After a disappointing last place finish (15th) at the 2010 Lakota Invitational, the Cardinal Stritch boy's team improved this year to an 8th place finish in a field of 20 teams.  Much of the improvement has been due to the contributions of freshmen Tim Lynn and Bobby Romstadt.  Junior Jake Lynn has returned to cross country running after competing his freshman year.  At the Lakota Invitational, held at Eells Park in Bettsville, Tim finished 18th with a time of 17:48.  Jake followed closely behnd in 26th (18:07), with Robert Wernert in 39th (18:31) and Bobby Romstadt in 81st (19:58).  Completing the Stritch team were Charles Sarra (20:13), Nick Torres (20:45), Tyler Gawrych (21:43) and Casey Flowers (23:06).  This marked the first race of the year for Tyler, who has worked through two years of injuries and physical therapy in order to return to competition.  Old Fort won the team competition, followed by Sandusky St. Mary's and Hopewell-Loudon.

   Rosa Mondragon continued her break-out season with a fine 10th place finish, in a personal best time of 21:29.  Rosa put in many hours during the summer running at Swan Creek Metropark.  Freshman Cailyn Horna contlnued to battle through a leg injury to finish 66th (24:54), in a field of 106 runners.  Hopewell-Loudon won the girl's competition, followed by Sandusky St. Mary's and Toledo Christian.  

   Alexandrea Derrer continued her streak of finishing in the awards with a 36th place finish.  Alex's time was 14:11 on a somewhat muddy course.  The Cardinal Stritch runners look forward to hosting their own Invitational next Saturday, September 24th, at Maumee Bay State Park.  The first of eight races for junior high and high school athletes begins at 8:30 AM.