St. Paul’s Matt Mouton turned in the race of his life establishing a PR Wednesday at the 7-5A District Cross Country Meet held at Fontainebleau State Park traversing over the course with an impressive winning time of 15:16 in the three-mile event. Mouton broke his previous mark by 16 seconds en route to his victory.

Mouton helped spark his Wolves to the team title with 27 points edging out the game Mandeville Skippers by a mere two points.

Mouton talked about his Wolves knowing they had a shot to win.

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“We knew Mandeville was very competitive. I went out fast. It was a good race. The last mile was definitely the hardest,” Mouton said.

“After I got the lead, I knew it was just me against the clock trying to get as close to 15 (minutes) as I could. I felt strong throughout the race. This is a big win for me and I am very excited. All the hard work and practice has paid off. This was probably the fastest course we have had this season,” Mouton added.

MHS’ Bryan Mutell was nearly as brilliant breaking the 16-minute barrier at 15:44 clipping his previous PR by 33 seconds.

“Matt ran a very good race. He ran a helluva race and congratulations to him,” Mutell said.

Mutell said he felt strong going into the race and was confident.

“I’ve never been a really strong kicker at the end of races. When I came out of the woods and was able to pass Ethan (Mizell) it gave me a new boost and I knew this was my last chance in Fontainebleau State Park in a district meet. I just went for it and gave it all I had,” Mutell added.

St. Paul’s Ethan Mizell (15:58), who took third, barely edged out MHS’ Steven Hollander (15:58). The Skippers’ Marty van Duym (16:02) took fifth followed by St. Paul’s Scott Brewster (16:11). MHS’ Jordan Penton (16:19) was seventh followed by SPS’ Ryan Durr (16:23), St. Paul’s Christian Bergeron (16:32) and Fontainebleau’s Brett Olivier (16:39) rounded out the top 10.

Fontainebleau (84) came in third followed by Ponchatoula (130) and Slidell (135). Northshore (155) was sixth followed by Covington (189).

St. Scholastica Academy’s Angela LaBorde (18:01) turned in a solid race to win the girls’ varsity individual title to spark the Doves (25) to the team victory. She edged out MHS’ Elizabeth Manuel (18:06) who barely held off FHS’ Amy Deeble (18:07) in an extremely competitive race.

LaBorde talked about the race.

“I tried to get out fast and I just worked my way up. Once I got ahead I just kept pushing it and pushing it. I guess I took the lead a little bit after the first mile going into the second trail,” LaBorde said.

“It feels good to win and I’m excited. I didn’t try to think about too much. During the race I just thought about I have to do this because I have come this far. I liked running the trails,” LaBorde added.

Manuel shared her thoughts on the close race.

“We (LaBorde and I) were neck and neck for the first mile. Then she got a little ahead when we went into the woods. I should have stuck with her and not let her get too far out in front,” Manuel said.

Manuel talked about giving it her all to get second just ahead of FHS’ Deeble.

“I wanted to do the best I could for my team. Even though I knew I hadn’t won place counts. I gave it everything I had. I didn’t think about the pain or how tired I was I just went,” Manuel added. Manuel’s previous best time this season was 18:40 so she bettered that by 34 seconds. Her PR is a 17:51 set last year at St. Thomas Aquinas.

SSA’s Catherine Pereira (18:55) took fourth followed by teammate Carly Boyce (19:05). MHS’ Ashley Irwin (19:20) was sixth followed by SSA’s Clare Ledoux (19:41), SSA’s Lauren Salles (19:42), Slidell’s Megan Smith (19:48) and SSA’s Catherine Schroeder (20:05) who rounded out the top 10.

SSA coach Chris Pool said he was proud of both his varsity and JV team and the job they did.

“The end of September and the month of October was a little tough with all the rain and mud. We’ve been lucky the past couple of weeks to have nice weather. The kids have really worked hard this whole season and I’m proud to watch them go out and be successful giving it their best,” Pool said.

Mandeville’s Lady Skippers (55) came in second behind SSA followed by Fontainebleau (60). Slidell (113) came in fourth followed by Northshore (124) and Ponchatoula (168).

Covington was the host school and coach Ed d’Hemecourt talked about it being a quality event.

“I think the races went great. The weather was tremendous and that is why I think we saw the wonderful times that we did,” d’Hemecourt said.

Other girls’ varsity times: 11. Mikaela Thurber, FHS, 20:07; 12. Meghan Kerry, FHS, 20:10; 13. Elaine Burbank, MHS, 20:19; 14. Shelby Henssler, NHS, 20:24; 15. Ashley Gussoni, MHS, 20:39; 16. Courtney Musgrove, FHS, 20:47; 17. Natalie Martin, NHS, 21:15; 18. Shelby Latino, FHS, 21:41; 19. Jennifer Ernst, MHS, 21:42; 20. Caroline Limbaugh, MHS, 21:44; 21. Briana Thompson, SHS, 21:44; 22. Alexandra Wimley, FHS, 21:46; 23. Brittni Thompson, SHS, 21:47; 24. Kelley Buddell, MHS, 21:49; 25. Rachael Gautier, SSA, 22:15; 26. Kirsten Cunningham, NHS, 22:21; 27. Lindsey Aleman, FHS, 22:44; 28. Carly Marquez, SHS, 22:50; 29. Bria Bohanaon, PHS, 22:59; 30. Elizabeth Etzkin, PHS, 23:10; 31. Mallarey Luttman, PHS, 24:04; 32. Hannah Ford, SHS, 24:10; 33. Ali Brandt, NHS, 24:12; 34. Hannah Ploen, NHS, 24:16; 35. Rebecca Levy, NHS, 24:26; 36. Brittany Kubik, SHS, 24:47; 37. Mariah Dunbar, SHS, 25:09; 38. Amber Galjour, PHS, 26:57; 39. Olivia Oberkirch, NHS, 30:00; 40. Ashley Mullins, PHS, 30:38.

Other boys’ varsity times: 11. Henry Gerbracht, MHS, 16:41; 12. Collin O’Leary, SPS, 16:45; 13. Kyle Rudolph, SHS, 16:45; 14. David Susko, MHS, 16:46; 5. Corey O’Dell, FHS, 16:51; 16. David Gauthreaux, FHS, 16:51; 17. James Michel, MHS, 16:53; 18. Paul Dauterive, CHS, 16:55; 19. Cody Cooper, NHS, 17:20; 20. Bradley Trimble, FHS, 17:25; 21. Dallas Daigle, PHS, 17:26; 22. Nick Nelsen, PHS, 17:29; 23. Sammy Fetter, FHS, 17:32; 24. Trey Weiss, SPS, 17:38; 25. Alan Tipton, FHS, 17:47; 26. Jacob Steib, PHS, 17:48; 27. Zach Charlton, NHS, 17:53; 28. Daniel Gill, SHS, 17:54; 29. Oliver Young-Hernandez, SHS, 18:01; 30. James Delatte, PHS, 18:03; 31. Phillip Ernst, PHS, 18:05; 32. Nick Ferguson, SHS, 18:06; 33. Austin Estain, SHS, 18:06; 34. Jean-Luc Desselle, NHS, 18:09; 35. Kevin Connelly, FHS, 18:12; 36. Harper Jones, CHS, 18:24; 37. Phillip Bakker, NHS, 18:44; 38. Wesley Errington, NHS, 18:52; 39. Kyle Hoppens, NHS, 18:59; 40. Sam Bilica, SHS, 19:23; 41. Chris Nguyen, SHS, 19:27; 42. Sal Pellittieri, PHS, 20:06; 43. Julian Nunez, NHS, 20:17; 44. Jonathan Nobles, CHS, 21:34; 45. Ryan Dunham, CHS, 22:06; 46. Gage Gottschalk, CHS, 22:07; 47. Clayton Hodges, CHS, 23:22; 48. Jason Guzzardo, CHS, 23:55.