With the 2nd weekend of the 2021 Cross Country season in the books, one question lingered following the breakout performances of the girls and boys teams in week 1... "Are they for real, or was the HSM "Soaring Eagles" team that showed out at Choudrant a one time thing?" Well for those who were fortunate enough to witness firsthand the absolute domination that was on display at the Pineville Rebel Invitational by YOUR HSM EAGLES, there is no doubt... Not only are they for real, but they are better than we even thought! Both teams set the Ward 9 course on fire bringing home the 1st place trophies setting some VERY impressive times and taking some vital steps forward toward that ultimate goal of standing atop that 1st place platform in November!

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     It couldn't have been a better day for a race this Saturday, and although it is still early in the season the excitement and anticipation was certainly palpable! At race time it was around 75 degrees and the humidity that had plagued the team the week before had dropped significantly! Ward 9 was a race last year that gave so many of our girls and guys great times and confidence to achieve, and the team understood that it would be a chance to step up in big ways. The result was 18 new PRs, 4 times within 30 seconds of PR, and an improved time by every single member of the team over last race!  

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Girls Results: 

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     The girls team was the first race of the morning and they blew away the competition with performances that showed huge improvement and build upon a great start to the season. Like a fire that would not be denied fuel, the girls finished with two runners in the top 3, and 6 in the top 15, scoring only 33 points total for the top 5 runners all the while missing captain Quinn Brown who was taking the ACT. With her eyes set on that elusive 19 minute mark Sophomore Kannin Cole once again led the girls team with an incredible time of 20:41, a mere 2 SECONDS from her all time PR! When asked whether she thought she would break that PR next week she responded by saying, "Oh it's going down!". I personally believe her! She finished 2nd overall in the girls race, and there is no doubt that by the end of the season she will have broken that 20:00 mark and set herself up for even greater things in the coming years. Next in the race, in 3rd place overall, was Senior Emma DeRosa who continues to establish herself as an all-time Menard great with a 25 second improvement over her first race, and a time of 20:58! (only 21 seconds from her all time PR) She clearly has her eyes on also breaking that 20:00 mark by the end of her career at Holy Savior Menard. 3rd across the line for the Lady Eagles was Chesney Mathews who finished 11th overall with a time of 23:44, improving from her 1st race and taking another step toward her PR set last year of 22:11. 4th finisher on the team was Amie Cochran, who for the second week in a row finished inside the top 5 on the team! Her time of 23:45 was a HUGE 43 second improvement over her first race time, and pulled her within 39 second of her all time PR of 23:06. Her season will continue to improve every week without a doubt! 5th for the HSM crew was 8th grader Claire Callis, who finished 13th overall with a time of 24:33. She made a 20 second jump from her first race of the year and is closing in on her PR of 24:16! Next finisher, in the 14th overall position, was Abbey Scalisi who also made a huge jump of 1:00 from last weeks race and looks to continue to improve as the season moves forward. 8th grader Ava Laroux finished 16th overall with another great performance of 25:04, setting a new PR by 49 seconds! Kerigan Garsaud (19th/26:15), Breanna Buller (21st//26:29), and Mia Parish (26th/29:12) wrapped up the Varsity Girls race for the Eagles each of them making improvements of over 30 seconds and Breanna setting a new PR shaving off 1:50 from her previous best mark! Caroline Crooks competed this week in the JV 2 mile race and set a new PR for her 2 mile time with a fantastic race of 17:56! Congrats to all the members of the girls team!

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Additional Notes:

 

* With her time of 20:41 Kannin Cole became the 12th best time by a Sophomore in HSM history.

* Emma DeRosa moved to the 11th spot on the all-time list of 12th Grade girl times for HSM.

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Boys Results:

 

     If the Girls team was on fire, then the boys team was a nuclear blast that melted your face off! They were like Symphony No. 5 by Beethoven, a mix of boldness, beauty, delicacy, and aggression that continues to rise to the point of absolute perfection. Of the 20 boys team members that competed in the Varsity and JV races 15 of them set new PRs or tied their old ones, but it was the performances of the top 7 boys that stole the show! On a day where every HSM Eagle has a reason to stand tall, the boys found themselves once again taking their efforts to an entirely new level! With 5 boys in the top 10, 8 in the top 15, and 10 in the top 20, the Eagles set a new standard for the year! The top 5 boys ran an average of 17:43.6 and scored a total of 27 points. Noah Gad once again led the team this week and continued to put together a masterful start to the year by finishing 3rd overall and running a time of 17:23, an improvement on his PR of 27 seconds from last week. Austin Siebeneicher was 2nd for the Eagles and 5th overall in the race. As an 8th grader he is continuing to stun his teammates and competitors with his incredible ability running an astonishing time of 17:37 and dropping his PR time by 32 seconds in the process! Austin however is not the only Menard 8th grader who made completely broke the mold this week. Cayden Gorham was the 3rd Eagle runner to finish, and with a 7th place overall finish and a time of 17:47 he also took a stick of dynamite to the perception of 8th graders competing at the highest level! Improving his PR by 29 seconds Cayden continues to show that he is one of the best runners in the state, along with his teammates of coarse. But wait there's more!!!! Team Captain Charles Beard also made another step forward this week towards getting back in his usual form by improving his race time by 13 seconds and running a time of 17:53! His leadership and drive has pushed his teammates to new heights as he continues to work and gets back to the top of the pack. An extra 4" in height an 20 lbs of muscle as a results of a huge growth spurt tends to take a bit of time to adjust to, but there is no doubt that with a work ethic like his the future is even brighter than the past has been for this amazing young man! 5th for the Eagle XC team was Mikey DeRosa who finished 

