He’s asking trustees at their meeting Thursday to approve a change in policy that would “respect cultural differences, values, and attitudes” by placing a ban on mascots or nicknames that use race or ethnicity. This would retire the Lamar HS Redskins, Westbury HS Rebels, Hamilton MS Indians, and Welch MS Warriors mascots and all related labels and imagery by the end of the school year.

The district is providing assistance to principals at those schools to deal with their communities to honor the traditions of the old mascots while having new ones in place in time for the opening of school next August.

There are some exciting entertainment lineups for each of the three free, open-to-the-public book fair days. Teachers will do book readings starting at 4:30 PM each day. On Tuesday at 4:30, author Chris Cander and illustrator Katherine Tramonte (both parents of West U students) will read and sign copies of their new book THE WORD BURGLAR. Slam poetry team META-FOUR Houston featuring Emanuelee Bean will perform Tuesday at 5:00 p.m., then at 7:00 PM, Carter Blackburn will perform his unforgettable magic show.

Illustrator Bill Megenhardt will be on site to draw caricatures Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday at 5:30 PM, puppeteer Jean Kuecher will entertain, and musicians from Writers in the Round will perform at 6:30 PM on both Wednesday and Thursday.

Come buy books for your children, teachers, friends, or yourself using the shopping code 11208451 to support the school’s library.

WUES PTO will receive a percentage back on all purchases and 20% on all sales above $10,000. This money will buy new books for the WUES library.

When: December 10-12, 2013
Where: Barnes & Noble on Holcombe and BarnesandNoble.com

Please purchase items from ANY Barnes and Noble store (December 8th through December 15th) or barnesandnoble.com (December 8th through December 20th).

Just use the WUES Book Fair CODE 11208451 at checkout, and WUES will get credit for the purchase.

Share this code with your family and friends all over the NATION. Their purchase will also support the school.
Visit the Book Fair December 10-12. The class/classes with the best attendance will be rewarded with a homework pass. Take a break from dinner dishes and support WUES with our spirit nights at Chick-fil-A, Pronto, Jerry Built and Candelari’s Pizzeria every evening during Book Fair. Please visit the Book Fair page for the schedule.

Make an impact and replace lost magnet funds, all while celebrating with the Krewe of West University Place.
Let the good times roll with an amazing band, delicious food, live and silent auctions, a raffle for your choice of one exclusive silent auction item, wine pull, heads or tails game, tarot card readings, and much more.

Tickets:
- Carnival Ball Tickets are $100/person.
- En Avance Tickets are $150/person and give early access at 6:30 to items that might sell out early (e.g. Sociables) and free drinks until 7:00.

Purchase tickets online here until Friday, Nov. 15 at 6:00 pm.
(Tickets are available at the door, but advance purchase helps us greatly in our head count and food costs.)

Attire:
Dressy casual or Mardi Gras costumes, beads, and masks.

Win one-of-a-kind items
Trips to Santa Fe, New Orleans, and NYC; jewelry, a Cava Poo Chon puppy; theater and opera tickets; mayor for the day, kids’ summer camps and much more! To preview auction items, click here.

Class Project Viewing Party
Stop by the MPR on Wednesday, November 13, from 3-7 pm to get a first glimpse at your child’s class masterpiece. Opening bids are welcome on Class Projects and exclusive Teacher Outings, but final bids will take place on Auction night.

Revelry Schedule:
7:00 Check in
7:30 Dinner served
8:15-8:30 Silent Auction closes
8:40 Heads or tails
8:50 Raffle for choice of any live auction item
9:00 Live Auction begins

With a sweep of the medals at the District 19-5A boys cross country meet last week at Bear Creek Park, Strake Jesuit is back in pursuit of another trip to the 5A state meet in a couple of weeks in Round Rock.

Houston ISD announced today, Oct. 31, that all after-school activities, including athletic events, are cancelled due to severe weather.

The District 20-5A football championship will be settled Friday night when undefeated and state-ranked Lamar hosts hot-as-a-firecracker archrival Bellaire at Delmar Stadium.

That’s the perfect regular season mark the Kinkaid football team achieved Friday night with a 35-15 conquest over St. John’s before a few thousand fans in both teams’ regular season finale at Rice Stadium.

Read more …

It was a blowout for Lamar’s girls, who placed all seven runners in the top 15. The Redskins scored 25 points to win easily over Bellaire with 50 and Westbury with 102. Rounding out the team standings were Carnegie Vanguard with 122, Chavez with 124, Sam Houston with 133 and Westside with 165.

Read more …

The Houston Community College Board of Trustees appointed Dianne Johnson to temporarily fill the position as trustee for District V with a 5-0 vote on Thursday, October 17. Johnson will fill the position left vacant by Trustee Leila Feldman upon her resignation in September. Johnson was sworn in October 24 and will serve until the newly-elected District V Trustee from the November election is sworn-in.

