The Delta League Championship took place at William Jessup University in Rocklin. The racing got underway with the Frosh/Soph Boys race contested over the 2 mile course. With several top frosh/soph runners moving up to run in the Varsity race later in the day, the frosh/soph team went out hard leading the race through the first half mile. As the race progressed, the Davis team moved up and by the 1.5 mile mark had a trio of runners up in the front with the Jesuit group in pursuit. Davis was able to maintain their edge to the finish and captured the Frosh/Soph team title with a score of 24 points to Jesuit’s 42, followed by Franklin 83, Cosumnes Oaks 134, Pleasant Grove 147, Elk Grove 166 and Sheldon 180. Individually the Marauders had good packing with the top 5 finishing within 17 second of each other with an average time of 10:43 and team time of 53:34. The top Jesuit finishers were Sophomores Noah Nast, Nick Ryan, Jackson Johns, John Barreiro, freshman Griffin Smith, and Sophomores Jaypal Reddy and George Vlahos.
After Davis captured the Frosh/Soph girls race it was time for the Varsity to toe the line. Up until this point in the season, Davis had the upper hand, posting victories over the Marauders on 4 occasions though most were decided by a few points so our boys were hopeful that they could knock off the Blue Devils if they ran smart. With the wind starting to pick up strategy was at play over simply running hard and fast with Jesuit and Davis both sitting back a bit in the early going while Franklin runners ran out front. By the midway point, however, sophomore Isaac Abbott had moved out into the lead running app. 30-40 yards clear of a pack of Davis and Jesuit runners. By the 2.5 mile mark, Lucas Tam of Davis had moved up to battle for the lead and the lead pack began to string out a bit as the pace picked up with the outcome still in doubt. Three minutes later, however, Jesuit’s sitting back strategy early on paid huge dividends as the Marauders showing they still had fuel in the tank, finishing 2-3-4-5-8-9-12 to put away the Blue Devils 22 to 38. Jesuit’s top 5 averaged 15:44 for a team time of 78:42 over the 3 mile course with a 22 second spread from 1st to 5th man and number 6 man only 1 more second back. The Marauders were led once again by Sophomore Isaac Abbott, followed by Junior Chase Cressman, Senior Declan Higgins, Sophomore Drake Hoferer, Freshman Matt Ogilvie, Junior Navin Kadel, and Senior Jonah Reynolds.
Apart from the win, Jesuit had 32 runners set personal records with several improving their times by a minute or more from their performance on the same course back in late September. With the team victory, Jesuit captured its 47th League Championship under Walt Lange. Next Saturday everyone will compete in the Subsection meet to be held at the Calaveras County Fairgrounds in Angels Camp with Jesuit hoping to qualify teams at all 4 levels for the Section finals to be held at Willow Hill in Folsom on November 11.