Lions Prepare for SPC

Due to inclement weather, several adjustments are being made to the SPC Championship schedule. Find the latest updates at SPCSports.org. 

With the SPC Tournament this week here in Dallas, you can follow our various teams on their respective Twitter pages, on the primary Athletics Twitter, or find tournament brackets and game times at http://www.spcsports.org/2018-spring-championships/

On Friday and Saturday, the varsity track & field team changed their old format from an intrasquad meet to a tri-meet with Greenhill and Hockaday. This gave our athletes one more chance to achieve qualifying standards for the SPC Track & Field Championship meet that will be held at St. Mark’s this Friday and Saturday. The meet went even better than expected. With perfect weather, the Lions earned 27 PR’s or SB’s throughout the two days! The highlights of the meet were the performances of many athletes on the team. Pablo Arroyo led an onslaught in the distance races with 2 PR’s in the 800m and 1600M. Seth Weprin and Tyler Nussbaumer were right behind him with PR’s in the 1600m as well. Sam Shane (SB), Cal Rushton (PR), and George Lamb (PR) also had a great showing in the 800m. Fausto Reyher led Dominik Fronc and John Harbison in the 300h, all in PR times. Freshman Josh Mysore finally got to show his stuff with PR’s in the 100m, 200m, and Long Jump. Zach Gilstrap led the throwers with two good performances in the shot put and discus. This meet really showed the potential of the St. Mark’s team going into the SPC Championships. Friday events start at 9:00 a.m. and Saturday events begin at 10:00 a.m. 

 

The JV water polo team played in the North Texas Regional Championships on Saturday. In the first game they won against Flower Mound HS, 18-1. In the semifinal, the Lions defeated Denton Guyer HS 14-2. In the Championship game, the team faced a tough Southlake Carroll HS team. With two minutes left in the game, the Lions trailed by two goals, 3-5. As a result of relentless effort, the team scored two goals in the closing seconds and pushed the game in overtime. Freshman Rahul Banerjee scored the winning goal (he also scored the last goal in regulation) and the team managed to defend the title from last year. This was St. Mark’s 9^th straight JV Championship. The St. Mark’s middle school team (14U made up of 7^thand 8^th graders) traveled to Austin to play in the Texas Age Group Championships. In the first game they defeated Houston Storm 18-1. In the second game they played Thunder Black and won the game 22-6. In the third game of the day, the Lions lost on a penalty shootout to Zilla-Boerne, 17-19. On the second day, the team matched up with Southside in the semifinal. Exhausted and mentally fatigued, the team allowed Southside to defeat us 13-7. The team moved on and showed up to play in the Consolation Final against the team they lost to the night before in penalty shots, Zilla-Boerne. This time our kids competed at a high level while demonstrating some grit and won the game in a great fashion, 15-9. Placing 3^rd in a competition like this is a great achievement as all of the other teams in this competition are select club teams. In the same competition, the 12U team that plays as part of the Trident Water Polo club which is made up of all St. Mark’s kids (grades 3, 4, 5, and 6) won the State Championship. The 12U team is now back-to-back State Champion. This weekend, the varsity water polo team travels to Austin to compete in the Texas High School State Championship.

 

On Monday, the varsity tennis team completed the previously rain-suspended match against Ft. Worth Country Day, winning 5-0. Kobe Roseman handily won his second set 6-0. Alex Piccagli completed the last 2 games of his match to win in record time. It only took him five minutes to finish up his match 6-1, 6-3. Sid Vattamreddy and Samir Ratakonda split sets in doubles but came out ahead in the third-set tiebreaker. On Tuesday, the Lions had an amazing victory against long-time rival Greenhill. Harris Wilson succumbed to a very tough opponent who is ranked #2 in the state but played a hard-fought match. Davis Bailey and Mark Motlow both scored solid wins over their opponents in two sets. Adnan Khan and Matthew Pollock played an incredible doubles match and pulled off a good win against an experienced team. At line 2 doubles, Jack Parolisi and Kobe Roseman played tough against a really good team but lost. Final score: St. Mark’s 3 – Greenhill 2. On Friday, the team faced Oakridge with a chance to go undefeated in SPC North Zone play. Davis Bailey battled an opponent with a huge serve and came up a bit short, while Adnan Khan took down his opponent quickly. Kobe Roseman started off really strong, but his opponent kept getting better. Kobe hung on to win an exciting 2nd set tiebreaker, sealing the match 6-3, 7-6. In doubles, Parolisi and Motlow took care of business winning 6-0, 6-0 while Vattamreddy and Ratakonda battled thru some tougher times but came up with the win by a score of 7-5, 6-4. By clinching the #1 seed in the SPC North Zone, the Lions secured a first round bye in the SPC Tournament and will play the winner of Kinkaid (S4) and ESD (N5) in the SPC quarterfinals at 10 am on Friday. Greenhill is the tournament host. 

 

Last Tuesday, the varsity baseball team hosted Greenhill. St. Mark’s jumped out to an early 2-0 lead and was cruising along until Greenhill scored three times, taking a 3-2 lead in the top of the 5th inning. With two outs and runners on first and third bases, Greenhill opted to walk red-hot-hitting senior Jimmy Rodriguez to load the bases. Seizing on the opportunity, senior clean-up hitter Zach Landry smacked a two-strike, two-run double to give the Lions back the lead. The Lions later added three insurance runs, which was plenty for senior pitcher Reece Rabin and sophomore pitcher Mason Rareshide to close out the Hornets’ offense, 7-3. On Friday, St. Mark’s traveled over to Arlington to face undefeated Oakridge. With the #1 North Zone seed up for grabs, the baseball team made a handful of defensive errors to open the game. This gave Oakridge a 3-0 head start in the first inning; however, junior Cole Arnett settled in and pitched well in spite of the miscues. Down 0-6 in the 6th inning, the Lions scratched two runs to reduce Oakridge’s lead. In the top of the 7th, St. Mark’s scored another run after Rareshide drove in a run, but unfortunately, the Lions ran out of outs as the game ended in a 6-3 Oakridge victory. As the #3 seed in the North Zone, St. Mark’s will host St. Andrew’s on Thursday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. in the opening round of SPC tournament play.

 

Lacrosse 

The varsity lacrosse team had one game this past week, hosting Highland Park on Thursday night in a game that would determine the #1 seed from the THSLL North District East Division. It was a very tight game, with the teams knotted at one apiece at half time and then 5-5 at the end of the 3^rd quarter. The Scots took a one goal lead with about six minutes left in the game, and then the Lions had a great scoring chance to answer, but the HP goalie made a tremendous save to maintain their 1 goal lead. The Lions were forced to pressure away from the net and the Scots were able to slip an insurance goal into the net with just one minute left in the game. Final score: St. Mark’s 5 – Highland Park 7. For the Lions, Sam Schroeder had 4 goals and Garrett Mize added 1. John Gunnin had an amazing game in the pipes for the Lions, recording 12 saves and keeping the game close until the very end. The Lions finish as the East Division’s #2 seed in the THSLL North District Playoff and will host the West Division’s #3 seeded Southlake Dragons on Tuesday at home at 7:30 p.m. 

 

The varsity golf team is currently at the SPC Tournament at the Woodforest Golf Club in The Woodlands, TX. Round one is played on Monday and round two on Tuesday. The golfers representing St. Mark’s at the tournament are seniors Rett Daugbjerg, Mike Mahowald, and Hill Washburne, junior James Rogers, and sophomores Camp Collins and Romil Mathur.