Women’s cross country team wins MD/DC private school championships

The women’s cross country team won the MD/DC private school championships on Nov. 9. The team finished with a total of 70 points, beating out National Cathedral, who scored 72, and Georgetown Visitation, who scored 80.

Coach Robert Torres said he was hoping the team would win, but not expecting it. “I know those schools are pretty good, and we don’t see them often,” Torres said. “A few of them are strong, like Georgetown, Good Counsel, and Holy Cross.”

Torres said he was not as intensely focused on strategy as he was at the IAAM championships, which JC also won. (Read about the IAAM championship here)

“They were ready. It came down to running like they ran at IAAM championships,” Torres said.

According to Torres, captain senior Alex Gromacki stepped up for the race. Other notable finishers were captain senior Kristen Kohles, finishing second, captain senior Amanda Spaeth, finishing seventh, and varsity runner freshman Adria Pirozzi, finishing eighth.

“This team accomplished what no other has by winning both the IAAM and private school championships and going undefeated,” Torres said. “We have made a ton of improvement.” The team also finished with an undefeated 7-0 season record.

Senior JV team member Taylor Hoch said, “It felt great since it was the first time a JC team won the [MD/DC Private school] championship.”

Cole Alban is the Online Chief of The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.

Men’s varsity soccer sets new playing level

Men’s varsity soccer completed their season with a loss to Archbishop Curley in the quarter-finals with a score of 0-2 on Nov. 1. In the MIAA A conference, they had a 6-8-2 record, but including their playoff games, their record was 11-11-2. The only teams to finish with winning records were St. Paul’s and McDonogh. The JV team’s final record was 1-15-0, 3-16-1 overall.

The Baltimore Sun Varsity Sports Rankings have the varsity team ranked at 12th in the state. “[As a team,] we could have worked on our communication better,” freshman forward Dylan Kidd said.

Varsity coach James Fendryk is proud of this team’s performance. “What led to a lot of our success was that we were very organized, which made us tough to break down. Even when we gave up goals, we were able to bounce back and do really well,” Fendryk said.
“We made a lot of silly mistakes early on. A lack on concentration with the Gilman and Spalding games cost us a better spot for playoffs,” Fendryk said. According to Fendryk, the league in which the men played was so competitive that every game needed to be played with as much intensity as if it were a playoff game.

“One hope for next year is that we can build off the success we established this year. We were  matched with a top 10 team every time we stepped on the field. We established a new standard,” Fendryk said.

Men’s varsity soccer had their best record since 2006, when their record was 9-9-1. This season, seniors made up one third of the team. The eight seniors out of the 22 players were Brenden Hutton, Mike Thompson, Devin Smaldore, Guillermo Almirall, Colby Fell, Zach Hammons, Clark Grube, and Camillo Fortunato.

“It’s going to be tough to replace the seniors,” varsity coach Rodney Johnson said.  “Hammons is a division 1 prospect, and Fell and Almirall are two of the best midfielders in the league. It’s going to be a challenge, but that’s what high school athletics is all about. We don’t sign players for 10 year contracts, we just get them for four years, and it’s our jobs as coaches to develop them as players. We will definitely be a younger team [next year], but we certainly have some skilled underclassmen, so they need to step up and do their job, as well as the five current juniors,” Johnson said.

Lauren Fabiszak is an A&E Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.