Lions calmly responded with Annett’s lead-off walk and Camden Reeves’ two-strike single. On a 2-2 count, third baseman Jacob Bell ripped a double to left center field, giving both base runners a chance to score. With Annett motoring easily into home, the Lions players and fans then erupted in sheer joy as Reeves broke the tie by sliding safely across home plate, ending the game in a thrilling 6-5 walk-off victory for St. Mark’s. The baseball team only has one game this week, a home match-up with Ft. Worth Country Day, who currently sits atop the SPC North Zone standings at 3-0.   
 
Water Polo
The water polo teams traveled to Denton Ryan HS this past Saturday for some competition. The JV team took on Irving MacArthur for the first time this weekend defeating them 17-0. Freshman Ethan Gao paced the scoring with 5 goals while fellow freshmen Anderson Selinger and Adam Kappelman both scored 3 goals. Sophomore Jerry Fox and freshman Warner Hartnett added 2 goals each and junior Miki Ghosh, sophomore Michael Gao, freshman Dawson Yao all added a goal. The varsity team faced off against Denton Guyer for the second straight week. Last week the Lions defeated Guyer 20-6 and this week was no different with a 21-4 victory. Scoring was led by Sophomore Jerry Fox with 4 goals, while seniors Mason Westkaemper, Jack Palmer, and sophomore Aadi Khasgiwala added 3 goals each. Senior Ryan Park and sophomore Sammy Larkin both added 2 goals and junior Brett Honaker, freshmen Adam Kappelman and Ethan Gao each had a goal. The Lions face off against Flower Mound Marcus and Flower Mound High School next week. Both Marcus (4th) and Flower Mound (2nd) are ranked in the top 5 in the North with Flower Mound being ranked 2nd in state.
 
Golf
On April 5, ten varsity golfers made the trek out to Ft. Worth for an SPC North Zone preview. Junior Mac McKenzie shot 3 under through 5 holes and 1-putted his first 7 holes. Mac wound up finishing 3rd overall in the tournament with a 74. Four other Marksmen also finished in the 70’s (George Warren had a 76, Logan Johnson had a 77, and James Thomson and Tommy Zheng both came in at 79). The team score of 306 was one stroke better than Trinity Valley, earning St. Mark’s its 3rd tournament win of the season! 
 
Lacrosse
The Lions lacrosse team hosted Southlake Carroll on Tuesday last week. The game was within 1 or 2 goals the entire game as both teams were playing at a high level and answering each goal against with a goal of their own. Unfortunately for the Lions, Southlake pulled away with a goal in the final seconds to beat the Lions 9-10. Junior Ian Mize led the Lions in scoring with 3 goals, Jack Gordy and Jake Park had 2 goals, and Luke Stallings and Henry Piccagli rounded out the goal scoring with 1 apiece. Murphy Paul led the team in assists with 2. Alex Geng continues to dominate as a faceoff specialist as he won 16 of 22 faceoffs to give the Lions extra possessions. The following Saturday the Lions faced off against Lake Travis (Austin, TX), the Lions fell behind early but managed to tie the score at 5 by halftime. The 3rd quarter was again neck and neck ending with the teams tied at 8 all and again the teams found themselves knotted up at 9 goals each at the end of regulation. Overtime was intense with both teams making huge plays to keep their teams in the game, but Lake Travis was the first to find a crack in the armor, winning the game 10-9 in sudden death. Ian Mize again led the Lions with 4 goals and Jake Park added a hat trick of his won with 3 goals. Alex Geng had another great game-winning 68% of the faceoffs. In their last 3 games against stellar F 6A opponents, the Lions have lost at the buzzer or in OT. The Lions look to bring home a W this Wednesday at Rockwall followed by a game at home against Keller on Saturday.