Vandebilt boys win District 8-4A running title

The Vandebilt Catholic boys’ cross country team captured its fourth consecutive district championship last Tuesday with 30 points at Gretna Playground, home course of Archbishop Shaw.

Shaw finished second (46 points) and Belle Chasse third (51).

Vandebilt junior Ross Mullooly placed second overall with a time of 17:12,17 seconds behind first-place winner Kyle Lessig of Shaw (16:55).

Justin Babin (fourth, 17:22), Chris Watson (fifth, 17:49) and Bruno Doria (eighth, 18:15) also helped pace the Terriers to victory.

“The boys had a great race,” said Vandebilt coach David Malone. “It was a pretty tight race for a while, and right around the two-mile mark I was telling our runners that they needed to catch the Shaw runners in front of them. In the end, we out-kicked them.”

The Lady Terriers placed second in the girls’ meet with 34 points.

Belle Chasse won the title with 21 points. Helen Cox was third with 85.

The Vandebilt girls were led by a second-place performance from Alexis Guidry (22:09). She was followed by teammates Emily Carrere (fourth, 22:47), Logan Leblanc (eighth, 23:34), Amy Donaldson (ninth, 23:35) and Ayme Haydel and Morgan Lirette (both tenth at 23:36).

“I had really high hopes for the girls going into this meet because they had been winning a lot of meets this year,” Malone said. “But Belle Chasse came out and had one of its best days. Our runners didn’t do anything wrong. We just couldn’t keep up.”

Vandebilt turns its sights to the state cross country meet, which will be held Tuesday, Nov. 13, at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches.