During Thanksgiving weekend, the Bellarmine Cross Country team had even more for which to be grateful as it competed in the State Championships in Fresno on November 30. The Bells came in second out of a field of 24 teams, making it the highest finish in Bellarmine’s history.
“The BCP Varsity cross country team ran a nearly perfect race to pull off one of the bigger upsets in DI history,” noted head coach Patrick McCrystle in his communication with staff following the event. “The short version is we were the 12th seed going in, but we had a plan, and all seven runners executed to the best of their ability, and our depth and grit in the last mile resulted in a massive upset.”
Coach McCrystle, who reported that this was the 32nd time Bellarmine had competed at the State Meet with previous results including finishing 3rd three times, 4th twice, and 6th six times, noted, “Our team time was the 2nd fastest in school history, 30 seconds behind the 2019 team that featured Colin Peattie and the Topper twins…quite an accomplishment!”
Top 5 runners for the Bells:
Shrey Chettiar: 15:37.8
Devansh Shah: 15:39.2
Will Burch: 15:40.6
Zander Verhoeven: 15:43.5
Stephen Sziebert: 15:45.7