Mac Connell (15:54), Anna Adams (19:46) Fastest Of The Day In Mobile

Story and Photos By Arthur L. Mack for DyeStat 

Despite all of the rain which plagued Louisiana for the last few weeks, the 30th annual Mobile Challenge of Champions Cross Country meet held at Langan Park on Sept. 3 proved to be rewarding for schools from that state. 

Brother Martin of New Orleans won the Invitational Boys title in impressive fashion, placing five runners in the top 10 to defeat Mobile’s St. Paul’s Episcopal 28-56. On the girls side, St. Joseph’s Academy of Baton Rouge won its third Challenge of Champions’ team title in a row, beating Mobile’s McGill-Toolen Catholic 38-77. 

Brother Martin also won the boys Open Division, but McGill-Toolen spoiled any hopes of a Louisiana sweep by winning the Open Division girls title. 

Invitational Boys: Brother Martin, a regular participant in the meet, showed why it is one of the top cross country progams in Louisiana. The Crusaders overcame a strong winning individual performance by St. Paul’s Episcopal’s Mac Conwell, who ran a blistering early-season time of 15 minutes, 54.86 seconds, by placing five runners in the top 10. 

Gabriel Metoyer was second for the Crusaders (16:18.16), while Luke Regan (fifth, 16:26.33). Daniel Falk (sixth, 16:42.23), Eli Levy (seventh, 16:53.94) and Gabriel Levy (eighth, 17:00.43) factored into the win. 

Tuscaloosa’s American Christian Academy was third (62), followed by Lafayette, Louisiana’s Teurlings Catholic (118) and Mobile Baker (175) to round out the top five. 

“This is a special group,” Brother Martin head coach Drew Harro said. “Ever since they’ve been freshmen, they’ve been close knit at practice. They’re friends, they do everything together and they train together. I tell them that every year they’re going to get better. That’s a nice reflection of how special this group is. It’s still early in the season, so it’s going to be exciting to see how it’s going to be later on.” 

For his part, Conwell had a memorable performance. The senior bided his time and took the lead nearly halfway through the race and never looked back. The heat and soft course had virtually no effect on Conwell, as he won the race with ease. 

“It was hot for sure, but we train at 3:30 every day, so I was ready for it,” he said. “The competition we’ve been in has been incredible, and with us being in Class 7A for cross country and Class 6A for track and field, we’re getting the best of the best.”

INVITATIONAL GIRLS: St. Joseph’s Academy won its third Challenge of Champions invitational girls title and overcame obstacles along the way. 

Besides having to deal with constant rain in the Baton Rouge area, which hampered training, several members of the team were coming off illnesses. Two were recuperating from COVID, while another was getting over mononucleosis. But for head coach Mark Lahaye, the team somehow found a way to punch through. 

“It was our first meet of the year, so they were a little nervous,” he said. “They were a little down because it has been storming so much in Baton Rouge. We’ve been running in slop the past two weeks and we’re kind of beat up a little bit. We did about what we expected we could do, with coming off the past couple of weeks being rained out and not having consistent training.”  

St. Joseph’s had three runners in the top 10 — Hannah Vaughan (third, 20:10.11), Elise Brown (fifth, 20:36.98) and Michelle Daigle (sixth, 20:38.59) 

McGill-Toolen’s Anna Adams was the individual winner in a good early-season time of 19:46.76. What was so unusual about her time was that she was coming off a year’s layoff from cross country, having played soccer last season. 

“It was the first time I’ve ran a 5K race in a year,” she said. “I took last season off from cross country because I played soccer last year. But I wanted to go out strong in the first mile, hang on in the second, and take control of the race with a half mile to go.” 

OPEN DIVISIONS: Brother Martin, led by Braeden Dunne (third, 17:44.74) and Noah Mooney (fourth, 18:14.17) won the Open Division Boys title, scoring 41 points. Mobile Davidson, led by Phillip Parker (second, 17:37.19) was second with 110 points. Rounding out the top five were three Alabama schools —St. Paul’s Episcopal (113) and UMS-Wright (133), both of Mobile, and Daphne (151). 

UMS-Wright freshman Alex Gamble was the individual winner, running 17:30.33. After the race, he said despite the heat, he felt pretty good. 

“I had a good start and went out at a comfortable pace,” he said. “There was a little bit of mud, but it was not enough to make a difference. It was a really good start to the season.” 

Daphne’s Sophie West was the individual winner in the Open Division girls’ race (21:31.68), but McGill-Toolen’s Mae Lacour (second, 22:27.15), Emma Grubbs (seventh, 23:02.47) and Isabella Benge (eighth, 23:11.70) were able to lead the Yellow Jackets to the team title, defeating Daphne 32-77. Two other Mobile schools, Cottage Hill Christian Academy (84) and St. Luke’s Episcopal (118), were third and fourth, while Fairhope’s St. Michael Catholic was fifth (143).