Photo by Chris Auckley : http://motrackfanatic.com/
ST. LOUIS – St. Louis University High began the defense of its Class 4 state cross country title the same way it won the honor last year – as a pack.
The Jr. Billikens were tightly clustered for the first half of the Class 4 District 3 race Saturday at Forest Park. When they hit the last mile and the race opened up to whoever was feeling strong, the Jr. Bills managed to stay in contact with each other.
The unbroken string of SLUH runners started with junior Jack Sullivan in fifth (6:12) and ended with senior John Esswein in 10th (16:49). That earned SLUH the district title with 35 points.
“We were going to run the course as a team and concentrate on sticking as a pack so we could simulate that for when we run at state,” Sullivan said. “It was kind of hard the first mile because it was holding back, but I think it was a good lesson for us.
“With Matt Nicholson (a 2013 graduate) not being on the team any more, last year we had somebody we could all look towards and try to catch. This year we don’t have one person way out in front so we have to work on running as a pack.”
Nicholson paced SLUH to its fifth state title last year with an eighth-place finish. Behind him was a pack of four scoring runners from 23rd to 41st.
Junior Shayn Jackson was in the middle of that scoring pack last year, and he was the second Jr. Bill to cross the district finish line, taking sixth in 16:24.
“There was never really a point when I didn’t have either Jack or Matthew (Hennessey) or John Esswein next to me, and I had the rest of us behind me,” Jackson said. “In the beginning, we had to figure out how to be a team. Thomas Hogan, who ran a great race today, at first he was getting stuck in what he usually does and falling back, but then he got some encouragement from one of our coaches, and I heard it, and he came back and finished as our fourth man.”
After Jackson it was Hennessey in seventh (16:25), Hogan in eighth (16:37), Joe Butler in ninth (16:41) and Esswein in 10th (16:49). Seventh man Jack Gallagher was not far off the pack either, finishing in 17th (17:20).
The team will be even deeper moving forward with the addition of senior Tom Rubio, who was held out of districts to rest his legs. Rubio was the team’s second runner at state last year in 23rd overall.
SLUH coach Joe Porter said pack-running was the theme for the day.
“It’s definitely something we were focusing on today,” Porter said. “They were focusing on trying to stay together as close as they can, especially early on in the race for the first two miles, and then let them go from there. They were there to run as a group, and that’s what they did.
“We feel like our 1-7 spread is still pretty small, not just 1-5, so if something happens we feel pretty strong about it. We feel like we’re in the hunt, but you have to have a little luck.”
Porter realizes it gets more difficult over the next two weeks to repeat that pack strategy and said last year’s final pack that scored four runners within 18 places of each other was a little bit of that requisite luck.
“At state last year those kids kind of found each other during the course of the race,” Porter said. “I think they were apart for about a mile and a quarter, and they just kind of randomly found each other and started working together. It’s not necessarily a plan at the state meet because there’s so many people that they focus on doing the best they can and if they can work together, they work together.”
Porter said he has downplayed repeating as champions and tried to remove that burden from the team. But the runners admit there is still a little pressure to perform again.
“That’s one of the biggest things people ask, ‘Are you going to win state again? Are you going to win state again?’ You never know,” Jackson said. “We have confidence, but the competition is tough this year. That’s our goal, and that’s what we’re going to work toward, what we’re going to think toward, what we’re going to pray for.”
Sullivan said, “I think there’s always pressure like that. But, I think we’re not even going to think about that and just focus on running our best races and running as a team like we did last year.”