St. John’s cross country opened their 2005 “Take the power back” competitive season in Dallas at the Luke’s Locker Relay. The Mavs finished 4th among a crowded 3A field from around the State. The SJS #1 relay team improved upon their 2003 6th place Lukes Relay finish and time (by nearly 3 minutes) to defeat SPC rival teams Kinkaid, Greenhill, Hockaday, Fort Worth Country Day and St. Andrews. The 4x1.5 mile relay team of Hulme, Bleakley, Brown and Watkins raced well on the challenging hills of our 2005 SPC championship meet course, Norbuck Park. In her third year with SJS CC program, Senior Captain, Melissa Hulme got the Mavericks out to a great start, coming into the hand off zone in second place and beating her goal time. Melissa posted a course personal record for her 1.5 mile split. This is Melissa’s third year running the course that she and her 2003 relay team (with Kaleta Johnson, Brittany Barron and Laura Nielsen) set a course record that still stands. She is an SPC individual champion, 2 year letter winner, and 2 year all-conference runner. Hulme pushed her pace throughout the race and finished strong to pass the “baton” off to freshman runner, Kate Bleakley. Bleakley returns to the SJS cross country program after a year off from competition. In her first varsity meet, Kate ran a commanding race for our top relay team. She was fast out at the start and pushed her pace throughout the race. Bleakley kicked into the hand off zone to pass the glove to another great new varsity runner Caitlin Brown. Brown ran a confident race. Her split time was third on the team. Brown put the Mavs within reach of the lead teams on the course and set up Sophomore Emily Watkins for a great anchor leg. Emily, a returning varsity letter winner and 2004 all conference runner, started the 2005 season with a top notch performance. Emily posted a course PR and beat her goal time by 10 seconds. With competition breathing down her back, Emily broke free in her kick, escaping one opponent and going after a runner with a 10 meter lead on her with only 50m to go on the course. She zipped passed her opponent at the line and brought the Mavs fourth place honors. It was an impressive opening performance for this young relay team! The Mavericks second relay team was lead by Senior Captain Amanda Hassler. Amanda ran a competitive race and shows great promise at keeping our core varsity squad closely packed in future races this season. Hassler handed off to Kaleta Johnson who ran a top split for the day and improved upon her 2004 time by 30 seconds. Kaleta finished strong to hand off to YiJing Sun who improved upon her ’04 time by 40 seconds. Alexandra “the standard cheese” Addison takes home the most improved honors this weekend, running 1:30 faster than her 2004 split. She anchored the second relay team to a 24th place finish, defeating #2 teams from all other SPC teams. Congratulations on a great 2005 season opener, Mavericks!!!