Boys Third, Girls Fourth in WCAC Cross Country Championships

Bishop Ireton’s cross country team, perhaps running on emotion from the recent loss of their assistant coach, Rob Sagar, posted their strongest finish in recent years at the WCAC cross country championships at Lake Fairfax. The Cardinals boys’ team, led by Liam O’Connor’s 17:44, 7th place finish and Michael Andersen’s 17:57, 10th place finish, both all conference qualifying finishes, grabbed a 3rd place slot (88) behind champions Gonzaga (26) and runner up Good Counsel (39). They far outdistanced Bishop O’Connell, (123) Ryken (160) St Johns (170) and DeMatha (180). PVI, McNamara and Carroll rounded out the boys standings. Ireton’s Nick Manzek finished 19th in a time of 18:32, Murphy Costigan chased him home with a 18:47, good for 21st, while Dan Burns (19:24) and Arthur Stier, (19:41) rounded out the boys’ finishers.

Senior Madelyn Thomas paced the varsity girls 4th place finish with her 13th spot in a time of 22:20, while junior Aubrey Gartlan was hot on her heels at 22:56, good for a 18th place finish. Alex Georgi, (23:15) was 25th, while Marin Nolan finished 28th, Shannon Gordon 30th in times of 23:59 and 24:06 respectively. Katarina Frustaci (24:36) was 34th and Margeret Nealon 36th in a time of 24:34. DJO won the event with 19 points, Good Counsel was second (54) while St Johns posted a third spot (111) edging Ireton with 114.

In the boys’ JV meet, Ireton captured a third place team finish on the strength of Conor Pearson’s 5th place finish (19:01) , Kevin Corcoran, (18th, 19:54), Chris Adelson (35th, 20:43) Nick Gaietto (36th, 20:44), Edward Nguyen (42nd, 21:02) , Sean Pili (28th, 21:03) and Dan Cummins (45th, 21:18) who nosed out teammate Andrew Baehre at 21:20. As with the varsity meet, Gonzaga won the JV event, Good Counsel was second.

The girls’ JV meet was dominated by Bishop O’Connell, who took the top 5 spots. Ireton’s Sarah Fyffe grabbed the 6th place in a time of 23:53 while Loren Gant was 8th in a time of 24:21. Mary Johnson, (11th, 24:49) Anna Chelak, (30th, 26:53), Kathryn Gasper (31st, 26:56), Katarina Axenfeld (32nd, 26:57), and Annie Barletta at 36th in a time of 27:03 all helped the Cardinals to a second place finish, where they edged PVI by a single point, 76-77.

In the youngsters race, the Cardinals’ freshmen, led by Jack Leyden, the race’s first place finisher with a time of 19:04, snared the top honors with the Cardinals winning the boys freshmen team title. Micheal LoGrande was 4th with a time of 19:48, Patrick Coyle toured the course in 20:15 to earn a 6th place finish while Steven Gottliev was 8th with a time of 20:26. Teammates Jack Jarvis (22:40, 27th), Joe Simko (23:11, 29th) Joseph Sardegna (23:50, 41) and Connor Beveridge (23:55, 44th) rounded out the scoring for the freshmen boys. No girls freshmen race was reported.