Mount cross country chasing three-peat in league

by Tom Utescher
Posted 10/7/20

As Mount St. Joseph Academy runners got out on the cross-country course last month, it was apparent that the Magic are in a strong position to claim their third straight league championship in the …

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Mount cross country chasing three-peat in league

Posted

As Mount St. Joseph Academy runners got out on the cross-country course last month, it was apparent that the Magic are in a strong position to claim their third straight league championship in the Athletic Association of Catholic Academies.

Out of the five scorers and seven overall entrants for the Mount in the 2019 AACA championship meet, only the team's number three runner (who was eighth overall) and number seven runner (27th) have graduated.

A sophomore this season, Maggie Murphy led the MSJ effort as a freshman last fall, coming in third overall at the league championships. She was followed by current junior Mary McGrory (fifth overall), seniors Annie Lemelin (12th) and Olivia Millevoi (15th), and by Anne Kitching (23rd), a sophomore this year.

While Kitching was temporarily out with an injury for an intra-squad Mount meet in late September, the other four runners mentioned above all placed among the top seven. They were joined by three athletes who did not run cross country last season, juniors Sarah Hughes and Olivia Forti, and sophomore Ciara Fall.

Rounding the top 10 in the team race last month were senior Lexie Weeks, sophomore Zoe Kowal (another new addition to the squad), and senior Emily Carr. Carr, Lemelin, and Millevoi are the Mount St. Joe team captains for 2020.

In the squad's recent intramural meet, the third quintet of finishers, in places 11 through 15, all crossed the line in a span of 64 seconds. This group was made up of senior Lexie Westawski, juniors Carolyn Arnold and Emily Riethmiller, and seniors Kate Roberts and Danyele Murtha.

When the Magic won Catholic Academies championships in the past, they didn't do it by having have a dominating frontrunner or two. Instead, they overcome the other AACA teams with depth and fairly close spacing. It looks like the Mount could be on track to do the same thing this fall in the program's ninth season under coach Kitty McClernand.