By JOHNNY PEPPO

Sports Editor

District isn’t all that far off in the high school Cross Country season as local runners gear up for the 5-5A meet set for this Thursday at Regala Park in Reserve.

The district meet will include St. Charles, Riverside and Reserve Christian students as there are only a handful of runners from small schools in St. John Parish. SCC has the only full squad in local 2A as the Comets field a team of 20 plus. Riverside’s squad is composed of a team of two, including Jesse LeBlanc who finished sixth in the state cross-country meet last year. Reserve Christian fields a team of five boys.

Large Schools

East St. John and Hahnville both have squads to represent large schools in the River Parishes this Thursday, and will be joined by teams from West Jefferson and Assumption.

Looking for a return to state meet for the ESJ Wildcats this season is Robert DeHoyas and James Carrol who will be returning as a top 100 finishers in the state race from last year.

Small Schools

St. John Parish’s small schools have a small district with just about two dozen runners. So the 2A meet will be run concurrently with the 5A meet Thursday. But the top three teams from each district qualify for state, so the small local district also means less competition on the route to the state meet.

The St. Charles squad, who with significantly more runners will be running for the district title, has been led this season by sophomores Reyna Lubin and Erica Blank for the girls and senior Chris Boesen for the boys. Lubin finished 39th earlier this season in the LSU Invitational, and Blank came in 75th to lead the girls to a 16th place finish while Boesen finished in the top 100. Last season, Lubin finished third on her team in the state meet as a freshman, and was joined by top 100 finishers Chantelle Calmes, Danielle Cintron and Melissa Newman, who are all seniors this year.

For the boys, seniors Lucas Roussel, Kenny McCoy and Dominic Maggio will all be looking to return to the state meet for the second consecutive year.

But it is a Riverside runner who seems to have the best chance to bring home a medal in the state tournament with Jesse LeBlanc who is looking to improve on his 16:45.93 time from last year’s state meet. He’s a hands down favorite to finish first in district.