John Nimmo sprints to a seventh-place finish in the Holy Cross/Dominican Invitational cross country meet on Saturday.

Jesuit cross country coach Rudy Horvath ’86 kept his top ten runners on the sidelines Saturday morning, opting to get some quality race experience under the belts of  his less experienced team members.

The varsity “B team” was more than up for the challenge, capturing second place in the Holy Cross/Dominican Invitational and finishing within a mere five points of the overall team champion, Archbishop Shaw High School.

“I was very pleased with how the boys performed,” said Horvath afterward, “especially given how early in the season it is and how hot it was.”

Indeed, the heat was blazing out on the course. But so were the times of Horvath’s runners. Jesuit’s top five finishers all either bested their personal records (PRs) or came within seconds of doing so. John Nimmo, a junior, led the way for the Jays, posting a time of 18:17 on a three-mile course that was still soggy from heavy rains earlier in the week. Rounding out the top five finishers for the Jays were junior Kevin Sullivan, sophomore John Kling and freshmen Jordan Tufts and Patrick Schwing.

Horvath was especially pleased with the times of Tufts and Schwing. “Those were excellent times for freshmen,” he said.

Also participating in Saturday’s race were seniors Doug Dillon, Teddy Garvey, and Jonathan Whelan; junior Jose Cusco; sophomores Reed Meric, Hayden Ricca and Tanner Tresca; and freshmen Jonathan Arnold, Garrett Crumb, and Brenner Rauch.

Next up for the cross country team is the Episcopal Round Table Run in Baton Rouge on Sept. 13.