If all goes this week as it has the past several weeks, then next Friday night state-ranked Lamar and once-beaten Bellaire will clash for the District 20-5A, aka Houston ISD, championship.

The Xavier Educational Academy is hosting a haunted house and food truck rally at their school, 6203 Edloe, on Oct. 25 and 26 from 7-11 p.m.

Fearless teens and adults can experience a professionally staged haunted house by Phobia Haunted Houses, which is for ages 13 and older.

For those who do not want to experience a fright, there will be food trucks on site and live music.

Tickets to the haunted house cost $15 and benefit the Friends of Xavier Scholarship Fund. Sponsorships are also available. For more information, visit www.foodtruckfrightnights.com. Tickets are not required to enjoy the food trucks.

R.J. Ammons, a senior at Houston's Strake Jesuit, will be running for Harvard next year.

After receiving interest from a number of prestigious programs from around the country, including those at Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Rice and Stanford, R.J. officially committed to Harvard after receiving one of that university's highly prized Likely Letters from its Dean of Admissions this week.

Ken Lojo, Principal of Strake Jesuit, states, "I'm pleased to say that R.J. is a wonderful example of what we hope to achieve with all our students here at Strake Jesuit. His outstanding dedication to academics and athletics is evident to all.

In addition to his many achievements in these areas, Ammons has sought ways to exemplify one of our primary mottos, 'men-for-others.' His dedication to serving others makes him much more than a great student or athlete. We are proud of his accomplishments and have every confidence that he will shine at Harvard."

R.J. will be the fifth student from Strake Jesuit to attend Harvard in the past seven years.

During his four years at Strake Jesuit, R.J. has been a member of the Principal's Honor Roll, National Honor Society, National Society of High School Scholars and the Strake Jesuit Think Tank. While at Strake Jesuit, R.J. founded Athletes Taking Action, a service club of athletes from Strake Jesuit and St. Agnes College Preparatory Schools. The club is the largest in school history, with over 200 members, and is also one of the most active clubs, providing community service year round in the greater Houston area. The members volunteer with many events, including Challenger Sports, Special Olympics, and Steps for Students.

Additionally, the members have a Christmas toy drive for the patients at Texas Children's Hospital and provide assistance at various homeless shelters. Throughout his high school years, R.J. has been a dedicated volunteer at The Beacon, a local homeless shelter that provides meals to those in need. During his summers and holidays, R.J. has spent hundreds of hours preparing and serving food to the homeless at The Beacon.

R.J. has been involved in cross country and track since he was 11 years old, winning numerous events throughout the years, and he is currently the Captain of Strake Jesuit's Varsity Cross County and Track Team.

Coach Michael Kerley, Head Coach of Strake Jesuit's Varsity Cross Country and Track teams, reflects, "R.J. is an incredible worker and has developed into a mature team leader and Captain. He leads by example and motivates the young team members. They really look up to R.J. The best of his high school career may yet come as he has dreams of several records this spring. It has been a pleasure to work with R.J."

On the track, R.J. specializes in the 3200m and 1600m races. R.J.’s time of 9:03.60 in the 3200 earned him a third place medal in the UIL State meet and a national ranking among high school juniors. Additionally, R.J. was the only member of the Strake Jesuit cross country team to receive UIL All State Honors in 2012. R.J.’s achievements in track and cross country gained the attention of Coach Jason Saretsky, the Track & Field/Cross-Country Coach at Harvard.

"I feel that Coach Jason Saretsky, Harvard's head cross country and track coach, has a clear vision for his team and for my next four years," Ammons said. "When I received the call from Harvard Admissions, I felt honored and privileged to be accepted to Harvard. I am really excited that I'll be running for this program and continuing my education at Harvard." Ammons said.

Man, these guys are loaded.

Undefeated Kinkaid, with a star-studded lineup, will try to close out a perfect regular season and an unbeaten Southwest Preparatory Conference South Zone championship 7:30 p.m. Friday night at Rice Stadium when the high-flying Falcons take on St. John’s School in both squads’ annual season finale against each other.

The Falcons, who have played in the last four SPC championship games and have won two of them, are now 8-0 on the season and 5-0 in the South Zone after they defeated Episcopal, 20-10, in an on-and-off rainstorm last Friday night at water-logged Segal Field at Barnhart Stadium.

The Falcons along with Episcopal will be in the playoffs as SPC South Zone representatives. St. John’s and Country Day are tied for third place with 3-2 marks and the Mavericks can secure a playoff spot in either the Big School or Small School classification with a win while they can also get some help if Episcopal can knock off Houston Christian, which would give them four losses.