10th overall with a new PR time of 17:59, an improvement of 4 seconds. Breaking through that 18:00 window is a huge milestone that Mikey has now overcome, and now opens up a whole new landscape for the rest of the year! Carter Byers also set a new PR for himself in route to a 11th place overall finish. His time of 18:01 places him on the cusp of breaking into the 17:00 club and as a Sophomore has much more to accomplish over the rest of the season. Matthew Hawthorne pushed his way into the number 7 position on the team with a time of 19:05, a new PR for him and putting him on a collision course with the sub-19:00 group! Matthew has a drive that will lead him anywhere he could ever dream to go, and it looks as though it will soon lead him to be a permanent fixture on the future State team! Michael Gad continues his streak of excellence this season once again dropping his PR by a huge 50 second margin to 19:06! Michael started the season with a PR of 21:20 and continues to drop it week after week! Michael and Matthew continue to push each other to new heights this year and I would not be surprised to see both of them knocking on the 18:00 mark by the end of the year. One of the biggest internal battles for the last 2 years has been between Jake Noda and the 20:00 mark. They have sparred back and forth for too long, but as of this week the dragon has been slain!!!!!! Jake shattered the mark with a 55 second PR of 19:36! This coach in particular never had a single doubt that Jake would get to this point and beyond. Time to get to that 19:00 goal, it's only a matter of time! David Shepherd ran a race that equaled his effort from last week, but was far more impressive! About 1.5 miles into the race David began to catch a cramp in his hamstring, as only David can, but instead of letting this bring his race to an early end David decided to fight through it and finish the race on a leg he could barely stand on. Running 20:36 this week truly doesn't tell the story of the effort David had at this race, and he will look to demolish that time next week. (unless he loses a shoe, runs into a tree, gets trapped in a tiger pit, abducted and returned by aliens, or any other typical David events happen during the race) 8th grader Adam Traczewitz continued his impressive season campaign by once again cruising to a new PR of 21:48! This is an improvement of 1:32 over the PR he set JUST LAST WEEK, and was a fantastic effort by the young man who aims to break the 20:00 mark sooner rather than later. Seth Soprano, another 8th grader, bounced back from his performance last week to set a new PR of 22:01! Seth will be looking for another breakout race in a couple weeks at Cedar Creek which a prime place to get a new PR. Jansen Fairbanks, yes ANOTHER 8th grader that we are blessed with, finally getting back into the swing of thing after having a setback for a couple weeks came within 3 seconds of setting a new PR with a time of 22:10! This program is beyond blessed to have such a bright future with so many talented guys still in Junior High! Just behind Jansen was Sophomore Fynn Raborn, who also sets a new PR of 22:22, improving his best mark by 15 seconds! Wrapping up the Varsity race for the Eagle was Michael Whitehead, who ran an ASTONISHING 25:37 in the race, improving his PR by a staggering 1:44! This marks the first time in a race that Michael has run under 27:00 and is a fantastic mark here at the start of the year! We also had 5 boys run in the JV 2-mile race with Adam Sehon making his HSM debut with a time of 18:06, Bennett Loyacano with his season debut of 16:10, Caden Elkins, in his first race since suffering a very difficult hip injury, running a time of 15:28, Noah Ryder in his HSM debut running a 15:04, and Simon Chapman tying his PR in the 2 mile race with a time of 15:38! Great Job to all the Eagles and we will see everyone next week!

       

Additional Notes:

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* Noah's time of 17:23 moves him into 28th on the all-time runners list and 18th on the all-time Juniors list!

* Austin's time of 17:37 moves him into 38th on the all-time runners list and 6th on the all-time 8th grade list!

* Cayden's time of 17:47 moves him to 46th on the all-time runners list and 7th on the all-time 8th grade list!

* Mikey's time of 17:59 moves him to 49th on the all-time runners list!   

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