Lion Sports Update 04/19

Basketball
The varsity baseball team took on Trinity Valley School on Tuesday, April 4, in a much-anticipated rematch from earlier in the season. Trying to avenge a previous loss to TVS, the Lions bats mustered a few runs, largely thanks to senior Clarke Wood’s clutch RBIs with two strikes and runners on 3rd base in two different plate appearances. Hurling six strong innings, junior Reece Rabin battled through a tough 7th inning, leaving the game with the score tied, 3-3. A costly error triggered Trinity Valley’s 4-run inning, leaving the Lions on the short end of a 5-3 counter loss. The following day, St. Mark’s played HSAA. As was the case in the previous game, the Lions offense chalked up several runs against an opponent early in the game. Sophomore Cole Arnett also turned in a stellar 4-inning performance, but Lions' relievers (juniors Carson Crocker & Will Forbes and seniors Todd Murphy & Reid Johannsen) were unable to preserve the 5-run lead, as HSAA put up 11 unanswered runs before St. Mark’s responded with a run scored in the bottom of the 6th inning. The game ended with HSAA on top, 12-6. St. Mark’s enters next week with a 2-2 record in the North Zone (5th place) and are now 8-5 on the season. Last Tuesday the Varsity Baseball team hosted Cistercian in an SPC north zone counter game. After jumping out to a 5-1 lead in the third inning (highlighted by senior Clarke Wood’s RBI double to left center and junior Canyon Kyle’s three hits), the Lions looked to be on their way to a much-needed win.  Junior Reece Rabin held Cistercian largely in check, but a costly throwing error on the infield followed by two key hits allowed Cistercian right back into the contest late in the game. Down 5-6 in the 7th, the never-say-die Lions offense managed to get runners on 1st and 3rd before hitting an “at’em ball” right up the middle to the Cistercian shortstop, ending the game. Then on Thursday St. Mark’s traveled to All Saints and faced the best pitcher in the North Zone, a 6’5” lefty throwing in the upper 80s. Thanks to a sharp single to left field followed by some great heads-up base running, junior Zach Landry scored the game’s first run. Sophomore Cole Arnett stifled the opponents’ bats, but an untimely walk turned into a game-tying run. With the Lions’ down 1-2 in the top of the 7th with two outs, freshman Alek Houillion drove a ball to right into the teeth of the wind, burning the right fielder and plating senior Andrew Whigham from 1st base. However, a botched ground ball between 1st and 2nd base with two outs allowed the All Saints runner to score from 2nd base, ending the game 2-3. At 2-4 in counter play, the baseball team will have to win both contests (@Greenhill on Tuesday; vs. Oakridge on Friday for Senior Appreciation/Little Buddy Night) in order to qualify for the SPC tournament.          
 
Track & Field
On Friday, April 7, the varsity track and field team competed in the Lions invitational at Prestonwood Christian Academy. Highlighting the meet was senior Daniel Cope's breakthrough race in the 800 with a time of 1:59.50 for first place. He also won the 1600m. The team welcomed the return of Fausto Reyher ’18 in the hurdles as he won both the 110m and 300m Hurdles races.   Also enjoying a successful day was Seun Omonije ’18 with 2 PRs in the 100m and 200m.  Over Easter weekend, the Track & Field team traveled down to St. John’s in Houston to compete in the Nick Finnegan Invitational which also serves as their SPC South Zone meet.  It was a good opportunity to compete against the SPC schools from the south area.  St. Mark’s finished third behind St. John’s and St. Stephen’s.  There were a few highlights during the meet but it also showed that we need to step up our game to challenge for the top two spots at the SPC championships.  Keith Kadesky ’17 again provided the highlight of the day as he broke the school record in the Pole Vault with a jump of 14’ 5.5”.  It was memorable because his brother, Alex, was on hand to witness the jump.  Alex and Keith were tied with the record at 14’ 4” until Saturday.  Also enjoying a good day was Fausto Reyher finishing 2nd in the 110h and 3rd in the 300h, with a new PR.  Zach Gilstrap ’18 finished 2nd in the Discus and 3rd in the Shot Put, with a new PR.  Daniel Garcia ’18 returned to full action and had a very successful day with a 6th in the long jump, 3rd in the triple jump, 2nd in the 400m and 3rd in the 200m.  There were other PRs throughout the day and the results should build our confidence moving into the last push for the SPC Championship.  A special note, not usually covered in this release, the Middle School relay team of Kit Colson ’21, Elija Ellis ’22, Josh Mysore ’21, and Colin Smith ’22 broke the school record in both the 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 relays. The previous marks had stood for 26 years!
 
