By Ron Brocato
Although the outcome has no bearing on which teams and individuals qualify for the upcoming regional and state cross country meets, the Brother Martin long distance runners are preparing for Thursday’s District 9-5A championship meet as though it is a state qualification event.
The annual meet, which will be run on the City Park course on Oct. 29, has a special significance, said Crusaders’ head coach Drew Haro ‘03, a former cross country standout for the Crimson and Gold.
“The meet is a tradition, although it really doesn’t mean anything toward the big meets coming up,” the coach said. “So we run it for historical purposes.”
Although the district meet features separate championship three-mile runs for predominantly Catholic schools' male and female teams, the results have been predictable. It has become a dual meet between Brother Martin and Jesuit for the boys’ team title, and Mount Carmel and Dominican for the girls’ laurels.
The boys’ meet also includes teams from Holy Cross, Rummel, St. Augustine, Chalmette, and John Curtis. But basically, the meet is a pseudo dual meet between reigning champion Jesuit and runner-up.
And the chances of the Crusaders winning on Thursday? Haro said the outcome could be decided by less than a handful of points.
“Realistically, this could come down to three-to-five points if it shakes out as I think it could. If you could exchange the first two spots, then all of a sudden it’s alternating finishes for a couple of points here and there, and (the outcome) becomes pretty tight.
“Last year Jesuit had a perfect score (when its top five runners crossed the finish line ahead of the other district teams),” Haro continued. “I’d like to think that Thursday may not be quite a toss-up, and certainly we are not the favorites, but I think we can finish the race, regardless of the outcome, thinking that November is right where we think we should be.”
Haro didn’t feel that way earlier in the season, saying that his team’s “lackluster” performances cast a measure of doubt that his veteran squad had shown improvement over its 2025 state runner-up finish in the Division I championship meet.
“The goals that we had, we thought we could be very competitive statewide this season, but we hadn’t seemed to look like that. Then, two weeks ago we went to the Watson High School Classic meet in Clinton, Mississippi, and lost by one point to Catholic High (Baton Rouge). “
That narrow runner-up finish (88 points to 89), illustrated to the coach that his team had made great strides from earlier efforts.
Junior Daniel Bonilla placed third with a time of 15:06.9, setting a personal record in doing so. Haro explained, “It was a 5-kilometer race. I always stand at the three-mile mark to time our runners. (Bonilla) actually bettered the school record while on his way to a 5K race.”
Bonilla’s three-mile split time was 14.32, a school record.
In addition, breaking personal best times were senior Caleb Carmouche by finishing 11th in 15:28.4; Jake Cammarata, 15:41.8 for 20th place and freshman Jude Abadie, 16:14.4, as well.
“I think six of our top seven runners set personal records in that race,” Haro said. “That said, I think the race energized the team, and we’re starting to look like what I thought we should be all summer.”
Haro said his veteran runners are starting to show their full abilities.
“We’re a more veteran team now. So we have runners who have been here before and young blood chomping at the bit,” the coach added. "The district meet is funky because there are only 35-40 runners on the starting line when you are used to 200-400. So you kind of have to be patient and run your race and not get sucked into something you’re not prepared for, which is something that happened to us last year."
That sounds like a solid game plan.
