Lions Sports Update (2/11)

This is SPC week. The St. Mark’s winter season teams will be competing in the SPC Championships in the Ft. Worth area as well as a few games in Dallas.  To follow the basketball, soccer, swimming, and wrestling teams, go to the SPC Sports website for brackets and results. 

WRESTLING
The Lion wrestlers hosted and battled this weekend in the 2025 Texas Prep State Wrestling Championship. As a team, the Lions finished 7th out of 21 teams. As the sport grows and more private schools compete, this event gets bigger and tougher every year. Four Lions finished on the podium in their respective weight classes:  sophomore Zach Golle and junior Jackson Barnes finished in 4th place, freshman Ferris Gottlich finished with a silver medal, and capping off an amazing season, senior captain Wyatt Loehr won by tech fall (19-3) in the finals to win his first Prep State title. This Saturday, St. Mark’s will wrestle at Ft. Worth Country Day School for the SPC Championship.

BASKETBALL

Last week, the St. Mark’s basketball team finished the regular season with three games. First, at ESD on Tuesday, February 4th, the Lions relied on gritty play from seniors Matthew Jordan, Jack Baker, and Shyam Maddukuri to overcome some early foul trouble and cold perimeter shooting. The game seesawed back and forth with SM taking a small lead into the fourth quarter, thanks in large part to Luke Laczkowski’s 20-point, 10-rebound day. However, a couple of late bang-bang plays did not go the Lions’ way as they lost at the buzzer 46-48. Two nights later against TACA, cold shooting again doomed the Marksmen. Sophomore Dawson Battie scored a game-high 29 points and became the fastest in program history to reach 1,000 points for his career. But it wasn’t enough to overcome a talented TACA team who more than doubled SM’s 3-point percentage in handing the Lions a 50-57 loss.

Friday, January 7th, was senior night. Jack Baker, Henry Estes, Lawrence Gardner, Matthew Jordan, Luke Laczkowski, and Shyam Maddukuri took to the court for the final regular-season contest of their illustrious careers. Each of them played extremely well, combining for 41 points and 12 assists en route to a convincing 73-43 victory against HSAA. With their strong play throughout the regular-season campaign, the team earned the SPC 4A #2 seed heading into the first round of the SPC tournament and will get to host Kinkaid at 6 pm on Thursday, February 13th in the Zierk Athletic Center.

SOCCER
The St. Mark’s varsity soccer team had mixed results last week. On Tuesday, the Lions lost their last counter match to ESD 1–3. After showing some initial attacking initiative, SM went down a goal after a counterattack. The ESD Eagles soon followed up with another, making the score 2-0. After a long midfield battle, the Lions were able to claw back a goal in the 58th minute, after senior captain Alden Reagins was hauled down in the ESD penalty box. Fellow captain Aydin Sumer scored the ensuing kick. However, the Lions were unable to make further headway, and the Eagles eventually made a third successful counterattack, after the Lions had thrown everything they had left at securing the draw.

On Thursday, the Lions hosted Bishop Lynch for St. Mark’s Senior Night, with a much more satisfying resolution. The Lions put ten seniors into the starting lineup: goalkeeper Adithya Munshi, defenders Alex Abel, Ethan Zhang, and Chris Hahn, midfielders Alden Reagins, Aydin Sumer, and Dylan Taylor, and attackers David Gershenson, Oliver Peck, and Nicolas Dickason. In addition, the Lions honored injured seniors Daniel Sun, Eduardo Mousinho, and Vikram Singh, as well as manager Nico Costa. The seniors got off to a roaring start with four first half goals, with all three captains notching one. Reagins opened the scoring unassisted, gliding past several defenders and hammering the ball home from the top of the box. Nicolas Dickason tallied his first of the season shortly thereafter on an assist from Sumer. The Friars soon struck back, however, making the score 2-1 only ten minutes into the match. But the Lions would not be stymied. In the 18th minute, David Gershenson slipped a ball through to Sumer, who was fouled in the Bishop Lynch penalty box. Sumer took the penalty kick himself, giving the Lions an insurance goal back. Minutes later, Sumer took a short corner and served a ball across to the far post, where his fellow captain Alex Abel was waiting to head the ball into the back of the net. The score then held steady at 4-1 through the rest of the match.  The Lions’ soccer team will be competing in the SPC Championships this week, with their quarterfinal match on Thursday at 4 pm at Trinity Valley in Ft. Worth.

SWIMMING
The varsity swim team did not compete last week as they begin to taper their training in anticipation of the SPC Championships which will be held on Thursday and Friday at the Keller ISD Natatorium.