Font ResizeRunning against national-caliber competition, the Delone Catholic High junior surprised himself and his coach Saturday with a personal-best time in the 14th Annual Peter Geraghty Invitational over and around the Mount St. Mary's University campus Saturday afternoon.
Less than 24 hours after placing second in 17:12 in the Diocesan Invitational at John Rudy Park, Sauvageau came back with a swift, impressive time of 16:47 to place seventh among more than 200 runners from 30 boys' varsity teams and six states.
Cory Puffett, one of the premier high school runners in the nation from DeMatha (Md.) High School, added the Geraghty gold medal to his collection with a first-place finish of 15:51.79. Elizabeth Tarber from John Carroll won the girls' event in 19:10.04.
In his first varsity race for Littlestown, junior Billy Stolkovich broke the 20-minute barrier in the boys competition with a time of 19:55.
Junior Emily Resciniti led the Squirettes with a time of 21:44. Senior Jess Paholsky set the pace for the Thunderbolts in 22:13.
The more than 700 varsity and junior varsity athletes ran in ideal conditions on a spectacular, sunny Saturday morning and afternoon over the 3.1-mile grass course at The Mount, where a couple thousand parents, classmates and fans cheered as enthusiastically for those finishing at the back of the pack as they did for the frontrunners.
"It was a flat, fast course; it was the first time I've run here," said Sauvageau, a long, lanky distance runner. "Running yesterday did not affect me at all, minimum to none. My goal today was to get into the 16s and I did it."
Saturday achieved only one of the goals the Squire runner is striving for this season.
"This helps my confidence, for sure," he said. "I'm shooting for top ten in districts and make it to states. This gets me going. I'm on pace."
Delone Coach Scotty Watt was not certain what to expect from Sauvageau and his teammates after running in meets on back-to-back days.
"Chris really surprised me. I was rooting for the top 20 and he did far better than that," said Watt. "I did not know how much running yesterday would take out of them. They've been working hard, and they were tired (today). Chris runs an average of 50 miles a week, so running back-to-back (days) did not hurt him as much as the others.
"Next year we won't run back-to-back. This is the largest turnout for cross country we have ever had. If we have as good a turnout as we had this year, I'll get with the school administration and ask to split the squad 50-50."
Thunderbolt Coach Dan Lawrence could not have been more pleased by the debut of Stolkovich.
"Billy really ran well, especially for his first race ever. This was great experience for our young team," said Lawrence. "Now we have some data to go by, and what part of their race they need help with. Otherwise, I was very pleased with our times this early in the season for the boys and girls. Now we have something to build on."
