Vikings Cross Country Season Recap from Coach Mastro

Last weekend the Village cross country team traveled to Willow Waterhole in southwest Houston to compete in the St Thomas Episcopal Invitational meet. The Boys Varsity, running without Captain Matias Cattani , managed to notch their 2nd win of the season, edging out host, St Thomas Episcopal and 13 other teams for the title. Led by Kaushal Patel's 4th place finish, the Viking harriers received strong performances from Bram Satter in 6th, Sebastian Magana in 15th, and Tim Tjalma in 18th.

The Girls Varsity, missing team #1 Doris Mikulek, finished a solid 7th out of 14. The Vikings were led by a trio of sophomores, Nina Moynet, Isabela Blanco, and Antonia Krueger. Also scoring for the team were captain Harleen Bhatia and Isabella Doornbosch. St Agnes Academy of Houston took the team title.

The Boys JV team finished 6th out of 9 and were led by sophomore Amaan Ahmed. 

5 days later, the Viking runners traveled to Spring Creek Park in Tomball for the TAPPS 6A District 4 championship meet. In a much-anticipated head-to-head match-up against team rival St Thomas, the Boys Varsity finished 2nd, 16 points behind, 22-38. St Pius X was 3rd with 75 points. The top 5 runners from last year's District meet were all running for St Thomas this year so the team had its work cut out for it. When the dust settled, Village placed 2 runners in the top 5 and 4 in the top 10. Team captains Bram Satter, Kaushal "One Spike" Patel, and Matias Cattani medaled in 3rd, 4th, and 7th respectively. Also medaling were Tim Tjalma in 10th and Sebastian Magana in 14th. All 5 destroyed their times from last year, some by as much as a minute and a half.

In the Girls Varsity race, St Agnes Academy dominated as usual and a strong Incarnate Word team finished second. The Viking girls ran their best race of the year and took 4th place in the team standings. Led by team captain Doris Mikulek's 5th place, the Village girls had strong performances from the sophomore group of Nina Moynet, Antonia Krueger, and Isabela Blanco. All 3 set personal bests on the hilly 3200m course. Rounding out the scoring was senior captain Harleen Bhatia, running her best race of the season.

In the JV Boys race, Village was once again led by Amaan Ahmed, setting a personal best time by more than a minute. In JV Girls, Demi Banjoko was the Viking top finisher.

Congratulations to all of the Village cross country runners who trudged out every morning as early as 5:15 am and made the season a great success. And thank you to all of the parents who helped facilitate the athletes getting to practice at that hour. We couldn't do it without you. The official State Meet team will be announced tomorrow. Any questions or concerns, please contact myself, LaTayna, or Michael.

Coach Mastro