2009 Season Ends for Turpin Teams, Continues for El-Khoury, Parnigoni, and Grogan
On Saturday October 24, the Turpin Spartans went to the Southwest Ohio District meet at the Voice of America park in West Chester. Two days of rain had turned the normally flat, fast course into a cold, muddy, and wet challenge and although times would not be fast, both Spartan teams looked to move on as many runners as possible to next Saturday's Regional meet in Troy.
Going into Districts, the Girls team was ranked 8th after an unpredictable season of injuries and additions to the team. The girls still looked to do their the best, no matter what the polls showed, and competed very well against tough competition from St. Ursula, Walnut Hills, and Anderson. Junior stand-out Adrienne Grogan was able to qualify individually, as she came in 9th of the top 16 individual qualification spots with a time of 20:17. Although there was a gap between Grogan and the rest of the team, junior Cassie Bacon(40th) and seniors Jillian Jaworek(43rd) and Alexia Yun(46th) came in together with respective times of 21:50, 21:52, and 21:56. Senior Meg Plichta, running only her 4th meet of the season, rounded out the Spartan scorers with a time of 22:14, placing 52nd. Sophomores Rachel Eckert and Michelle Robinson finished closely behind in 22:19 and 22:21. The girls took 7th overall, and Grogan qualified to run at Troy next week.
Coming off a strong season of running, the Guys team was ranked 5th in their race, behind the strong teams of Mason, Elder, Colerain, and Oak Hills. Qualifying to Regionals was in their grasp, but the conditions of VOA would make it a challenge for every team to run well. Senior Nicholas El-Khoury led his team once more with a strong 3rd place finish, right behind Elder's Josh Makin, with a time of 16:42. Sophomore Antony Parnigoni, a strong asset to the 2009 team, ran a 17:11, good for a 11th place finish. Senior Dave Rodriguez was able to pull off an 18:10 in the slippery course, with senior Jon Risher and junior Joe Murray following with times of 18:18 and 18:29. Senior Alex Polivka and sophomore Paul Rodriguez ran respective times of 18:53 and 19:12. Although they competed very well in the awful conditions, the Spartans season was brought to a close with their 5th place finish. El-Khoury and Parnigoni, having placed in the top 16, will be running at the Regional meet next week.
Thank you to all the runners, parents, and supporters for being with the Spartans during their 2009 season. Congratulations to El-Khoury, Parnigoni, and Grogan, and good luck next week as they represent Turpin's 2009 team! The Spartan team will be graduating 14 seniors this year, and the rest of the team will be more than able to fill the gap left by the 2010 class.
Click here for the District results at Baums page.