On Saturday, Nov. 26, the Jesuit High School Marauders Varsity Cross Country team participated in the CIF Cross Country State Championships.

The team placed eighth out of 23 teams in the Division One meet. Ben Holland ‘17 came in seventh, with a time of 15:27 over the 5 kilometer course. Matt Strangio ‘20 placed 74th with a time of 16:21; Nicholas Salonites ‘20 was 0.6 seconds behind. Brendan Jones ‘17 placed 111th in 16:40, while The Plank’s Colin Ryan ‘19 finished 115th in 16:42 and Robert Bell ‘17 placed 142nd with a time of 16:56. Miles Worthen ‘19 rounded out the top seven for Jesuit in 17:36, placing 177th.

Although they did not perform as well as they hoped, one major bright spot for the team was the fact that four underclassmen ran on the Varsity team, a sign that they will be strong in the future.

“Going into the state meet we had hopes of finishing in 5th place or higher,” Ben said.  “If the conditions for our success were met, I have no doubt that we would have been able to place in the top 4 teams; however, due to illness and injury, we fell short of that goal. Though we didn’t do as well as hoped, given the circumstances, I am still extremely proud of what our team did and the success that we had.”

The members of the team now look on to the track season in the spring, where they hope to perform as well as they did while running cross country.