Senior Ben D’Antonio earned All Metro honors by finishing 14th overall with a time of 16:07 at the Metro Cross Country Meet on Saturday, Nov. 8 (file photo courtesy Suzanne Kling)

It was high noon, both literally and figuratively, for a quartet of Jesuit runners at the Allstate Sugar Bowl New Orleans Metro Cross Country Championship on Saturday, Nov. 8 at the City Park course. Seniors Ben D’Antonio and Will Arseneaux, along with juniors John Nimmo and Nick Slay, had one last chance to make their case for a spot on the seven-man squad for the upcoming state championship in Natchitoches. And they definitely had their work cut out for them.

Nine days earlier at the district meet Coach Rudy Horvath ’86 gave a test run to the line-up he was favoring, and he liked what he saw. All seven runners (seniors Patrick LaCour, Matthews Vargas, and Michael Schwing; juniors Carlos Zervigon, John James, and Johnny LaForge; and sophomore Eli Sisung) posted personal records and four (LaCour, Vargas, Sisung, and Zervigon) broke 16:00 for the three-mile course as the Jays bested Brother Martin for the district title.

That left D’Antonio, Arseneaux, Nimmo, and Slay on the outside looking in, with one last chance to make an impression. D’Antonio did the most to make his case, coming in at 16:07 on the three-mile course, a personal record that also netted All Metro honors (the top 20 runners earn All-Metro status; D’Antonio finished 14th). Nimmo also posted a personal record, finishing 28th overall with a time of  16:30. Slay finished third on the day for the Blue Jays with a time of 17:15, followed two seconds later by Arseneaux.

With only four runners entered in the Metro meet, Jesuit wasn’t in the running for the team title, which went to John Curtis.

As for the state line-up, Horvath plans to make his final call early this week. “About the only thing I can tell you right now is that the team will be the first to know,” said Horvath. “It’s definitely a tough decision. I know a lot of cross country coaches would love to have my problems. But the downside of having this type of depth is that you have to disappoint some people.”