Mercury Roundup: OJR’s Blatz wins deSales Invitational

Linus Blatz is quickly, and solidly, establishing himself as the new front-runner for the Owen J. Roberts boys cross country team.

One week after winning the City Championship — a race against such local rivals as Pottsgrove, Pottstown and the Hill School — Blatz broke the tape at the Centaur Invitational. The Wildcat senior finished nearly 10 seconds ahead of the field on DeSales University’s TS Lee course. He clocked a 16:54.95 to head Owen J. Roberts’ strong team showing.

David Brunton, Matt Muthler and Thomas Damiani ran 11-12-13 all in the 17:32 range, before Quinten Sherwood added a 15th. The ‘Cats were the only boys team to place that many runners in the first 15.

On the girls’ side, OJR’s Hannah Kopec came in third with a time of 20:37.96. The Owen J. girls had four finishers in the Top 20: Calista Van Druff (ninth), Mikayla Niness (17th) and Makenzie Kurtz (18th).

Upper Perkiomen’s leading runners were Gabriel Pitcher (28th) for the boys and Serena Detweiler (30th) for the girls. Upper Merion also competed in the meet, with Veronica Sanchez 21st for the girls and John Matics 31st for the boys.

PTXC Invitational >> Christian McComb set a fast pace for the Boyertown boys in the invitational race at Kutztown.

McComb placed fifth in a time of 15:58.50 in the 5,000-meter boys gold race on Kutztown’s “Farm Course.” Another high finisher locally was Spring-Ford’s John Zawislak, who came in 44th.

In the boys blue event, Pottstown’s Giankirk Kimmell lead his team with an 82nd-place effort.

On the girls’ side, Boyertown’s Zora Bergey took a 17th in the blue race in a time of 21:17.50. Phoenixville’s Madison O’Neill finished 48th.

In the girls gold race, Spring-Ford’s Emily Smith was 19th in 19:57.50. Teammate Ahila Moorthy followed in 30th place.

Quad XC >> The Methacton boys “A” team of Garret Campbell, Tommy Chimes, Garrett McPhillips and Matt Varghese won the boys’ portion of the relay competition at Philadelphia’s Belmont Park.

The Hill School “A” foursome of Tucker Dunn, Shahzaib Umer, Trent Lopata and Jamie Olson scored a seventh, with Pottsgrove “A” (Gabe Craig, Bryce Hampton, Brandon Henriksen, Simon Keen) eighth and Methacton “B” (Jack Kapralick, McMahon, Jake Peters, Sean Ritchie) ninth.

In the girls’ racing, the Pottsgrove “A” foursome of Calista Faust, Naomi Hillen, Molly Neeson and Chloe Sullivan placed ninth.