Lions Win SPC
Find the highlights from this weekend's SPC Championship below, or check back soon for the full recap.
Swimming
It was a great weekend of swimming for the Lions, where all 18 athletes posted new Personal Best (PB) times. The two-day meet where the Lions qualified 32 swims in 8 individual events had 25 of those 32 swims make finals with four additional swimmers just missing out and getting 9th place. The meet: The Lions' top competition was again going to be St. Stephens, though cross-town rival Greenhill was putting in the work, hoping they would be in the hunt for the SPC Championship as well…though the Lions would beat the Hornets by 56 points. St. Stephen’s, however, was a much different story as their top athletes would give the Lions a run for their money, but in the end, Spartans didn’t have the leg power to overcome the amazing swims put together by the Lions. 1st Place – St. Mark’s (155pts), 2nd Place St. Stephens (141pts), 3rd Place Greenhill (99pts).
All-SPC earners were:
The St Mark’s varsity basketball team entered this past weekend‘s SPC tournament as the #2 seed following a 7-1 north zone campaign. The Lions hosted a first-round SPC game for the first time in two decades. Kinkaid kept it close throughout the first half, but seniors Matthew Jordan, Henry Estes, and Shyam Maddukuri sparked a second-half run that enabled the home team to pull away from the Falcons. Juniors Sam Blumenthal and Andy Li locked down defensively throughout the fourth quarter, and classmate Cooper Guiler knocked down the “nail in the coffin” three-pointer to help the team advance to round two. The next day, St. Mark’s would travel to Trinity Valley School in Fort Worth. The opponent, Greenhill, had given SM all they could handle in a mid-January game, and the Hornets would prove to be a handful once again, opening up a double-digit lead in the first half due to some early turnovers by the Marksmen. However, seniors Lawrence Gardner and Jack Baker, along with sophomore AJ Thomas, put the clamps on Greenhill’s two leading scorers. Junior Pranav Danda ran the point effectively and scored a pair of gritty second-half buckets in the lane. Sophomore Dawson Battie and senior Luke Laczkowski each scored over 20 points and combined for nearly 20 rebounds as the boys in navy and blue resiliently clawed their way back into the game and forged a four-point lead with less than a quarter remaining. The game would end in exhilarating fashion with St. Mark’s clinging to a one-point lead with under a minute to play. Unfortunately, back-to-back turnovers would doom the Lions, as Greenhill wound up with the ball in the final seconds and sank a miraculous fallaway buzzer-beater en route to earning the first-ever basketball championship in their program’s history. In the 3rd place game, the following day against Houston Christian, St. Mark’s overcame a slow start for the third consecutive day and then used a momentous second half to end the season on a high note. Junior Spencer Hopkin scored six tough points, and sophomore Asher Collins capped off a breakout season with a deep corner three-pointer that put the game on ice. Despite a season that featured SIX losses due to end-of-game buzzer-beaters, the Lions finished the season with a tremendous 28-8 record.
