Lion Sports Update (04/17)

TRACK & FIELD
The varsity track & field team competed this past weekend in the Greenhill Open Meet.  No scoring, no awards, just good competition.  With 11 teams, composed of SPC and TAPPS, it was very good competition.  Under ideal weather, the Lions finished the meet with 22 PRs and numerous other SBs (seasonal best).  Leading the way was senior captain Bobby Strauss in the discus.  Coming into the season with a PR of 114’ 7”, Bobby has truly found his rhythm this year as he launched the discus 140’ 3.5” to finish 2^nd overall on Saturday.  Another athlete to find his big moment was sophomore Ailesh Sadruddin.  Ailesh came into this season with PRs of 2:22.58 (800m) and 5:19.31 (1600m).  He responded with the best meet of his life on Saturday, running 2:15.21 and 5:13.59, respectively…a 7+ seconds improvement in the 800m and a 5+ seconds improvement in the 1600m. Another athlete to fly under the radar, Marshall Bagley, had the same kind of day.  Marshall came into the season with a PR of 30’ 5.5” (shot put) and 80’ 6” (discus).  On Saturday, Marshall unleashed throws of 36’ 6” and 105’ 1.5”…improvements of 6+ feet in the shot put and almost 25 feet in the discus.  Outstanding improvements for these young men!  Those were just several of the outstanding efforts on the day as there was outstanding improvement across the board.  This weekend, the Lions travel down to Houston for the Nick Finnegan Invitational, hosted by St. John’s.  This will be an SPC Championship preview with all of the Houston powerhouses competing. Then, two weeks later, the SPC Championships will take place at Greenhill on May 3 & 4, 2024.

 
BASEBALL

In an effort to beat last week's thunderstorms, the varsity baseball team pushed up their Tuesday home counter game vs. Fort Worth Country Day to Monday afternoon. A competitive back-and-forth contest, the Falcons were able to take advantage of several Lions' defensive miscues throughout the game despite starting pitcher Deven Pietrzak's solid complete game, handing St. Mark's a 4-2 loss. Jack Frary and Jackson Williams drove in an RBI each while Jake DeBoever, Alex Barrett, William Everitt, and Jackson Ostella also collected hits for St. Mark's. On Friday, the Lions hosted Cistercian for a "friendly" (non-counter). Lucas Petrikas dazzled on the mound, throwing a complete-game gem while allowing four hits and two runs with five strikeouts and no walks over seven innings. Additionally, the defense committed no errors (which has been the Lions' Achilles heel all season), punctuating Petrikas' outstanding performance. Leading the offensive charge, Jake DeBoever had two hits and two stolen bases with Aaron Augustine, Alex Barrett, Alex Dahlander, and William Everitt adding key hits as Cistercian's pitchers struggled to find the zone. St. Mark's seven runs scored proved to be too much for the Hawks as the Lions nailed down a much-needed victory, finally snapping a multiple-game losing streak. The baseball team has two road games this week: a Wednesday non-counter at Greenhill (4:30 p.m.) and a Thursday non-counter at Ft. Worth Country Day (6:30 p.m.).

 
GOLF

This past weekend, the St. Mark’s golf team traveled to Bastrop, Texas, to compete in an SPC preview of sorts. The event, hosted by St. John’s, took place at Wolfdancer Golf Course at the Lost Pines Resort. The long bus ride seemed to take a toll on the Lions, who posted one of the highest team scores of their season on a sluggish day one. However, the squad regrouped that evening and made the most of day two. Senior Charlie Hill turned in a 79, the strongest round of his competitive career at St. Mark’s - an especially impressive feat considering the challenging nature of the course, which truly tested every component of each golfer’s game. Freshmen James Hoak (78 following a solid day one 84) and Sam Merryman (74 following a day one 79) both demonstrated phenomenal maturity navigating the track. And then there was sophomore Duff McKay. After struggling on the front 9 on day one, Duff buckled down and played 2-under par on the back to finish with a 3-over-par 75. Then on day 2, Duff was lights out! He spearheaded a team-wide surge up the leaderboard with several early birdies that put the pressure on the rest of the field. When all the dust settled, the team had climbed from sixth place after day one to fourth place with Duff outscoring the next best competitor across the entire field by two strokes to claim the individual title. It was a sensational round on all fronts, as the team proved they will be a force to reckon with at the SPC tournament in two weeks. Kudos to all ten players who sacrificed their weekend to represent well!

LACROSSE
St. Mark’s varsity lacrosse had only one game against Highland Park last week in which the Lions lost 19-1.  This week is a big one as the varsity squad takes on ESD on Friday at 3 p.m. in the SPC Tournament.  The 4A tournament will be held at ESD.