The Bishop O’Connell Knights had middle-of-the-pack finishes at conference cross-country championship meets, but saw positive signs in the performance of ninth-grade runners.
The girls placed sixth and the boys eighth at the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference races, run Saturday (Oct. 26) on the 5,000-meter Kenilworth Park course in D.C.
The O’Connell girls had four freshmen among the squad’s top six finishers. One of those ninth-graders was Grace Fumich, who had the Knights’ highest place in the girls varsity race in 19th in 22:18.24.
Also for O’Connell, senior Delaney Park was 27th (23:01.63), freshman Lauren Smith 32nd (23:22.37), senior Danielle Rodriguez 34th (23:41.07), freshman Isabel Mallone 43rd (25:21.71), freshman Mairin Dziepak 44th (25:31.52) and senior Lily Spann 47th (26:34.29).
The top finisher for the O’Connell boys was another freshman, Peter Fleenor. He was 16th in 17:17.62. He was one of three freshmen in the boys team’s top six. There were no senior runners among the six in the varsity for the Knights.
Also for the O’Connell boys, junior Ryan Street was 30th (17:56.3), junior Patrick Porter 35th (18:04.51), junior Lance Jayme 42nd (18:35.32), sophomore Ian Bradley 53rd (18:51.69) and freshman Kyle Jayme 57th (19:20.47).
Jayse Brefczynski, a sophomore and the team’s top boys runner, did not compete in the meet. He had been ill in previous days.