Soccer
The St. Mark’s Lions Soccer Team finished their season in good form last week, taking 3rd place at the Southwest Preparatory Conference tournament. The team began the week with a tune-up match against HSAA. Though this match ended in a 2-2 draw, the Lions were quite happy with the chance to experiment with different formations and personnel packages in preparation for the final tournament. The Lions faced their first opponent on Thursday — St. John’s School out of Houston — as the fourth seed playing the fifth seed. The match remained fairly even throughout eighty minutes of play, though the second half saw more chances fall to the Lions. It was a physical contest, and both sides appealed in vain to the official on multiple occasions. Regulation ended in a 0-0 draw, and two overtime periods went by without any score as well. Exhausted, both teams welcomed their opportunity to resolve the match in penalty kicks. In these, the Lions welcomed back injured senior defender Eduardo Mousinho, who buried his penalty in the back of the net. After a crucial save on the fourth shot by senior goalkeeper Adithya Munshi, the Lions prevailed, moving on to the semifinals. On Friday, the Lions faced the #1-seeded Greenhill team, who had received a first-round bye in the tournament. One might have expected the Hornets to press their advantage, given that they were rested against a Lions team coming off of a grueling win. However, Greenhill had beaten the Lions 3-1 earlier in the season by playing a mid-block with low pressure, and they sought to repeat the tactic. This approach might have worked for Greenhill if they had scored on an early opportunity that came off the post. However, the Lions survived, rallied, and eventually took control of the game by the middle of the second half. Their back line, consisting of senior captain Alex Abel, Alex Dahlander, Ethan Zhang, and Oliver Peck, posted an impressive 200 minutes of tournament play without giving up a run-of-play goal, aided by key interventions from Munshi. Again, regulation ended at 0-0 for the Lions. This time, however, the Lions captured the lead in the first overtime period after forward David Dickson was fouled in the penalty box. Senior captain Aydin Sumer stepped up to bury the penalty kick, and it looked like the Lions had earned a trip to the championship match. But tragedy struck. With only seconds left in the second overtime period, the official awarded a penalty kick to Greenhill, ending the OT period at 1-1 and sending it to kicks from the mark. Here, too, it looked like the Lions might prevail. However, it was not to be, and Greenhill claimed victory after the seventh kicker. After an emotional roller-coaster of a tournament — two penalty shootouts in two days — the Lions found themselves in a third-place match against The Kinkaid School Falcons, a team they had not beaten for several years. Both teams were feeling the effects of the demands of the tournament schedule, and it was unclear who had enough legs and enough heart to close out the weekend with a win. The match was wide open, with many attacks and counterattacks. Slowly, the field tilted for the Lions as the slashing midfield runs of senior captains Alden Reagins and Aydin Sumer proved too much for a weary Kinkaid midfield to handle. Wing play from seniors David Gershenson and Dylan Taylor also kept the pressure on the Kinkaid back line. Finally, the Lions broke through with about ten minutes remaining in the contest when Sumer burned down the left flank, cut inside, and beat the keeper with a beautiful shot to the upper far corner. Stunned, the Falcons responded by throwing everything they had at the Lions back line. However, this left them exposed to another counter from Sumer on the left. This time, he beat his man and then drove the ball across the box, where Taylor was waiting to tap the ball in, putting the Lions up 2-0 with only five minutes left. Before the Lions fan had finished celebrating this goal, though, the Falcons clawed back a goal of their own, making the score 2-1 with only added time to go. A furious few minutes ensued until the official finally blew the whistle. Thus, the Lions ended their season on a high note with a solid win and a third-place SPC tournament finish.
Wrestling
This past Saturday, the Lions wrestled in the SPC Championships hosted by Ft. Worth Country Day School. As a team, SM finished fifth and had six wrestlers in the finals. This is one of the most finalists at SPC or any other tournament under Coach Arredondo’s tenure. Ultimately, four were crowned champions (freshman Ferris Gottlich, sophomores Zach Golle and Oliver Loehr, and senior co-captain Wyatt Loehr) and there were two silver medalists (senior co-captain Teddy Fleiss and junior co-captain Jackson Barnes). This week the Lions have three representatives headed to the National Prep Wrestling Tournament at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. The three national qualifiers are Wyatt Loehr, Zach Golle, and Ferris Gottlich. Go Lions!
Back
Swimming
It was a great weekend of swimming for the Lions, where all 18 athletes posted new Personal Best (PB) times. The two-day meet where the Lions qualified 32 swims in 8 individual events had 25 of those 32 swims make finals with four additional swimmers just missing out and getting 9th place. The meet: The Lions' top competition was again going to be St. Stephens, though cross-town rival Greenhill was putting in the work, hoping they would be in the hunt for the SPC Championship as well…though the Lions would beat the Hornets by 56 points. St. Stephen’s, however, was a much different story as their top athletes would give the Lions a run for their money, but in the end, Spartans didn’t have the leg power to overcome the amazing swims put together by the Lions. 1st Place – St. Mark’s (155pts), 2nd Place St. Stephens (141pts), 3rd Place Greenhill (99pts).
