Cooper Cross Country Teams closer to championship goal

THE WOODLANDS, Texas- The John Cooper School boys' varsity cross country team took first place honors while the girls' team claimed second place behind The Woodlands Christian Academy at the 18th Annual Cooper Dragon Cross Country Invitational. More than 300 runners from 15 upper school teams and 16 middle school teams competed at Burroughs Park on September 27.

The varsity boys' team took first place with a perfect score of 15, scoring first through fifth. Senior Pedro Nasta easily won first place with a two-mile time of 9:52.62. Junior Ryan Mullen finished second (10:30.57), sophomore Garrett Groppell finished third (10:42.91) and senior Cody Bohan finished fourth (10:45.17). Cooper brought in the top eight qualifying runners to include sophomore Jonathan Goodridge at sixth (10:48.09), freshman Drew Nichols at seventh (11:00.95), sophomore Wes Willgrubs at eighth (11:01.88) and junior John Mullen at ninth (11:02.74).

"Our varsity teams competed very well, dominating this home meet. Even though it was a small meet, we had a strong showing from our top runners," said Head Coach George Dohner. "Pedro recorded the fifth fastest time in Texas for a two-mile race."

The girls' varsity team took second place overall. Junior Kylie Melodick finished second for the Dragons, with a two-mile time of 13:15.77, followed by freshman Sidney Cartwright at fifth (14:15.30), junior Natalie Sos at seventh (14:24.30), sophomore Sonya Bhatia at eighth (14:26.49) and sophomore Nina Rivela at 10th (14:35.44), freshman Shilpa Rumala at 12th (14:37.40), sophomore Isabel Sands at 14th (14:43.25) and junior Claire Livesay (14:48.84) at 15th.

"The girls' varsity team continues to make good progress as well," Dohner said. "As a relatively young team, we hope to surprise a few people at the end of the season."

Cooper was well represented throughout the meet as the teams brought either a first or second place wherever they competed. The JV boys' team came in first, led by senior Christian Goodridge (12:21.24) at fourth, freshman Jeremy Okamoto (12:29.92) at sixth and sophomores Wiley Coleman (12:33.55), Mark Flanagan (12:40.70), Blair Chapman (12:48.58) and Adam Muhith (13:07.99) at eighth through 10th and 12th, respectively.

Middle School Keeps Pace

Cooper middle school cross country kept up the pace, with girls earning first place, the boys capturing second in Division I. The girls' team finished strong with six of the top eight finishers. Ava Minarovic led the girls with a first place time of 6:58.33 in the 1.2 Mile. Behind her were Caroline Courtney (7:06.54) and Emily Black (7:07.15) at third and fourth places, and Paige Cromley (7:09.99), Kate Burns (7:19.70) and Maya Robles (7:20.57) finished sixth through eighth place.

For the boys' team, Mitchell Shannon (6:17.27) led the Dragons with a second place finish in the 1.2 Mile. Other notable runners were Andrew Sos (6:55.07) at eighth and Braden Sebesta (7:06.51) at 11th.

"This was a great meet for us, especially after two prior weather-related meet cancellations. This was our first meet in three weeks so our kids were anxious to race and it showed in their performances, with most runners setting personal records," said Dohner. "We needed a good meet to prepare for the Nike South next week. We continue to train hard and focus on one goal-an SPC Championship!"

The Dragons will compete at the Nike South on Saturday, October 4 at Bear Branch Park.