Saint James School Completes Undefeated Season

Press release from Saint James School:

Nov. 3, 2021

Saint James completes the undefeated season of dual meets and invitationals. Only the Championship race lies between the Spartans and “perfection.”

Cat. Bat. Pumpkin.

Those were the course names for the novice, JV and Varsity races at the All Hallows Invitational (aka the Spooktacular) hosted by OLMC. And as has become tradition at this point at Greystone, the day started off really wet and it was touch and go as to whether or not the show would go on… But as it got closer to show time, the weather not only cooperated, but turned into almost perfect running weather. Unfortunately, there was still plenty of water on the course, so athletes were forced to run a bit more cautiously. This led to a very limited number of personal bests.

In the end, the weather turned out not to be a major factor (although there were some slips) and unlike last week, the Spartans had a nearly full roster of its athletes and as a result, the Spartans were nearly flawless on the wet and wild course in Morristown.

The novice division was split separately into separate races for the 3rd and 4th grade. And with its full complement of runners, Saint James was off to the races very early on and quite frankly there was really no one that challenged them as a team unit all day. What they did see was some significant talent from the 10 other teams in the meet, and in particular, from a Saint E’s squad who had winners in 3 of the day’s 6 events. They also saw some really talented runners from Saint Cassian’s. E’s and Cassian’s would place second and third in the meet, but like it has been much of the season, it was the orange of Saint James that was seen at the front of the pack most of the day.

In the 3rd grade race, Avery Pfistner returned from an off week last week and as usual, that meant trouble for the rest of the field. “Avery runs with intensity but also a poise that is really unusual to see at that age,” said Coach Wizeman. And it was in fact another victory for the 3rd grader from Saint James. But it wasn’t just one runner. She was followed by Julia Daus in 3rd, Bella Milelli in 4th and second grader Julia Naulty capped off the top 5. In the girls 4th grade race it was Claire Johnson posting a 2nd place finish and Avery Lawlor taking 5th.

The boys 3rd grade race was all Saint James with Will Sheehan taking his first gold medal of the year. He was just a half stride ahead of Tommy Malloy who took second. Cash Heinz took 3rd and Greer Sheehan took 5th. The 4th grade boys division was also an amazing display of orange. In fact, it was a rare 1-2-3-4 showing for the Spartans with Kaden Pye edging Liam Johnson by less than half a second. Nolan Lawlor was 3rd and Bentley Heinz was 4th. “It is almost unfair how good our 4th grade boys are,” said Coach Wizeman who witnessed his 4th grade boys take all 3 podium spots for the second week in a row.

The girls 5-6 were also very solid with Riley Bevevino just continually getting better. Bevevino took 2nd for her first silver of the year. Julia Garcia took 7th and Paige Travers took 9th.

The 5-6 boys were not quite as dominate as last week, but were still really good as the Collins brothers (Eddie 2nd and Dylan 4th) as well as Trace Sikorski (5th) all had top 5 finishes.

The 7-8 girls were even better this week, with 3 top 5 finishes. “Caroline Naulty has been the best finisher in that group. The league better look out for her next year,” said Coach Wizeman. He added, that “she just has a gear that no one else has. This is just her first year running. Once she learns how to establish her base, the sky is the limit for her. She is something special to watch.”

Ella Lawlor, who continues to have an amazing first year in her own right, came in 4th. The Captain, Kayla Vaccaro, returned back to the course after missing last week due to an entrance exam, took 5th and posted a PR. “Kayla continues to show us why she was named captain. I am so proud of her,” the coach noted, knowing that his run for this very special 8th grade class is coming to a close.

The last race of the day saw what coach called the highlight of the meet, where Brody Sheehan had a PR and his first podium performance of the year. “I have been waiting for that type of performance all year from Brody,” said the coach. “He has been fighting both injury and a little malaise, but that kid is one strong runner. Amazing to see what he can do when he puts it all together.” Caylor Mendez delivered yet another top 5 finish taking 5th and Captain Chase Lynch took 10th.

Saint James had only a handful of PR’s this week due to the challenging conditions and steepness of the course. In addition to the two noted, PR’s were had by Henry Howell, Fiona Vaccaro, Sophia Battista, Joelle Paolino and Johnny Roberts.

Saint James is now just one win away from pulling off the perfect season. The Coach was not letting the team get ahead of itself. “We are taking absolutely nothing for granted. We are going to run some quality miles on Monday and Wednesday and take it easy on Friday. It’s a Sunday meet so we can still put in some quality work this week.”

The Championships take place at Oak Ridge Park, which has a series of flat and fast courses. “We haven’t been nervous all year and we certainly aren’t going start tightening up now. We are going push hard, knowing full well that we could get tripped up by a quality team like Saint E’s. They did not have all their top runners this week, especially in the boys 7-8, so we know that we still have a lot of work in front of us.”

This press release was produced by Saint James School. The views expressed here are the author's own.