Lions Sports Update (11/19)

WRESTLING
The varsity wrestling team opened the season at the Lucas Lovejoy Leopard Duals. This dual format tournament included Lucas Lovejoy HS, Bishop Lynch HS, Lake Highlands HS, Plano West HS, and McKinney Boyd HS. In this tough tournament, our Lions were edged out by Bishop Lynch and Lucas Lovejoy by one point in those duals, the one-point loss to Lucas Lovejoy was due to criteria after finishing the match a tie. Three of our Lions won five out of five matches for the day (Beau Bacon, Wyatt Loehr, and Oliver Loehr). This tough competition gave our Lion Wrestlers a snapshot of where they were at the beginning of the season and provided them with a task list of wrestling techniques to practice.  
St. Mark’s 39 vs Bishop Lynch HS 40
St. Mark’s 21 vs Lake Highlands 49
St. Mark’s 30 vs Plano West 45
St. Mark’s 40 vs Lucas Lovejoy (40 + 1 criteria pt)
St. Mark’s 47 vs McKinney Boyd 30

This week, St. Mark’s will wrestle against Kimball HS on Wednesday, Nov. 20, and then head into the Thanksgiving break. Upon return to school, on Wednesday, Dec. 4, the Lions wrestle the Episcopal School of Dallas at ESD, then Fort Worth Country Day at 5:30 pm in Spencer gymnasium. The team looks forward to their first home dual of the season, and all are invited to come out and support your Lion wrestlers. 

SOCCER
St. Mark’s Lion’s varsity soccer kicked off the season under new Head Coach Joel Reemtsma last Thursday with a comfortable win over John Paul II by a score of 4-1. Senior Aydin Sumer opened the action with a 25-yard screamer in only the game’s second minute. However, JP2 stiffened their defense and clawed one back by halftime, drawing the two teams to the same level. But the Lions struck early again in the second half when senior captain Alex Abel blasted the ball over the goalkeeper and into the goal from near midfield. Not long after, Sumer found the net through an assist from sophomore David Dickson, who got the insurance goal. Senior Chris Hahn rounded out the scoring with a big run in from the wing, followed by a tap-in goal. An excellent start for the Lions! Friday’s game was a much tougher battle with a less decisive result. St. Mark’s finished the match against HSAA with a 0-0 draw. The game was still exciting, though, with scoring chances at both ends. The defensive combination of seniors Alex Abel, Ethan Zhang, Daniel Sun, and Eduardo Mousinho managed to keep those to a minimum, and senior Adithya Munshi tallied several saves to notch his first clean sheet of the season. This week, the Lions host TCA on Thursday at 7:30 pm.  

BASKETBALL
The St. Mark’s varsity basketball team opened with a pair of home contests on Friday and Saturday, November 11th and 12th. The Lions roared out of the gate thanks to a massive 16-point first-quarter barrage from senior Luke Laczkowski. Sophomore AJ Thomas and junior Spencer Hopkin energized the defense with a couple of second-quarter steals-turned-scores, and sophomore Dawson Battie came alive as a dominating force in the second half. However, the experienced opponent from Bishop Lynch weathered the storm and ultimately handed the Marksmen a 60-55 loss. Resilient and eager to grow during the season’s early stages, St. Mark’s took to the court the following morning against another talented foe, the Dallas Christian Athletes Club out of Frisco. Laczkowski and Battie eclipsed the 20-point mark for the second consecutive game, despite the opponents’ pair of 6’7” big men who matched up well. St. Mark’s turned a 5-point end-of-first-quarter deficit into a 5-point halftime lead. Then they relied on energetic play from senior Shyam Maddukuri and sophomore Asher Collins to make a third-quarter run that stretched the lead to double-digits. Early in the fourth, the Lions struggled to get stops against DCA’s guards, who got hot from 3, but in the end, SM secured a hard-fought victory. The team will host Pinkston Friday night at 8 pm this week before playing in 3 showcases over the ensuing 8 days over Thanksgiving break, culminating with one of Dallas’s premier events, the Hoopfest on Nov. 30.

SWIMMING
The varsity swim team did not compete last week. They open their season this week with a meet at Jesuit on Tuesday, Nov. 29 at 5:45 pm.

ALUMNI ATHLETE NEWS
Three former Marksmen cross country runners will be competing in the NCAA Division III National Championships.  Pablo Arroyo ’20 (MIT)  and Raja Mehendale ’24 (Washington & Lee) are representing their teams at the Championships while Julian Ivarra ’21 (Babson) qualified for the Championships as an Individual.  The race is Saturday, Nov. 23, at 11 pm (central) in Terre Haute, Indiana.