And the end comes for another sport: Cross Country, with a final meet last Monday. The Falcons had the fastest runner for Varsity boys in Jonathan Martinez, who finished his Falcon Cross Country career with a win, and had the second runner to cross the finish line in Arielle Guzman for Varsity girls. In fifth place for C boys was Will Daikan. Almost all divisions placed in the top three, with the other division placing fifth.

Jonathan Martinez won the boys varsity race with a time of 8:43, good for a 5:49 mile pace over the mile and a half. Paul Hawkins placed eleventh, with a time of 9:52, followed by Adrian Alvarez, who finished 23rd in ten minutes and eight seconds. As usual, Charlie Gilb and Nico Ciranna finished closely, with Gilb three seconds ahead of Ciranna as they finished 27th and 28th. Mitchell Valine was followed by Jake Powe fifteen places later, with John Wells not far behind and Nico Vrsalovich also finishing. The Varsity boys finished second, with the fewest points of all of the St. Philip teams.

Arielle Guzman was the second finisher for the girls varsity race, with a time of 9:56. Ella Blain was the next Falcon at seventeenth and Keanna Lazaro was at twenty-first place. Katerina Plascencia was at 29th, Heather Palomino was at 34, Grace Tighe was 40th, and Ellie Kiechler was 43rd as the varsity girls placed second despite not having an eighth grader.

Agnese Sanavio won second place for B girls, with a time of 6:39 over the mile course. Maggie Kiechler was 17th, with Alyssa Bruna a second and a place behind her. Emma Gunn was 25th , to round out the top three, with Lauren Clawson about ten places back. Finishing back-to-back were Samantha Santoro and Vanessa Covarrubias, at 50th and 51st, in that order. Heather Dopke was only a few places (and seconds) behind that group, with Campbell Buffington a few more places back and Kelsey Albino was just five seconds behind Buffington. The B girls were third in their division.

The B boys, led by Stuart Serventi, also placed third. Serventi was fifth, with a time of 6:18 that was eleven seconds off of the lead.Quintin Pithey was also in the top ten at tenth and was five second back of Serventi. Marcos Vargas was at 25th, with Joseph Blain and Anthony Miera a bit further back. Marcus Powe and Christopher Tom ended the list of Falcons for the race.

Natalie Miera led the St Philip C girls with a time of 3:47 over the half mile, finishing in eleventh place. After a Beatitudes girl came Jessica Albino in thirteenth with Roxy Key and Hannah Lee, and the trio crossed the finish line in a span of three seconds, starting at the 3:49 mark. At nineteenth and twentieth respectively were Maddie Napierala and Hannah Sherman. Rounding out the top five falcons was Anwen Wise, at twenty-fifth. Also finishing were Noel Chua (who was in the top forty), Lauren Pithy, Trinity Smith, Ximena Santoro, Chloe Clawson, and Caroline Mitchell.

For C boys, Will Daikan placed fifth with a time of 3:16 (seven seconds out of first place), with Mark Valenzuela the next falcon at 15th. Quinten Guzman was 27th, and Henry Gunn was not far behind in 19th place. Joshua Co was the next falcon, at 40th place with Noah Fleischman five places behind him. Bryan Tom, Franklin Batiste, Brandyn Morente, Daniel Ferrer, and Zachary Bowles were the other runners as the C boys finished fifth in their division, with 120 runners competing.

The day was not without controversy. In the varsity races, the course made a loop, and the runners who had gone one mile were supposed to turn, while those who were almost done were supposed to continue going straight. At least two girls in varsity went straight at the end and only ran a mile. Whether this was accidental or not is unknown, but there was much confusion after the races had finished as coaches were called over, presumably to verify whether their runners could have run the race in the amount of time that they were listed as. It all worked out in the end, and the boys varsity had no problems that were noticed after being told at the starting line what had happened in the previous race. Another problem was that the course began in a straight line and then turned to the left, meaning that the teams on the left side of the starting line had a large advantage. St. Philip may have had a spot on on the left that was taken by another team, adding to the chaos of having around 600 competitors.

Last Sunday, in the First Annual CYO Cross Country Team Championships, where the top eight finishers for each race were invited (though not all accepted and some of those who ended up racing had finished twentieth or later), the racers were split into teams unrelated to their school and all of the divisions ran a mile and a half at the same time. Jonathan Martinez won the boys race and Arielle Guzman won the girls race on the same course, except with four hay bales that runners had to jump over two different times. All who attended won shoe bags with some snacks and a chocolate drink (not chocolate milk, one of the best recovery drinks), along with a medal and a shirt from the meet.