MOBILE, Ala. — Hurricane Ida cut down on the number of teams scheduled to participate in the Mobile Challenge of Champions Cross Country meet held at Langan Park.

 

Nevertheless, there was still a large crowd Saturday to greet one of the biggest early season cross country meets in the Southeast. Late scratches as a result of last week's hurricane devastating parts of Louisiana and Mississippi took out some of the pre-meet favorites. 

 

Invitational: With schools such as Brother Martin of New Orleans unable to travel, it was the perfect time for Mobile St. Paul’s Episcopal’s Mac Conwell to have a shot at an individual title in the premier boys race. And take that shot he did, surging ahead of teammate Stone Smith and Mobile UMS-Wright duo Charles Perry and Joseph Perry to win in a time of 15 minutes, 41.05 seconds.

 

Conwell went out conservatively, running even with Smith and the Perry brothers for about a mile before picking up the pace and separating himself from the rest of the field. Smith was second in 16:01.84, Joseph Perry third in 16:09.95, and Charles Perry fourth in 16:23.80. The 1-2 finish by Conwell and Smith paced the Saints to a team title. They outscored another Mobile school, McGill-Toolen Catholic, 30-79. Fairhope’s Bayshore Christian was third with 108 points, while UMS-Wright and Dunham of Baton Rouge, La. were fourth and fifth with 110 and 114 points respectively.

 

“I knew I was going to run well, but I didn’t think I was going to run this well,” Conwell said. “I wasn’t expecting that kind of time going into the last mile (of the race), and I just gave it my all at the end.”

 

The junior placed third in the meet last year. 

 

“He (Conwell) was definitely motivated today, not just to win but to put on a show,” St. Paul head coach John Brigham said. “Most people don’t run that fast this early in the season, so I think that bodes well for the rest of the season. The team put in the work this summer, and I thought the big difference was our number four and five runners doing better than I would have thought.”

 

St. Joseph’s Academy of Baton Rouge won the Invitational girls title for the second year in a row, defeating McGill-Toolen Catholic, 25-76. A trio of Mobile area schools — St. Paul’s Episcopal (85), Baker (126), and Fairhope (138) — rounded out the top five.

 

Baker’s Lindsey Baxter, who finished second in last year’s race, took advantage of the absence of defending champion Brooklyn Biancamano of Long Beach, Miss. to win this year’s individual title in 19:19.01.

 

Baxter, who had been battling sinus issues for most of the week, used caution in the early going as she fed off the lead pack. It wasn’t until well into the race when she made her move.

 

“I stuck behind them to see how fast they would go,” Baxter said. “After the first mile, I moved ahead, and by the time I reached Zeigler Boulevard, I knew I was going to have it.”

 

Besides dodging Hurricane Ida, St. Joseph’s had to deal with the loss of one of their runners, Michelle Daigle, to heat exhaustion. Despite those challenges, the team had no problem defending its title, placing five runners in the top 10.

 

“Some of the kids never lost power, some of them got it back in the middle of the week, and I got power last night,” St. Joseph's coach Mark Lahaye said. “There was no flooding, no real home damage, so for the most part Baton Rouge was in good shape. We reached out to some of the (other) coaches to see how they were doing. We had one girl from Houma (Ella Chesnut of Vanderbilt Catholic) who hung out with us.”

 

Another team from Louisiana that managed to come to Mobile and compete despite the storm, Christ Episcopal School, finished sixth with 152 points. The team was not able to hold a practice in the week leading up to the meet. 

 

“As far as damage goes, we had one or two kids who had trees on their houses,” coach Chad Hunt said. "A lot of people had trees down in their yards, and some of the kids still don’t have power at their houses. I think this is the first time in the history of the school that it didn’t have practice the week before the race. Some of the kids ran on their own.”

 

Hunt said members of the team kept in touch with message apps as they evacuated to safer locations.

 

“They’ve been very resilient, and a lot of us have been used to the hurricane process, so it’s nothing new,” he said. “This one was more involved with a lot more tree damage and a lot more wind damage than Hurricane Katrina. We all had hotel rooms from a couple of weeks ago, and there was no power anyway, so they said, ‘Let’s stay in the hotel room.’ They were excited to come out here and run.”

 

Open: Mobile-area teams dominated the competition, as Baker defeated St. Paul’s 62-102 in the boys competition and Davidson defeated Cottage Hill Christian 68-108 in the girls race. Individual winners were Baker’s Aidan Gerber (17:25.90) and Saraland’s Josie McDonald (21:16.85). 

 

Gerber came from behind in the boys race, and was locked in a battle with Andy Canegitta, Jr. of Daphne and Joseph Jones of Irvington’s Alma Bryant. But Gerber picked up the pace, outkicking Canegitta and Jones for the win.

 

“I knew I had an opportunity to get first,” Gerber said. “I was a little nervous at first because there were so many runners ahead of me, but I ended up picking them off. I keyed off the Daphne runner (Canegitta) and the plan was to sprint in.”

 

For McDonald, it was a little simpler. She relied a higher power, as well as a local running expert, to stride to victory. She worked her way up to the front of the pack and made her move around the two-mile mark.

 

“I have to credit this race to God,” she said. “I was feeling good, thinking like ‘I can do this.’ God helped. I’ve been doing eight miles a day, and Joe Sims (local running expert) suggested that. (That extra work) dropped two minutes off my time.”