Lion Sports Update 04/11/18

Last week, the varsity baseball team had two back-to-back SPC counter games. Having to cancel Tuesday’s game due to the afternoon "15-minute monsoon," the Lions hosted ESD the following day. After falling behind 0-3 in the first inning, the offense, led by sophomore Mason Rareshide and seniors Reece Rabin, Zach Landry, Jimmy Rodriguez and Canyon Kyle, responded by posting four runs to take the lead. However, ESD retook the lead, 6-4, in the 6th inning. Again, the SM bats came alive by scattering a barrage of hits and scoring six times in the bottom of the 6th. Rareshide collected the win for the Lions after two innings of solid relief work on the mound. Thursday’s contest pitted St. Mark’s against perennial foe, Fort Worth Country Day. As had happened the day before, the Lions fell behind, 0-3, in the first inning. Unfortunately, the Lions would trail the entire game, as errors and walks followed up by timely FWCD hitting did them in. In one bright spot, senior Jimmy Rodriguez collected two hits, continuing his torrid season of hitting. The final score was 4-13, and the Lions look to regroup this week with two road games: Tuesday at Trinity Valley (counter) and Wednesday at Bishop Lynch.

 

The varsity tennis team had to deal with wet conditions and untimely rain last week as both matches were affected by weather. The Tuesday match was postponed due to the aforementioned afternoon rain storm that made the courts unplayable at match time despite the fact that the day turned out to be quite nice. This match will be made up on Friday, April 20, at 4:30 p.m. Then on Friday, the Lions were well on their way to victory against Ft. Worth Country Day when again a down pour suspended play. At the time, singles players Kobe Roseman (line 1), Max Wu (line 2), and Alex Piccagli (line 3), as well as the line 1 doubles team of Sid Vattamreddy and Samir Rattakonda were all up 1 set to zero and midway through their second set. The line 2 doubles team of Rhys Arana and Creston Brooks were able to finish their match before the skies opened by winning in straight sets (6-0, 6-0). The continuation of this match has yet to be rescheduled. This week, the Lions travel to Trinity Valley on Tuesday for another important SPC counter match, followed by a non-conference road match against local foe Highland Park on Wednesday.

 

The varsity water polo team played in the Texas Cup Tournament this past weekend. Rounds 1 and 2 saw the Lions win, beating Lake Highlands 23-0 and Lyndon B. Johnson HS (Austin) 22-2. In the tournament semifinals, the Lions came up against Flower Mound HS who they had split games with earlier in the season. In a hard-fought game, Flower Mound wound up beating the Lions by a score of 7-5. In the third-place game, the Lions bounced back to beat Southlake Carroll 11-5. The team will take the pool again this weekend in the Carroll Invitational in Southlake.

 

The varsity track & field team traveled to Prestonwood Christian Academy on Friday to Compete in the 3rd Annual Lions Relays. It was a good meet for St. Mark’s as they competed well in every event. Seun Omonije started things off with a big jump in his first experience with the Triple Jump. His mark of 41’ 3” immediately moved him into the top 5 marks in the conference. Clay Morris and Daniel Garcia were next when they finished 1-2 in the Long Jump. John Harbison, Colton Barber, and Dominik Fronc finished 2-4-6- in the Pole Vault. Then Dominik literally ran over to the shot put and improved 5’ from his previous best with a throw of 41’ 6.5”. Once the track events started, the team continued their great day. Seth Weprin, Andres Arroyo, and Tyler Nussbaumer finished 2-3-5 in the 3200m. The 4 x 100 relays teams finished 2-3. Pablo Arroyo, Sam Shane, and Cal Rushton finished 2-4-5 in the 800m. Fausto Reyher, Dominik Fronc, and John Horbison finished 1-3-4 in the 110h with Dominik and John running PR’s. The 100m saw Seun Omonije and Kit Colson finish 3-4 in the 100m, both with lifetime bests. The meet was stopped short at this point because of weather. St. Mark’s was winning the meet going away at that point and looking forward to the last 5 events. This week, the team travels to Prince of Peace for the Adidas Relays on Friday.

 

The varsity golf team sent six competitors to compete against Greenhill and ESD at Trinity Forest Golf Course, site of the PGA’s Byron Nelson Tournament, on Wednesday afternoon. Senior Rett Daugbjerg posted the best score for the Lions, a 79. Sophomore Romil Mathur shot an 82 and junior Mike Mahowald an 83. Windy conditions, combined with quick, newly-sanded greens made for a difficult scoring day across the board. One of the course representatives commented that the greens played faster this week than they will at the Byron Nelson next month, and yet the Marksmen managed to play well enough to come away with the win against both ESD and Greenhill. The team will hit the links again next Monday, April 16, in the Chick-fil-a Tournament at Squaw Creek GC.

 

The varsity lacrosse team played Frisco last week in an important THSLL District game. The Lions won the game 12-5 which puts them at 3-0 in District. Big contributors in the game were Sam Schroeder with 5 goals, Josh Daniels with 3 goals, Willie Wood with 1 goal and 3 assists, and Titus McGowan with 1 goal and 2 assists. Then on Friday, the Lions faced ESD in an SPC North Zone counter game. The Lions fell behind early, trailing 1-6 midway through the 2nd quarter. With only 5 seconds left in the 1st half, Willie Wood scored a goal in transition to cut the lead to 3-7 and give the Lions a little momentum heading into the break. The 3rd quarter was all St. Mark’s. Led by John Burton who owned the faceoff circle to start the 2nd half, the Lions outscoring ESD 5-0 and were leading 8-7 going into the final quarter. The Eagles promptly scored 2 unanswered goals and the Lions found themselves in desperation mode in the closing minutes of the game. With 48 seconds left, Sam Schroeder managed to maintain possession among 4 ESD defenders and scorched the game-tying goal by the ESD goalie to tie the game and send it to OT. In sudden death OT, the Eagles capitalized on their offense and scored the game winner. Final score: Lions 9 – ESD 10. Goal scorers for the Lions were: Josh Daniels (2), Willie Wood (2), Sam Schroeder (2), Garrett Mize (1), Reeves White (1), and Titus McGowan (1). In goal, John Gunnin had 6 saves on the night. The Lions take the field again on Wednesday, April 11 at Allen and then host The Woodlands on Saturday at 3:00 p.m.