All-SPC earners were:
- 200 Medley Relay 2nd Place: Armaan Newaskar, George Hoverman, Ethan Wang, Leo Scheiner – School Record
- 200 Individual Medley – 2nd Place: Ethan Wang (School Record)
- 50 Freestyle – 2nd and 3rd Place: Judah Isacs-Sodeye & Leo Scheiner
- 100 Butterfly 2nd and 3rd Place: Ethan Wang (School Record) & George Hoverman
- 100 Freestyle 3rd Place: Sebastian Illum
- 200 Freestyle Relay 1st Place: George Hoverman, Richard Wang, Sebastian Illum, Leo Scheiner
- 100 Backstroke 3rd Place: Armaan Newaskar
- 100 Breaststroke 2nd and 3rd Place: George Hoverman (School Record)
- 400 Freestyle Relay 2nd Place: Richard Wang, Benjamin Chen, Ethan Wang, Sebastian Illum
The St Mark’s varsity basketball team entered this past weekend‘s SPC tournament as the #2 seed following a 7-1 north zone campaign. The Lions hosted a first-round SPC game for the first time in two decades. Kinkaid kept it close throughout the first half, but seniors Matthew Jordan, Henry Estes, and Shyam Maddukuri sparked a second-half run that enabled the home team to pull away from the Falcons. Juniors Sam Blumenthal and Andy Li locked down defensively throughout the fourth quarter, and classmate Cooper Guiler knocked down the “nail in the coffin” three-pointer to help the team advance to round two. The next day, St. Mark’s would travel to Trinity Valley School in Fort Worth. The opponent, Greenhill, had given SM all they could handle in a mid-January game, and the Hornets would prove to be a handful once again, opening up a double-digit lead in the first half due to some early turnovers by the Marksmen. However, seniors Lawrence Gardner and Jack Baker, along with sophomore AJ Thomas, put the clamps on Greenhill’s two leading scorers. Junior Pranav Danda ran the point effectively and scored a pair of gritty second-half buckets in the lane. Sophomore Dawson Battie and senior Luke Laczkowski each scored over 20 points and combined for nearly 20 rebounds as the boys in navy and blue resiliently clawed their way back into the game and forged a four-point lead with less than a quarter remaining. The game would end in exhilarating fashion with St. Mark’s clinging to a one-point lead with under a minute to play. Unfortunately, back-to-back turnovers would doom the Lions, as Greenhill wound up with the ball in the final seconds and sank a miraculous fallaway buzzer-beater en route to earning the first-ever basketball championship in their program’s history. In the 3rd place game, the following day against Houston Christian, St. Mark’s overcame a slow start for the third consecutive day and then used a momentous second half to end the season on a high note. Junior Spencer Hopkin scored six tough points, and sophomore Asher Collins capped off a breakout season with a deep corner three-pointer that put the game on ice. Despite a season that featured SIX losses due to end-of-game buzzer-beaters, the Lions finished the season with a tremendous 28-8 record.
