Cooper boys win Dragon Invitational

THE WOODLANDS, Texas - The John Cooper School boys’ varsity cross country team took first place while the girls’ team claimed fourth place behind Kinkaid, Episcopal High School and Concordia Lutheran at the 17th Annual Cooper Dragon Cross Country Invitational. Nearly 900 runners from 25 upper school teams and 31 middle school teams competed at the Conroe YMCA, Sept. 7.

“The boys’ team won the first-place trophy in prime fashion with eight runners in the top 20 spots,” said George Dohner, Head Cross Country Coach for Cooper. “We are real proud of the team. They executed the plan and kept a 20-second gap between our second and seventh runners. If this holds true for the remainder of the season, we are looking good for SPC.”

Junior Pedro Nasta placed first in the two-mile (10:26.39). He was followed by seniors Jacob Stelter (10:55.33) in third and Derek Tam (11:00.64) in sixth, with junior Cody Bohan (11:06.30) in eighth place.

Other standouts on the boys’ team included freshmen Garrett Groppell at 11th and Jonathan Goodridge (11:21.14) at 13th place; freshman Ryan Mullen at 14th, and seniors Joe Mullen at 20th, and Adam Rakla at 34th.

“The girls made a nice improvement from last week,” said Dohner. “They continue to work hard in practice and we hope to see this improvement throughout the remainder of the season.”

Sophomore Kylie Melodick led the girls’ side (14:08.45) in 17th place out of 81 competitors. Other standouts included senior Lauren Spearman (29th), freshman Sonya Bhatia (33rd), sophomore Dana Hammarstrom (34th), freshman Nina Rivela (36th), seniors Karen Maldonado (45th) and Maddie Flanagan (53rd).

“The meet was a huge success,” added Dohner. “I’d like to thank the Conroe YMCA for the use of their facility.”

The Dragons will compete at the Region III Preview on Saturday, Sept. 14, at Atascocita High School.