Jesuit, Mount Carmel repeat as district champions

If local Catholic school athletes are going to reap gold medals at the May 10 state Class 5A track and field meet, they will have to do it with their legs.

That declaration was borne from the results of the District 9-5A championship meet that took place on April 24.

While seven Catholic League records were broken on the Tad Gormley Stadium track, the results in field events were indeed paltry as not one single record was broken.

Usually, a state championship team is the result of a balance of points scored in both track and field events. Comparative distances among 9-5A athletes have been average at best this season.

Fortunately, there are only seven field events on the program. The majority of points will come from the scheduled 12 running results.

And that’s where the stars came out at the district meet in which individual boys and girls rewrote the record book. The male side did it mainly with speed; the girls excelled in distance races.

Finishing at the top in eight events, Jesuit won its fourth consecutive team title, totaling 176 points; Mount Carmel also repeated as the girls’ team champion by winning seven events.

The record-breakers

Boys’ 100: Brother Martin’s Easton Royal recorded a personal-best time of 10.30, which broke the event record by 0.7 seconds.

A sophomore, Royal’s finish by a half-step over the reigning state sprint champion, Josh Brown (10.39) of Holy Cross, was the third-fastest ever run by an athlete in the tri-parish metro area.

The leader is Germain Smith-Mata of Warren Easton, with a wind-aided finish of 10.13 at the 2024 Class 5A meet. East Jefferson’s Harlan Davis was the previous leader at 10.20, set in 1986.

Boys’ 200: Not settling for a runner-up spot in this event, Brown reversed the order of finish by breaking the record in this sprint and handily beating Royal to do so.

Brown’s time of 20.86, which makes him a leading candidate to repeat as state champion in this event, erased the district mark of Edna Karr’s Ra’hji Dennis, set in 2023.

The time was also the fastest  ever run by a local scholar, passing Dennis’ 20.89 set in 2023, and broke the Holy Cross school record of 21.07 set by Krosse Johnson in he 2022 state meet.

Royal’s runner-up time of 21.32, and third-place clocking by Nasir Ceasar (21.34) of Archbishop Rummel were personal-best times. Ceasar also finished third in the 100-meter dash.

Boys’ hurdles: Jesuit sophomore Ja’ir Burks was a double winner in the 110-meter and 300-meter hurdles. His time of 13.71 in the shorter high hurdles replaced the former mark of 13.85 run by Holy Cross’ Tim Magee in 1978.

Burks bettered his previous best time of 39.89 by winning the 300-meter event in 39.44.

His next quest for a district record is the 37.24 mark of John Curtis’ Justin Horne, run in 2023.

The top five finishers recorded personal best times:

Boys’ 4x800 relay: The Blue Jays’ exchange crew of Finnian Connolly, Rhys Grant, Edwin Siguenza and Patrick Smith covered the eight-lap distance in 8:07.05, which set a district record but was not the fastest run locally.

Jesuit’s 2024 team had a non-winning time of 7:58.52 at the Class 5A state meet. Also that year, The Willow School was clocked in 7:56.34. 

The Blue Jays’ winning time ranks just No. 8 among the fastest run locally. But it was still more than 15 seconds faster than runner-up Brother Martin’s 8:22.40.

Girls’ 1,600: Signaling the beginning of a stellar evening of racing for Mount Carmel’s team, senior Catalina Reichard opened the record book for the Cubs by winning the four-lap event in 5:05.54.

Absent from competition in 2024 because of an injury, Reichard returned to her finest form by shattering her own district record of 5:09.32. 

Her next quest is another personal record she owns: the mark of 5:04.86, which she posted in 2023. That mark  ranks second to state record-holder Mia Meydrich of Dominican, run in 2014.

Girls’ 3,200: Reichard doubled her gold-medal collection by breaking her own record of 11:20.37, set in 2023. 

Her time of 11:08.61 was off her personal-best time of 10: 58.38 but impressive nevertheless.  

Cubs’ teammate Stella Junius was second in the 1,600 and 3,200 events, adding to MCA’s point parade. She and Dominican’s Grace Schneider are among the city leaders in both events

Girls’ 800: Anna Joubert of Mount Carmel set a district and school record at 2:16.53, ending former MCA runner Ann Dwyer’s 29-year-old mark of 2:19.38. 

Joubert’s time ranks second locally to John Curtis’ London Parker, whose 2:15.52 was posted at the 2024 Class 5A state meet.

In other noteworthy performances, Drago Cvitanovich of Jesuit won the boys’ high jump at 6-foot-4. His previous summit was 6-2.

Two more Blue Jays – Connor Fanberg (4:23.04) and Brady Mullen (4:23.64) – went 1-2 in the 1,600-meter run. Jesuit added 18 more points in the 3,200 meters with Mullen (9:26.66) topping teammate Brady Monahan (9:28.96).