Soccer
The St. Mark’s Lions Soccer Team finished their season in good form last week, taking 3rd place at the Southwest Preparatory Conference tournament. The team began the week with a tune-up match against HSAA. Though this match ended in a 2-2 draw, the Lions were quite happy with the chance to experiment with different formations and personnel packages in preparation for the final tournament. The Lions faced their first opponent on Thursday — St. John’s School out of Houston — as the fourth seed playing the fifth seed. The match remained fairly even throughout eighty minutes of play, though the second half saw more chances fall to the Lions. It was a physical contest, and both sides appealed in vain to the official on multiple occasions. Regulation ended in a 0-0 draw, and two overtime periods went by without any score as well. Exhausted, both teams welcomed their opportunity to resolve the match in penalty kicks. In these, the Lions welcomed back injured senior defender Eduardo Mousinho, who buried his penalty in the back of the net. After a crucial save on the fourth shot by senior goalkeeper Adithya Munshi, the Lions prevailed, moving on to the semifinals. On Friday, the Lions faced the #1-seeded Greenhill team, who had received a first-round bye in the tournament. One might have expected the Hornets to press their advantage, given that they were rested against a Lions team coming off of a grueling win. However, Greenhill had beaten the Lions 3-1 earlier in the season by playing a mid-block with low pressure, and they sought to repeat the tactic. This approach might have worked for Greenhill if they had scored on an early opportunity that came off the post. However, the Lions survived, rallied, and eventually took control of the game by the middle of the second half. Their back line, consisting of senior captain Alex Abel, Alex Dahlander, Ethan Zhang, and Oliver Peck, posted an impressive 200 minutes of tournament play without giving up a run-of-play goal, aided by key interventions from Munshi. Again, regulation ended at 0-0 for the Lions. This time, however, the Lions captured the lead in the first overtime period after forward David Dickson was fouled in the penalty box. Senior captain Aydin Sumer stepped up to bury the penalty kick, and it looked like the Lions had earned a trip to the championship match. But tragedy struck. With only seconds left in the second overtime period, the official awarded a penalty kick to Greenhill, ending the OT period at 1-1 and sending it to kicks from the mark. Here, too, it looked like the Lions might prevail. However, it was not to be, and Greenhill claimed victory after the seventh kicker. After an emotional roller-coaster of a tournament — two penalty shootouts in two days — the Lions found themselves in a third-place match against The Kinkaid School Falcons, a team they had not beaten for several years. Both teams were feeling the effects of the demands of the tournament schedule, and it was unclear who had enough legs and enough heart to close out the weekend with a win. The match was wide open, with many attacks and counterattacks. Slowly, the field tilted for the Lions as the slashing midfield runs of senior captains Alden Reagins and Aydin Sumer proved too much for a weary Kinkaid midfield to handle. Wing play from seniors David Gershenson and Dylan Taylor also kept the pressure on the Kinkaid back line. Finally, the Lions broke through with about ten minutes remaining in the contest when Sumer burned down the left flank, cut inside, and beat the keeper with a beautiful shot to the upper far corner. Stunned, the Falcons responded by throwing everything they had at the Lions back line. However, this left them exposed to another counter from Sumer on the left. This time, he beat his man and then drove the ball across the box, where Taylor was waiting to tap the ball in, putting the Lions up 2-0 with only five minutes left. Before the Lions fan had finished celebrating this goal, though, the Falcons clawed back a goal of their own, making the score 2-1 with only added time to go. A furious few minutes ensued until the official finally blew the whistle. Thus, the Lions ended their season on a high note with a solid win and a third-place SPC tournament finish.
Wrestling
This past Saturday, the Lions wrestled in the SPC Championships hosted by Ft. Worth Country Day School. As a team, SM finished fifth and had six wrestlers in the finals. This is one of the most finalists at SPC or any other tournament under Coach Arredondo’s tenure. Ultimately, four were crowned champions (freshman Ferris Gottlich, sophomores Zach Golle and Oliver Loehr, and senior co-captain Wyatt Loehr) and there were two silver medalists (senior co-captain Teddy Fleiss and junior co-captain Jackson Barnes). This week the Lions have three representatives headed to the National Prep Wrestling Tournament at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. The three national qualifiers are Wyatt Loehr, Zach Golle, and Ferris Gottlich. Go Lions!
St. Mark’s School of Texas
10600 Preston Road
Dallas, Texas 75230
214-346-8000
Dallas, Texas 75230
214-346-8000
About Us
St. Mark’s School of Texas is a private, nonsectarian college-preparatory boys’ day school for students in grades 1 through 12, located in Dallas, Texas. St. Mark’s aims to prepare young men to assume leadership and responsibility in a competitive and changing world.
St. Mark’s does not discriminate in the administration of its admission and education policies on the basis of race, color, religion, sexual orientation, or national or ethnic origin.
St. Mark’s does not discriminate in the administration of its admission and education policies on the basis of race, color, religion, sexual orientation, or national or ethnic origin.
