Two weeks ago, the City of St. Louis allowed low risk high school sports to compete against other teams in the St. Louis area. So SLUH’s cross country team was able to race last Saturday at Parkway West’s Cowboy Classic against five other teams in the area and is scheduled to compete twice this week, once on Thursday and again on Saturday.
Going into the race on Saturday, head coach Joe Porter’s goals were simple. 
“For most of these guys, the last time they raced in a SLUH jersey was in late October. It has been a little less than a year since then,” said Porter. “I just wanted them to go into this race with confidence and with a competitive mindset and to just embrace the opportunity to race other people.”
On the varsity level, the XC bills took first place by a comfortable margin, beating second place Parkway South by over 30 points.  With all of the top seven finishing in the top seventeen, the Varsity squad really demonstrated their strength and fitness that they had been working on throughout the off season.
In the top pack, senior Daniel Hogan and juniors Grant Brawley and Baker Pashea led the charge, joined by Marquette’s Connor Del Carmen and Parkway Central’s Andrew Ahrens, the top runners for their schools. That group went through mile one with a quick average time of 5:10.
“I was really relaxed at that point,” said Hogan. “I thought that I was in a pretty good position.”
Halfway through mile two, however, Del Carmen and Ahrens made a surge and gapped the SLUH trio. Unfazed, Brawley, Pashea, and Hogan continued to work to the end to seal third, fourth, and fifth place respectively.
“Del Carmen made a beautiful move going up that hill,” said Porter. “But, I thought they handled it well. They didn’t freak out or panic in any way.”
“The main thing in this race was to try to stay really relaxed,” said Hogan. “When he made that move, I just tried to relax and work with the people that I was with.”
Senior Hayden Zenor (13th) and junior Justin Glass (15th) crossed the line shortly after, finishing well ahead of the five men from any other team and securing the first place title for the team.
For Porter, the race was a success, but it was only a starting point. Porter hopes that the team will continue to put the effort in and get stronger and faster.
“We had a good race, but I know we can do better,” said Porter. “I would say that the gap between our 1 to 5 man needs to be shorter. It was a little over a minute, and I want it closer to 45 seconds.”
While SLUH did not win any of the other races, there were still some amazing performances from SLUH racers. In the JV No. 1 race, sophomore Steffan Meyers broke his personal record by 49 seconds and placed third while racing against other schools’ second seven racers. Freshman Charlie Murray also had a steller race, breaking 20 minutes for 5K for the first time and placing 6th. In the JV Nos. 2 and 3 races, senior Maurice Safar and freshman Nolan Nester had over 2 minute PR’s, and freshman Keller Maher took three minutes off his previous time.
“It is always very exciting to see guys PR and see the effort that they are putting in pay off,” said Porter. “We saw a lot of people make risks out there on Saturday, and I would say that many of them paid off.”
This week, the program plans to split the XC bills between two different meets, one at Chaminade and the other at Parkway West. At Chaminade, SLUH will compete against CBC, De Smet, and Chaminade, and at the Parkway West Invitational, SLUH will race on the same course as last Saturday against 11 teams around the St. Louis area.
“No matter which race we are racing in, I think that the races are going to be more difficult and challenging,” said Hogan. “We are going to more competition and for some of us, we are going to be in tougher, more competitive races. But, I am really excited to see what we can do.”