News

Metro Catholic Conference (MCC) Championships
Thursday, October 6, 2022 - Jefferson Barracks Park

*** Click here for the MCC Team Split Sheet, Results, Photos, & Video ***

For the sixth year in a row, the Jr. Billikens swept the varsity, JV, and freshman team and individual titles at the MCC Championships. This is the team's 19th consecutive conference title. Congratulations to this year's conference champions: Nolan Meara (varsity), Anthony Zangara (JV), and Nick Ahlheim (freshman)! Of the 62 medals awarded on Thursday, SLUH took home 46.

Above-average temperatures greeted runners on a Thursday afternoon at Jefferson Barracks Park. Though the course was a new iteration of the classic JB track, the 2022 MCC Championships looked familiar to conference meets in recent years, with a parade of Junior Billikens at the front of all three of the races. Of a possible 62 medals that our athletes could have theoretically claimed, we brought home a total of 48. The sweep of victories - Team and Individual Champions in Varsity, JV, and Freshmen - was the sixth year in a row such a parlay became reality. In a conference of historical strength and success in the sport of cross country, we don't want to take for granted this remarkable accomplishment for the program.

As is tradition, Varsity ran first, albeit after a slight delay due to construction vehicles leaving the park. With our scoring runners following the plan to pack up early in the front of the race, it looked like it would be another conference runaway. Though a couple of opposing schools' runners infiltrated our top group in the middle and final parts of the race, including a fine runner from CBC who kicked hard for second place, we packed all seven runners in the top 10 to earn our 19th consecutive MCC Varsity Championship. Individually, it was a triumph for senior Nolan Meara, becoming SLUH's 14th individual conference champion and once-and-for-all exercising some previous personal demons at the JB course along the way. Additionally, this race marked the return from injury and reintroduction to the varsity lineup for senior Will Riggan. Congratulations to the varsity for earning the program's 19th consecutive conference championship, dating back to before any of them were even alive!

It came as little surprise that our program depth marked and told the story of the JV race. Charlie Gray and Anthony Zangara led the charge in the first part of the race, and Anthony pulled away over the final mile for his second race win in as many weeks. Behind those two were 18 more Junior Billiken runners, a large number of which could have been varsity contributors on other conference teams. Having the first 20 finishers in an MCC race is a remarkable achievement, one that the program has never done before. Congratulations to Madhavan for his PR, the only PR on the day for a returning runner. Nick Finlay and Owen Roth also ran their fastest times of the season, and this was the first time that Alex Bendaña finished as the top runner in his class. And after a long season of cross training and expert split-taking, it was great to welcome Lorenzo Gutting into the race results for completing his first race in a Jr. Billiken uniform. This was the sixth consecutive MCC championship for the JV team. Also, kudos to senior Brendan Jones, whose fine race and excellent leadership throughout the evening earned him our own "Athlete of the Day" honors.

The freshmen ran last, and they completed the trifecta of championships. Individually, Nick Ahlheim pulled away from Tristan Kujawa and Jake Fitzpatrick over the second half of the race, after Tristan took the trio out hard to find early separation from the field. Behind them were Preston Eash and Hendrix Fyvie, with Aidan Smith and Sam Riggan also finishing in the top ten to secure our winning margin. An incredible 17 of our freshmen medalled, and many ran PRs on what wasn't an otherwise fast day of racing. Congratulations to Nick Ahlheim for becoming our latest freshman conference champion, and the whole group for becoming freshman MCC team champions for the 21st consecutive year! They'll get another crack at the same course at Findley, and hopefully conditions will allow for an even faster day of racing.

MCC TEAM RESULTS:

• Varsity - 1st of 5 teams (19th consecutive championship)
  • MCC Varsity Champion: Nolan Meara, 16:51
  • All 7 runners medalled and were in the top 10 overall
    • "First Team All MCC" (5): Nolan Meara, Tim Greiner, Carter Lowe, Will Riggan, Jaden Elgin
    • "Second Team All MCC" (2): Wyatt Seal, Charlie Murray
  • Scoring spread: 0:35
  • Average time: 17:14
  • PRs or SBs: none

• Junior Varsity - 1st of 5 teams (6th consecutive championship)
  • MCC JV Champion: Anthony Zangara, 17:12
  • 24 of 30 possible medalists, including the first 20 in the race!
  • Scoring spread: 0:36
  • Average time: 17:34
  • PRs: Madhavan Anbukumar (:06)
  • SBs: Nick Finlay, Owen Roth
  • Debut SLUH XC race for Lorenzo Gutting

• Freshman - 1st of 5 teams (21st consecutive championship)
  • MCC Freshman Champion: Nick Ahlheim, 19:07
  • 17 of 25 possible medalists, including the top three and 7 in the top 10
  • Scoring spread: 1:00
  • Average time: 19:42
  • PRs: Jerry Frantz (2:36), Isaac Aguayo (2:05), Titus Zeigler (1:14), Brayden Bussmann (:36), Tommy Sullivan (:35), Will Hoffman (:27), Brady Vogt (:27), Rafa Seitz (:20), Aidan Smith (:09), Colton Eikermann (:09), Ryan Wingerter (:07),
  • First 3m/5k race for Robby Cox

MCC JUNIOR VARSITY CHAMPIONS

MCC FRESHMEN CHAMPIONS