Baton Rouge Schools Prevail At Mobile Challenge of Champions

Mississippians Christian Balcer and Brooklyn Biancamano Fastest Overall 

By Arthur L. Mack for DyeStat

A pair of Louisiana teams took home top honors Saturday in the Invitational Division of the Mobile Challenge of Champions Cross Country Meet held at Langan Park in Mobile, Ala., with a pair of Mississippi runners posting remarkable milestones in individual competition.

Catholic High of Baton Rouge, La., won the boys team title with 56 points, ahead of two Mobile teams — St. Paul’s Episcopal (62) and UMS-Wright (102). Rounding out the top five were Brother Martin of New Orleans (124) and Ocean Springs MS (150).

Christian Balcer of East Central of Hurley, Miss., was the individual winner, running an impressive 15 minutes, 56.46 seconds to finish well ahead of UMS-Wright’s Joseph Perry (16:18.70) and St. Paul Episcopal's Mac Conwell (16:20.51).

Catholic’s top runner was Joseph Ellis, who finished seventh overall in 17:07.24.

Another Baton Rouge school, St. Joseph’s Academy — the sister school of Catholic — won the invitational girls division with 32 points, ahead of St. Paul’s Episcopal  (70) and Ocean Springs (95). Rounding out the top five were a pair of Mobile schools, Baker (105) and McGill-Toolen Catholic (107).

Individually, Brooklyn Biancamano of Long Beach MS won her third straight COC race title, winning in 19:22.51. Baker’s Lindsey Baxter was the only other runner in the field to break 20 minutes, taking second in 19:57.16.

Catholic head coach Tre Hardy was pleased with his team’s performance, especially because the COC wasn't originally on the schedule. 

“It was an exciting meet, and I’m glad we could come and run against some different competition,” he said. “We thought we had a shot (to win), but we didn’t know because there were a lot of strong competition. We were just excited to come and run, because the meet we were planning on competing in limited us to three runners per wave and we were not going to be able to run both teams. So, we decided to come to a meet where we could have all our runners run in one race. We talked it over with our sister school (St. Joseph’s Academy) so we decided to run here.”

Hardy said the course was deceptive.

“The guys saw the course, and they thought it was going to be flat and were expecting these fast times,” he said. “We ran well, but some of the guys thought they were going to get faster times. But it was a good meet, and I told them this was our first meet of the year. They just had higher expectations for times, but I think the main goal was to come out and compete as a team, and that’s what they ended up doing.”

St. Joseph Academy was led by Maddie Gardiner (third, 20:34.85) and Sophie Martin (fourth, 20:44.01).

“I thought (meet director) Steve (Schoenewald) did a great job putting the meet on,” St. Joseph coach Mark LaHaye said. “We had a split team this weekend, and I had left the rest of the team at Baton Rouge at another meet. We’re in what we call Phase II, behind Alabama, so we could have only 25 kids at the starting line at a time (in Baton Rouge). Whereas with Steve’s race we were able to have our top seven in a box. I thought it went really smooth.

“The course was good, but a little deceptive, so it was not as quick as we originally hoped. I think our girls adapted pretty well. A couple of them didn’t have they race they wanted, but all in all, we ran pretty well.”

Balcer’s winning performance was all the more remarkable considering he ran in the George County Trail Run two days before and won that as well. 

“He ran just enough to win (Thursday’s race),” Balcer’s coach, Jason Law, said. “It’s kind of a tough course; we have our district meet there. He had hoped to run sub-16 (at the Challenge of Champions). Last year, he ran 15:50 at George County (in the district meet), and he was hoping to build off that.”

Biancamano said winning the individual Invitational Girls title felt great, even though she ran slower than she hoped.

“This morning, I wasn’t feeling the best,” she said. “But the girl from Baker (Baxter) was right on me for the first two miles, and that helped me push the pace today. I felt really strong towards the end and I had a great finish. I hope to make it four times (next year). I definitely plan on competing next year.”

Brother Martin won Heat One of the Open Boys division with 24 points, ahead of Spanish Fort AL (44) and Ocean Springs (84). Spanish Fort’s Joshua Clough (18:01.69) was the individual winner; while Mobile’s St. Luke’s Episcopal’s Zachary Haataja was the Heat Two winner (18:33.28). Satsuma AL edged St. Luke’s 48-54 for team honors in that heat.

Pensacola Christian Academy FL, led by a 1-2 finish from RaeAnne Tutton (21:24.07) and Jaimee Tutton (22:06.84), defeated Spanish Fort 35-59 to take team honors in Heat One of the Open Girls race, while Saraland’s Josie McDonald (23:09.32) was the individual winner in Heat Two, with Foley winning the team title, defeating Saraland 43-53.