On a beautiful day, at beautiful Buffalo Bayou, the St. Thomas Cross Country team hosted St. Pius, Incarnate Word, St. Agnus, and Duchesne in the last district meet of the season. 

The boys’ varsity teams from St. Thomas and St. Pius took the start line first. At the sound of the gun, the 3.2-mile race began. With a great parent turnout, the finish line was packed, waiting for the runners to pass through.

Joey D’Eramo from St. Pius finished first with a time of 16:13. Zane Hill of St. Thomas came in next at 18:00. St. Thomas’ John Cantu ran in third, just behind Hill with a time of 18:03. And Jake D’Eramo of St. Pius rounded out the top runners at 18:28.

“I have a senior, Zane Hill, who’s been on varsity since he was a freshman. He is our best runner this year and has been leading the group. Our second best runner is John Cantu, whose father was a runner at St. Thomas back in the day, and he’s doing really well as a freshman. I’m excited to have him for the next couple of years,” said Nathan Labus, St. Thomas' head coach.

Not only do the runners place and score individually, the teams place and score too. St. Pius came in first with a score of 27 and St. Thomas placed second with a score of 29. St. Pius’ runners placed 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 11th; added together equals the team score.

“Hopefully we finish first [in district]. It will be us or St. Pius, so we have a fifty-fifty chance,” Labus said.

The two mile run for the varsity girls was next. St. Agnus, St. Pius, Incarnate Word, and Duchesne filled the start line and took off as the gun went off. St. Agnus came in first with a score of 22 and Duchesne came in second with 63.

Individually, Carly Graf of St. Agnus ran in first at 12:56. Shannon Klenke from Duchesne ran a 13:20 for second. Graf’s teammate, Annie Goodyear, place third with a time of 14:10. Incarnate Word’s Riordan Maeveen rounded out the top runners at 14:11.

As the varsity teams finished up, junior varsity took the line and began their races.

State is one week from Saturday and the teams that qualify will send seven runners.

“We’ve been in the top 10 in State the last few years. We have a better group as far as times this year,” said Alice Melendez, St. Agnus’ head coach.

Labus wanted on record, “I want to thank St. Pius for wearing these ribbons.”

St. Thomas and St. Pius were wearing white ribbons. Labus informed The Athletes Connection that last week, a St. Thomas football player passed away and the schools were wearing ribbons in his memory.

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