Michael Schwing races to a 7th-place overall finish at the Episcopal Round Table Run. Right behind is teammate Carlos Zervigon (Photo courtesy Suzanne Kling)

Five Blue Jay runners finished among the Top 20 as the cross country team made an emphatic early season statement in taking top honors at the Episcopal Round Table Run on Saturday morning at Highland Park in Baton Rouge.

Senior Michael Schwing (7th overall) paced the Jays with a time of 16:13 for the three-mile course, two seconds ahead of junior Carlos Zervigon (8th overall). Also in the Top 20 (and coming home with T-shirts for their efforts) were sophomore Eli Sisung (10th), senior Pat Lacour (11th) and junior Nick Slay (19th). Slay came in at 16:43, leaving a mere 30 seconds separating the Jays’ top five finishers.

“We definitely like to run as a pack,” said Head Coach Rudy Horvath ’86. Two other Jesuit runners, senior Matthews Vargas and junior John James, also broke the 17-minute barrier. Also racing with the Varsity “A-Team” on Saturday were seniors Will Arseneaux and Johnny LaForge, junior John Nimmo, and sophomores Max Bell and John Kling.

The Jays finished with 55 points. Second place honors went to Catholic High with 81 points.  St. Paul’s and Brother Martin took third and fourth with 92 and 101 points, respectively (in prep cross country, scores are compiled by adding the place in which each team’s top five runners finish).

While Horvath was thrilled with his team’s effort and performance, he was understandably cautious about getting too excited. Cross country coaches are notorious for “sandbagging,” or not showing all of their top runners in a single meet this early in the season. That’s not a theory to which Horvath subscribes.

“We ran our top guys today,” said Horvath.

Even if coaches weren’t purposefully sandbagging, there was an ACT test Saturday morning that could have left some squads short-handed.

“We can’t be sure that we saw the best line-ups that Catholic, St. Paul’s  and Brother Martin have to offer,” said Horvath. “In fact, I’m going on the theory that we didn’t. I’ll take the win, but I’m sure not going to get a big head. And I definitely won’t let my guys get carried away with one meet in September.”

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