Brother Martin, Ocean Springs win squeakers in Mobile 

Brother Martin’s Hunter Appleton and McGill-Toolen Catholic’s Grace Jensen win individual titles in dominating fashion

By Arthur L. Mack for DyeStat 

MOBILE — This was as close of a team competition as one could possibly get.

Brother Martin of New Orleans, led by Hunter Appleton, edged out Pearl MS 58-59 in the Invitational boys Mobile Challenge of Champions cross country meet Saturday at Langan Park in Alabama.

Holy Cross, another New Orleans school, was third with 92 points. Baker AL, last year’s team champion, and Ocean Springs MS were fourth and fifth with 95 and 109 points, respectively.

Meanwhile, the Ocean Springs girls, successfully defended their title, beating Brookwood of Snellville GA 43-44.

McGill-Toolen Catholic of Mobile, led by Grace Jensen’s first-place finish, was third with 87 points. Mobile's St. Paul’s Episcopal (92) and Fairhope (115) rounded out the top five.

“I thought it might be close the other way,” said Drew Harro, Brother Martin's coach. “Pearl had a really nice pack as they came in before our four. We had four or five together, but they had a string of four guys after their number one (runner), so I thought that we maybe lost by four or five.”

Harro especially had praise for Appleton, a junior, who took the lead from the beginning and never looked back, winning in 16 minutes, 33.42 seconds. Hayden Shows of Petal MS was second in 16:44.95, while Fairhope’s Jared Touart was third in 16:46.75. Rounding out the top five were Appleton’s teammate, Hayden Courrage (16:58.84) and Caleb Smith of Mary G. Montgomery AL in 17:14.77.

“We’re lucky to have a guy like him on the team,” Harro said of Appleton. “He leads by example and works hard every day. His consistency over the last couple of years has put him in a new fitness level.”

Appleton went through the opening mile in 5:06.

“I wanted to keep the same lead over the course of the race,” Appleton said. “I’ve been doing a lot of training by myself, and I think that helped today.”

For the Ocean Springs girls and coach Tim Sayers, knowing that his squad was in for a tough battle made the repeat victory even sweeter.

“We were looking at everything before the meet, and I knew that Brookwood was going to be tough,” he said. “I saw some of their times from last year, and that’s a very talented school. With the weather that we had during the week (from Hurricane Harvey), our kids pressed on and did pretty well.”

It was especially a great meet for Jensen, who finished a disappointing third in last year’s meet. This time she bolted into the lead and never looked back, winning in 19:26.2.

Brookwood’s Reese Saddler was a distant second (20:19.00), while Fairhope’s Lexie Williams put on a late surge to finish third in 20:22.9. Olivia Andrews of Mobile’s Faith Academy and Pearl’s Hannah Pinter rounded out the top five with times of 20:38.2 and 20:39.9, respectively.

McGill-Toolen was originally scheduled to run in a meet in Montevallo, but it was cancelled, allowing the Yellow Jackets to compete in the Challenge of Champions — and give Jensen a chance at redemption.

“I told myself that I got to put it all out there,” she said. “The first mile, it started out really fast, and I was at 12:20 after two miles. I had to pick it up, because I wasn’t used to running that slow. There’s always some pressure (being the top returning Class 7A runner), so I want to step up. That’s something I have to strive for every meet.”

In the Open boys division, Brother Martin scored 43 points, ahead of Pearl’s 79 and Bayside Academy’s 136. In the Open girls division, Brookwood defeated Ocean Springs 33-70, with T.R. Miller in third (73).

Two Southwest Alabama runners won individual titles in those races — Bayside’s Ernest Ladd won the boys race in 17:49.06, outlasting Brother Martin’s Tyler Epps (17:53.09) and St. Paul’s Episcopal’s Wilkes Howes (18:12.52). In the girls race, T. R. Miller’s Olivia Blackmon won in 20:21.15, more than a minute and a half ahead of Daphne’s Nicole Luther (22:04.86). Ascension Catholic LA’s Haley Dupre was third (22:22.02). 

“I was planning to run with two teammates (Myles Cook and Bradley Schmidt), but we wound up getting into a pack,” Ladd said. “I felt terrible at the start, but I stuck with the pack. On the last turn, Coach (Joe) Swagart told me to keep pushing, and I strided it out the rest of the way.”

For Blackmon, who was all-state in cross country last season, it was her first win, and to do it on a tough course like Langan Park was even more satisfying.

“It was very exciting,” she said. “We actually have the toughest course (at T. R. Miller), so this was no problem. The first mile was fine, and I was actually trying to shoot for 19:45, but I made a couple of wrong turns.”