Moeller Cross Country GCLs Report
It was a perfect day for running as the Moeller Cross country team looked to lead the pack at the GCLS championship on Saturday. Held at the Crusader’s home course at Christ’s church in Mason, the Crusaders came up against fellow GCL teams such as St. Xavier, Elder, and Lasalle.
The Varsity team ended up taking 2nd place with a final score of 39, placing behind St. Xavier who came in with a score of 23. Elder placed third with a score of 75, and coming in last was LaSalle with a final score of 114. Taking 3rd place overall and 1st for Moeller, was junior Brock Grubert with a final time of 16:24. Next up was fellow junior Preston Wesley coming in at 4th, and junior Owen Speed placing sixth. Junior Zach Lazor took 11th, followed by freshman Paul Eckstein in 15th. Duncan Shirley took 18th place and Team Captain Carson Todd took 21st place.
Next was the junior varsity race that saw Moeller taking third place with a final score of 77 points. The highest finisher in that race for Moeller was Steve Schutte coming in at 10th place with a final time of 18:29. Next up scoring was Jake Allen with a time of 19:15, Xavier Ferguson at 19:37, and Max Herzog with a time of 19:40. Lastly for Moeller was Zach Guthrie, Charles Meyer and Keegan Hantak. Due to the rules of the league, no seniors were allowed to participate in the Junior Varsity race, so they competed in the Open race. Later, In the freshman race, Moeller took third place, narrowly dropping to Elder by three points. The highest finisher for Moeller was Jake Jankowski coming in at 5th place.
Lastly, for the open race, Moeller took third place behind Elder and St. Xavier with a final score of 75 points. The highest place Moeller runner and first non-St. X runner was Senior Jacob Scott in 28th with a time of 19:19. Next was Senior Garrett Keller coming in at 39th place with a time of 19:44. Senior Finn Taylor took 53rd place, followed by Luke Zielinski in 76th and Andrew Rudol in 81st.
Moeller performed well across the board this weekend with various runner taking home medals and other honors. St. Xavier still took a commanding lead with their 14th GCL title. However, Moeller is inching closer and closer to St. X each year, and this year it was as close as it has ever been. With St. Xavier losing much of its senior talent next year, and Moeller keeping much of its talent, next year is looking to be an extremely exciting year of Cross Country in Cincinnati. Now the Crusaders shift into the postseason, looking forward to districts on Thursday at Home of the Brave Park in Loveland for Junior Varsity, and Saturday at VOA park for varsity. Come out and support the team this week and weekend!
Image Courtesy of Dave Prenger