Lion Sports Update 04/04

Lacrosse
The varsity lacrosse team played two SPC counter games the week before last. On Tuesday, March 21, the team traveled to Greenhill, defeating the Hornets 12-6. Then on Friday, March 24, the Lions went on the road to face ESD. At the half, the Lions trailed 8-4 and then closed the margin to 10-7 at the end of the 3rd quarter. Unfortunately, ESD answered with a goal early in the 4th to take back momentum and the Lions were unable to complete the comeback, losing 9-13. Last week the Varsity Lacrosse team played two THSLL North District games vs. Allen and Flower Mount. On Tuesday against Allen, the Lions won 13-7. Junior Sam Schroeder tallied 4 goals, and senior Will Cotton, junior Garrett Mize, and sophomore Parker Clark all had 2 goals. On Friday against Flower Mound, the team won 10-8 in a dog fight. The Lions trailed 3-4 at the end of the 1st quarter but then dominated the 2nd quarter, taking a 7-4 lead into halftime. Junior Will Wood led the team with 4 goals and senior Case Lowry was instrumental in the Lions success with his supremacy at the face-off X as he won 76%.  Junior John Gunnin recorded 12 saves in goal, and senior Luke Rogers and sophomore Will Kozmetsky combined for 10 ground balls. This week the Lions are on the road for two games. They travel to Southlake on Wednesday for another THSLL District game and then go to The Woodlands on Saturday for a non-district game. 
 
Baseball
The varsity baseball team took on THESA on Tuesday, March 21. After falling behind 3-0, the opportunistic Lions' offense scored 4 runs, largely due to a costly, bases-clearing throwing error by THESA. Sophomore pitcher Cole Arnett kept St. Mark’s in the ballgame despite surrendering the lead back to THESA. However, senior Gordon Gunn, exhibiting great hustle, stole 2nd base after reaching on an error in the bottom of the 7th inning and ended up scoring the game-winning run after senior Grant Brooks hit a ground ball up the middle that was misplayed by THESA’s second baseman. On Saturday, March 25, the Lions played TCA. Again, St. Mark’s fell behind early in the game. Several defensive miscues, highlighted by two wild pitches and a dropped fly ball, allowed TCA to gain the upper hand. Entering the game in relief, junior Will Forbes stifled TCA’s bats, giving the Lions’ offense a chance. Down four runs in the top of the 7th, St. Mark’s patient hitters drew multiple walks and put the pressure on TCA following junior Reece Rabin’s single to right field. However, a controversial “no-call” following junior Zach Landry’s foul ball off his leg ended the game with a score, 3-4, in favor of TCA. The varsity baseball team entered this past week at 7-2 overall and 1-0 in the North Zone. In the first of two important road SPC counter games, the Lions traveled to ESD and jumped off to an early lead. Junior Will Forbes kept the ESD bats contained through three innings, but a couple costly errors and timely hitting gave ESD the lead, 4-3 in the bottom of the 4th. Collecting an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth, ESD looked like they were headed for a win until St. Mark’s loaded the bases with two outs and two strikes on senior Gordon Gunn. Alert and aggressive baserunning helped the Lions capitalize on a throwing error, as senior Andrew Whigham rounded third base and scored the crucial game-tying run. In the top of the ninth, juniors Jimmy Rodriguez and Zach Landry put St. Mark’s up for good with two consecutive sacrifice fly balls while fellow junior Reece Rabin closed the game out with solid relief work on the mound in an 8-6 victory. On Friday, the Lions traveled to Fort Worth Country Day. Although St. Mark’s scored several runs early in the game, the Lions pitchers consistently fell behind in counts, walking 8 batters on the day. After a series of lead changes, Country Day manufactured key hits and employed a couple successful squeeze bunts with runners in scoring position to regain the lead for good at 7-11. Offensive highlights for the Lions included junior Zach Landry’s two doubles/multiple RBI effort and senior Gordon Gunn’s 3-run blast, the first home run of the year for St. Mark’s. With the upcoming annual ISAS Festival this Thursday-Satuday, the baseball team will take on Trinity Valley (who defeated St. Marks, 1-6, earlier this season in a non-counter match) this Tuesday and HSAA the following day.      
 
Golf
On March 26 and 27, the varsity golf team traveled to Austin to play in the Lost Pines Invitational hosted by St. John’s. The team was represented by seniors Devan Prabhakar, Nick Chaiken, Sam Clayman, sophomore Rett Daugbjerg, and freshman Randall Fojtasek. Entering the second day of the tournament, the Lions trailed the John Cooper School on the leaderboard by 13 strokes. However, all 5 Lions shot 81 or better to post a team score of 299 and forge a 9 stroke come-from-behind tournament victory. Sam Clayman’s 74 and 71 earned a medal as the second best overall scorer among individual competitors. The group’s resilient bounce-back effort after a frustrating first day speaks volumes about the toughness evident throughout this team!  The Lions will compete again on Monday, April 3, in a 3-team match play event against ESD and Greenhill and then on Thursday in a match play dual against Ft. Worth Country Day. 
 