Water Polo
The varsity water polo team participated in the Rockwall Tournament on Saturday, April 8.  The team played two games, winning both handily (24-2 over Rockwall and 23-1 over Home School Athletic Association).Then this past Saturday, the Varsity & JV Water Polo teams took part in the Flower Mound tournament.  The Varsity team went 1-1 in the tournament, losing to Southlake Carroll 7-8, but bouncing back to defeat Denton Ryan 19-1 in their second game.  The JV team went 2-0, beating Denton Guyer 19-3 and Flower Mound 8-4.  The Lions will play in the TISCA North Texas Region Championships this Friday (8:15 pm for the Lions first game) and Saturday at the Southlake – Carroll Aquatics Center. 
 
Tennis
The varsity tennis team took on Trinity Valley on Tuesday, April 4. With line 1 and 2 doubles winning quickly and Adnan Khan ’19 winning at line 3 singles, the Lions secured the SPC North Zone counter win.  Davis Bailey ’18 at line 2 singles won his match shortly after….but Harris Wilson ’18 at line 1 singles was just winning his first set after an hour and a half. With the rest of the team on the fence cheering him on, Harris pulled out the second set win in a tiebreaker clenching the sweep for the Lions. Then on Tuesday, April 11, the Lions hosted Cistercian.  The line 1 doubles pair of Frank Thomas ’17 and Gopal Raman ’17 won their match 6-0,6-2 securing the second win against the Hawks with Jack Parolisi ’18 winning line 3 singles just moments before. Soon after, the line 2 doubles team secured the victory for the Lions putting the team up in the count 3-0. Adnan Khan quickly closed out the line 2 singles match and left Davis Bailey at line 1 singles in a tough grinder. After winning the first set 6-0 and up in the count 4-3, the Hawks came back and won the second and third set to claim one match from the paws of the Lions. Then the Lions closed out the week against All Saints with Davis Bailey winning 6-0, 6-0 at line 2 singles and line 1 singles and both lines of doubles winning quick matches. At line 3 singles, Daran Zhao ’17 lost the first set 4-6 after being down 1-5, but came back to win the match in the next two sets of score 6-2 and 6-2 which clenched another sweep for the Lions in SPC counter play.   The Lions travel on Tuesday to take on the other undefeated team in the SPC North Zone, the Greenhill Hornets.  The Lions finish off counter play on Friday when the team hosts Oakridge. 
 
Golf
The varsity golf team played a full 18 holes of golf on Monday, April 10th at Squaw Creek in Fort Worth as part of the Trinity Valley Chick-fil-a Tournament.  Ten Lions competed admirably and turned in fairly consistent scores across the board.  Hill Washburne ’18, Mike Mahowald ’18, and Romil Mathur ’20 all finished with the same score, 84.  Meanwhile, Sam Clayman ’17 shot 4 under on the front nine and ultimately claim 2nd overall among all tournament participants.  Rett Daugbjerg ’18 also medaled with a 3rd place 72.  Devan Prabhakar ’17 (74), Nick Chaiken ’17 (75), Randall Fojtasek ’20 (80), James Rogers ’19 (86), and Clay Cassidy ’18 (91) rounded out the team effort, which proved strong enough to garner 1st among all teams. 
 
Lacrosse
The varsity lacrosse team played a very competitive stretch of games over the past 2 weeks.  On April 5, they took on Southlake who was ranked in the top 10 in Texas.  The game was tied at the half and Southlake took an 8-6 lead into the 4th quarter.  The Lions then scored 3 unanswered goals to take a 9-8 lead, but Southlake scored in the closing seconds to force overtime.  In OT, Case Lowry ’17 won the opening faceoff and Sam Schroeder ’18 deposited the winning goal (his 4th goal of the game) shortly after to give the Lions a 10-9 victory in overtime! Also scoring points in the game were Luke Rogers ’17, Garrett Mize ’18, Willie Wood ’18, Will Cotten ’17, and Jake Vaughn ’17. Lowry was great at the face-off X, winning 67% of the face-offs.  On Saturday, April 8, the Lions traveled to north Houston to take on The Woodlands who were ranked #1 I the state at the time.  The Lions trailed 2-3 at the half, and lost by a final score of 4-8.  Sam Schroeder, Luke Rogers, Jake Vaughn, and Will Cotten all scored points in the game.  Finally last Thursday, the Lions hosted Jesuit on Senior Night.  Jesuit was ranked #4 and St. Mark’s was #5 at the time of the game.  In a tight first half, the Lions stayed close, trailing 1-2 at half time.  Jesuit had a surge to start the 3rd quarter, and the Lions fought back ultimately losing 5-7.   The Lions take the field again on Tuesday, April 18 at Plano West in a game that will have THSLL seeding implications.  The Lions will play in the SPC Lacrosse tournament this Friday and Saturday at ESD.  The Lions are matched up against Houston Christian in the opening round and play at 12:30 pm.