Senior Carlos Zervigon and junior Reed Meric earned All Metro honors at the Allstate Sugar Bowl Metro Cross Country Championships.

Jesuit’s cross country team sent its best line-up, minus one, to a revitalized Allstate Sugar Bowl Metro Meet on Saturday morning and came away with a second place finish to show for it.

In recent years, the Sugar Bowl meet had become a swan song for teams’ second-tier runners because of its proximity to the state meet. Coaches have tended to hold out their top runners in order to stick to a training regimen for state. But a plea this year from meet director Mike Corn seems to have been successful: the metro area’s top four competitors for the Division One crown this year–Jesuit, St. Paul’s, John Curtis, and Brother Martin–all raced at least some of their top performers, much to the delight of cross country aficionados who got a preview of what may happen on November 17 when the Blue Jays attempt to defend their state title in Natchitoches.

Jesuit Coach Rudy Horvath ’86 has been saying all along that St. Paul’s is the team to beat this year. But it was Brother Martin who came out on top Saturday morning, avenging last week’s loss to the Jays at the district championships. The Crusaders finished with 59 points, followed by Jesuit (71), John Curtis (83), and St. Paul’s (90).

People shouldn’t read too much into the Wolves’ performance, or Curtis for that matter. “All the area coaches made a good faith effort to help bring this meet back to prominence,” said Horvath. “But what you saw today wasn’t four teams at full strength. Anybody who was even remotely dinged up was held out today. For us, it was Eli (senior Eli Sisung, the team’s third most productive runner).”

Senior John James also picked up All Metro honors.

Four Blue Jays finished in the Top Twenty, earning All-Metro honors in the process. Senior Carlos Zervigon came in 7th (16:17) followed by junior Reed Meric (16:29, 10th), junior John Kling (16:36, 12th), and senior John James (16:50, 16th). St. Paul’s Eric Colston won the individual title with a blistering 15:08 on the three-mile course, besting rival Devyn Keith of John Curtis who faded to fifth place after leading for most of the race.

Also running for the Jays on Saturday were junior Tanner Tresca (17:10, 26th), senior John Nimmo (17:14, 29th) and sophomore Luke Malter (18:27, 56th).

Read More

SportsNola.com – Metro Cross Country Championships