OP XC Dominates Greystone Invitational

On Friday, the Oratory Cross Country set out to Greystone for their final invitational of the season, hoping to set the tone for the upcoming championship races. Placed in the ‘small school race’, the team knew that they had a good chance of a strong placement, and, after a hard week of training, the runners had a great performance. Even with many injuries, noticeably to varsity runners Liam Watkins, Adam Lewis, and Jake Noss, the team was able to battle through and run well.

The OP Varsity squad started the day with a great result as, astonishingly, all seven OP runners finished in the top ten. Mike Cantaluppi paced this race (17:10), finishing first, almost forty seconds ahead of any other finisher. He was followed by Addison Drone and Corey Vita who finished third and fourth respectively with times of 17:50. Brendan Mooney also ran an 18:09, finishing fifth. The rest of the varsity team had strong finishes from Fernando Aviles (18:13), Casey McKee (18:14), and Eric Rhines (18:25). This race was won by a landslide!

Meanwhile, the JV team carried the momentum, also winning their race. The JV team had three runners under 19:00 in Mark Trella (18:40), Aidan Watkins (18:44), and Kevin dePortere (18:53). The rest of the team also fared well in this quick race as Chris Kelly (19:05) and Jack Sula (19:06) rounded out the top five OP runners in this race.

Next Wednesday the team looks to carry this momentum into Conferences, looking to win once against, this time against rival New Prov. Hopefully, the team can continue to train hard and keep this up as the rest of the squad heals for the championship races.