Tennis
On Tuesday, March 21, the varsity tennis team took on TCA at home with the Lions securing their third sweep of the season winning 11 straight matches. The line 1 doubles team of seniors Frank Thomas and Gopal Raman easily defeated the Trojans winning 6-1, 6-0 continuing their undefeated streak. Then, the Varsity Lions travelled to Houston and played Houston Christian on Saturday morning. The Lions played six lines of singles with junior Davis Bailey at line 2, sophomore Adnan Khan at line 3, Frank Thomas at line 5, and Gopal Raman at line 6 all winning their singles matches. Then the singles players doubled up to play doubles with Gopal Raman and Frank Thomas winning the only doubles match against Houston Christian, securing an overall win at 6-5. Then, the Lions travelled to The Woodlands to play the John Cooper School.  The Lions played 4 lines of doubles including two comebacks from duos Raman/Khan and Roseman/Bailey. Then, the singles matches went out and senior Daran Zhao battled into a tiebreaker and lost a tough match 6-6, 4-7. The Lions won overall against John Cooper 5-4, with the Lions going 11-9 overall in Houston.  Last week, the Lions started out on the road against ESD on Tuesday where lines 1 and 2 doubles easily beat out the Eagles in straight sets. At line 1 singles, junior Harris Wilson faced a tough opponent and lost in a close 2 sets. The Lions easily finished off lines 2 and 3 singles with Adnan Khan and Davis Bailey securing the important SPC counter win for the Lions 4-1. Away again on Friday, the Lions traveled to Ft. Worth Country Day for another SPC counter match. Without their typical line 1 and 2 singles or the line 1 doubles team, the team still secured a 5-0 sweep, the fourth of the season. All 3 singles won handily with Adnan khan, Jack Parolisi, and Daran Zhao winning the 1, 2, and 3 singles in quick straight sets. The Lions tennis team remains undefeated on the season and is looking forward to keeping the wins coming. 
 
Track & Field
On March 25, St. Mark’s Varsity Track & Field team hosted the 20th edition of the Bradley V. Urschel Invitational. This is a private schools only invitational with schools from around the state and Oklahoma participating. Under beautiful weather conditions, which usually is not the case, the meet was a huge success with over 750 athletes participating in just the Varsity Division on Saturday. St. Mark’s enjoyed a successful day across all the events. Junior Seun Omonije led the sprint group with to PR’s in the 100m (11.35) and 200m (23.70). Matthew Coleman ’19 and Daniel Garcia ’18 also returned to action in the sprints. Seniors Daniel Cope and Scott Smythe enjoyed a good day with a 3-4 finish in the 800 as well as leading the 4 x 800 to victory. Freshman twins Andres and Pablo Arroyo continued battling each other as well as lowering their respective time(s) in the 800m and 1600m. Eliott Ford ’18 continued his improvement in the hurdles. The 4 x 400 Relay team ran their fastest time of the season (3:29.96) to finish 3rd in the race. Keith Kadesky ’17 won the pole vault in a jump off. Clay Morris ’18 won the high jump and finished 3rd in the long jump with a seasonal best. Then on March 31 and April 1, some members of the team qualified for the prestigious Texas Relays down in Austin. While the team did not finish high in the standings, they gained valuable experience at the elite level. We were represented in the 4 x 100 Relay, 4 x 400 Relay, the Distance Medley Relay, and the High Jump. The rest of the team competed in the Longhorn Invitational hosted by WT White HS. The Lions enjoyed scattered success across the board. Anthony Andrews ’20 improved in the 110 hurdles while Eliott Ford enjoyed another good run in the 300H. The distance runners enjoyed fast times across the board.  Keith Kadesky won the pole vault, and  Matthew Fornaro ’18 enjoyed 2 PR’s in the Long Jump (20’ 2”) and Triple Jump (42’ 1.50”). This week half the team will be at ISAS and the other half will compete in the Lions Invitational at Prestonwood Christian.
 
Water Polo
This past weekend, the Varsity Water Polo team traveled to Conroe, TX to compete in the 8th edition of the Allison Maloney Tournament. The tournament was made up of many of the best teams in the state. The Lions faced Jersey Village HS in the first game and won 10-5. In the second game, the team played Cy-Fair HS and won many goals to nothing.  Next up was a game against Southlake Carroll. Both teams battled hard and the Lions prevailed by a score of 6 to 4 to make it to the tournament championship game. In the final game, the Lions fell to Flower Mound HS by a score of 4 to 9 to finish 2nd place in the tournament. The Lions will compete in the Rockwall tournament this Saturday. 
 
ALUMNI ATHLETE NEWS
Sam Khoshbin ’14, a member of the New York University Men’s Tennis team, is having a good season for the Bobcats. Sam is 10-3 in doubles matches (many at line #1) and is 3-5 in singles on the season. NYU is currently 7-2 on the season and will compete in the University Athletic Association Conference tournament later this month.  Cameron Hillier ’13, a senior captain on the Colby College Men’s Tennis team, is also enjoying success on the tennis court this spring, especially in doubles where is has a winning record of 7-6. Back on March 12th, Cameron and Sam’s teams matched up and both former Marksmen took the court for their respective teams. Unfortunately, they did not match up against one another in singles or doubles. NYU won the match 5-4.