OJR’s Blatz leads the field at DeSales Invitational

Linus Blatz is quickly, and solidly, establishing himself as the new frontrunner 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 SpringFord’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.

Boys soccer

SOUTH KENT 4, HILL SCHOOL 1» South Kent scored three goals in a four-minute span prior to the end of the first half, and it rode that effort to a non-league victory over the Blues.

Hale Lombard had the lone goal for the Hill, tapping in a rebound of Kyle Sullivan’s attempt inside the first half’s final 30 seconds. Blake Groff had three saves in goal for the locals in their season opener. METHACTON 3, WEST CHESTER RUSTIN 1 » TJ Taylor’s two-goal showing headed the Warriors in their nonleague victory over Rustin.

Parker Stevenson completed Methacton’s scoring. Bryce Pew had Rustin’s lone goal.

Field hockey

METHACTON 4, SPRING-FORD 2» Katy Benton’s hat trick was key to the Warriors doubling up the Rams in their PAC Liberty Division game.

Madison Noh rounded out Methacton’s scoring, Liz Chipman and Elena Snodgrass each had assists and Rachel Alderfer made one defensive save to complement Molly Frey’s fivesave goaltending. Katelyn Crist produced both SpringFord’s goals.

Girls volleyball

BOYERTOWN 3, QUAKERTOWN 0 » The Bears swept their non-league match with the Panthers by set scores of 25-19, 25-10 and 25-20.

Julia Smith had 18 digs, Olivia Hurley five kills and Emily Wolfe six aces and eight kills as Boyertown improved 4-1 on the season. CHAMBERSBURG 3, DANIEL BOONE 0 » The Blazers fell to Chambersburg in their nonleague match by set scores of 25-14, 25-20 and 25-17.

Hailey Schinski had seven kills and five blocks for Boone (1-3), Ashley Kriebel added two kills and six digs and Ally Santos had nine digs.

Girls tennis

BALDWIN 4, HILL SCHOOL 2 » Elena Zhang and Melissa Xu were the Blues’ lone winners in their non-league match with Baldwin School.

Elena Zhang and Melissa Xu were the victors in their singles matches at number 1 and 3 respectively. Matches were played indoors due to the rain, and they were reduced to prosets.

Boys water polo

HILL SCHOOL 8, LOYOLA BLAKEFIELD 7 » John Nelligan scored the game-winning goal for the Blues, who defeated Loyola for the first time since 2005 in a match at the United States Naval Academy.

Nelligan finished with four goals, four steals, one assist and one ejection drawn. Tiernan Brunner scored twice, made two steals and drew an ejection against his former team. Michael Schiavone contributed two goals, an assist and a field block; Max Moore stole three. Patrick Dunn assisted on two goals and stole a ball, Aiden Dunn recorded an assist and a steal and Yeob Kim turned away three and stole one from the cage.

Co-ed water polo

UPPER PERKIOMEN INVITATIONAL » The UP boys and girls teams made strong showings in their invitational, both sweeping past the opposition.

The Indian boys topped Reading (12-8), Wyoming Valley West (11-2) and Springfield-Montco (9-8) to run their season record to 4-0. The girls, in turn, rolled Reading (13-2) and Springfield-Montco (17-3) to go 3-0 on the season.