It was a great day for New Orleans area schools at the Mobile Challenge of Champions Invitational races Saturday at Langan Park.

Brother Martin and Mt. Carmel Academy won the invitational boys and girls divisions, respectively, while the individual winners in each race, Mobile UMS-Wright’s Charles Perry and Baton Rouge Parkview Baptist’s Lucy Cramer were the individual champions.

Brother Martin placed five runners in the top 10 to win the boys title with 30 points. Perry won the race in a course record time of 15 minutes, 35.53 seconds. Brother Martin’s top finishers were Gabriel Metoyer (third, 16:05.91), Noah Mooney (fourth, 16:10.73), and Luke Regan (fifth, 16:16.96).

UMS-Wright finished second with 66 points, while another Mobile school, St. Paul’s Episcopal was third (79). Rounding out the top five were Darlington of Rome, GA (116) and Holy Cross of New Orleans (131).

“I feel like when we come to this meet, we’re relevant with a chance to win and see how everyone else is doing,” Brother Martin head coach Drew Haro said. “As a coach, I always look at what we have coming up. I love coaching the guys we have in the current season, but I always ask where the program’s going to be in the next few years. Fortunately, we have three or four really good seniors, but some of our juniors and sophomores are starting to find their spot.”

As a testimony to its depth, Brother Martin also won the boys open division, with the Crusaders' Jack Collins winning the race in 16:52.71. Brother Martin scored 37 points, with Baker and Mobile’s Faith Academy (99), Saraland (133) and Gautier (178) rounding out the top five teams.

Mt. Carmel scored 48 points to win the girls title, while McGill-Toolen Catholic, led by Claire Mostellar’s  eighth-place finish (20:33.18) scored 73 points followed by St. Paul’s Episcopal (74), UMS-Wright (82) and St. Thomas Aquinas of Hammond, La (93).

Catalina Reichard was second (19:00.26) and Lucy Quinatana sixth (20:24.48) for Mt. Carmel. The Cubs placed five runners in the top 25, which helped secure the win. Cramer won the race in 18:34.81.

“We definitely approached running in a pack during practice,” Mt. Carmel head coach Casey Kiser said. “We talked about how important it was to close that gap between our one through five runners, and we got to get that six and seven to be just as close on other people’s spots. We’re definitely big on pack running in our program.”

Baker of Mobile, led by Linsdey Baxter, won the girls Open Division with 44 points. Baxter was the individual winner on 20:58.14, holding off fast-closing Mallary Little of Saraland (20:03.61). Rounding out the top five teams were Saraland (51), Mobile Davidson (114), Fairhope’s St. Michael Catholic (140) and McGill-Toolen Catholic (147).

“I felt good the first two miles, but in the last mile I was about to fade, but I was able to fight through it,” Baxter said. “Mallary stayed in the race, and she had a lot of heart. This race helped me to get back to where I was in my 10th grade year.”

Perry and Cramer easily won their Invitational Division races. Perry got out front almost immediately and never looked back, while Cramer literally hammered the first mile and did her best to keep the momentum through the finish.

“The plan was to go out easy because I never raced these guys before because this field had a lot of great runners,” Perry said. “But I decided to take off and try and stay in the lead during the race. I got the course record; that was the goal today, and I’m just hoping to keep the train moving.

“I was feeling sick earlier this week, so I didn’t feel amazing, but I said (to myself), ‘It doesn’t matter, you got to win.’ I missed two days of practice this week, so I honestly didn’t’ know coming in, but I was fine and I was happy.”

Cramer was excited to win on a new course.

“I’ve never been here before, so I was just enjoying the new scenery,” she said. “It was really fun. The plan was to go out (hard). I kind of slid down a little during the race, but I made it up towards the end. I was just hoping to hold as fast of a pace as I could. I was hoping to go the first mile fast and hold on to it. I slowed a little, but I made sure not to slow too much and to give all I had for the race.”