So there is still a lot on the line this week for both Kinkaid, which is looking to finish a perfect 9-0, and St. John’s, which is looking for its second consecutive victory over the Falcons and a second consecutive playoff appearance.

If the Falcons and that lethal offense, led by junior quarterback J.T. Granato, get things cranked up the way they have just about every game this season, then the Mavericks’ best chance may come by using their veer ball-control offense, led by quarterback Wes Wallace, to keep Granato and company off the field. But if the Mavs’ can’t get their offense rolling, then their defense will be asked to stop a team that no one has really stopped to this point in the season.

With a host of outstanding college prospects on offense like junior quarterback J.T. Granato, junior wide receiver Sam Mays, senior safety Thomas Dillon, senior running back Jacob Matthews and a few others, the Falcons have a lot of different weapons on both sides of the ball.

But due to a pretty solid Episcopal defense and a heavy rain that at times literally paralyzed both teams offensively, the Falcons couldn’t shake the Knights, who are now 6-1 overall and 4-1 in the SPC South.

The Falcons also never let the Episcopal offense, which came into the game averaging 50 points a game, get on any kind of schedule. In fact, the Knights had a chance to score very early, but fumbled and from there, the Falcons were pretty much in control.

With a short kick to start the game, Episcopal began the game with the ball at its own 42. With a Tyreik Gray 19-yard run and Will Taussig 15-yard pass to Colby Jones, the Knights moved to the Kinkaid 22 before an intentional grounding penalty forced them into a 4th-and-30 back in their own territory.

They pinned Kinkaid back its to its own goal line with an outstanding punt as the rain, for the first time, began to fall. The Falcons got the ball out to its own 16, but a penalty pushed them back and they had to punt from their own end zone.

After a decent Kinkaid kick, the Knights had good field position at the Kinkaid 43. A nine-yard pass to Preston Heard followed by a 10-yard run by Gray and a leaping 21-yard catch by Collin Leisz put them at the Kinkaid 3. But on first down with the rain intensifying, the Knights had a bad snap and Kinkaid recovered to halt what would be the Knights’ only real threat for a while.

After the teams traded punts, the home team scored its first touchdown to complete an 11-play, 85-yard drive. With the big play a 35-yard catch-and-run by Michael Goldak, the Falcons got on the board with Jacob Matthews sweeping around the left side for a three-yard touchdown run on the first play of the second period. John Beeler added the extra point and Kinkaid led 7-0 with 11:55 remaining in the first half.

After Episcopal, aided by a late hit against Taussig, moved the ball to the Kinkaid 34, the Knights threw an incomplete pass on fourth-and-10 and had to turn the ball over on downs right there. On the first play from there, Granato found the big speedster Sam Mays, who caught three passes for 90 yards, behind the secondary and Mays scored on a 66-yard touchdown play to make it 14-0 midway through the second period.

Later in the period, Episcopal got on the scoreboard with a 23-yard Gabe Vogatizis field goal, but the Falcons responded with one final drive that resulted in a Beeler 34-yard field goal on the final play of the second period to put Kinkaid up 17-3 at halftime.

While both teams battled the elements and good defenses in the third period, the Knights began their final scoring drive late in the third period. Even though the rain was going in all different directions, Taussig completed passes to Leisz, Heard and then Gray to move the Knights inside the Kinkaid 10-yard-line.

After moving to the Kinkaid one, a penalty moved the Knights back to the 13 as the clock showed less than 10 minutes to play in the game. But on second and goal, Taussig completed a short pass to Dillon Davis, who carried the ball eight yards into the end zone to close the gap to 17-10 with 9:15 left

However it was then the rain started to fall harder than it had all night long and just making sure the ball was snapped and handed off cleanly became a real challenge. And it was a bad snap by Episcopal that allowed Kinkaid to score its final points of the game.

The Knights tried a punt from their own 25 with just under five minutes remaining, but had a bad snap. When Vogatizis finally ran the ball down in front of his own goal line, he tried to punt it, but the ball went nowhere while he was knocked down and Kinkaid took over at the Episcopal 6.

However, the Knights made one final stand as it appeared Niagara Falls was coming down on them and it the midst of that torrent, Beeler made a 22-yard field goal to complete the scoring and give Kinkaid some breathing room.

Despite the rough conditions, neither team shied away from putting it in the air with Granato, who was flicking long tight spirals as though it were a bright sunny afternoon, going up top 41 times while Taussig, who also threw the ball well under tough conditions, had 35 attempts.

St. John’s comes into Friday’s game against Kinkaid ppearing to be back on track after the Mavericks snapped a two-game losing streak last Friday night with a 35-7 victory over Trinity Valley in Fort Worth. In back-to-back losses to Fort Worth Country Day and Episcopal, the Mavericks had been held in check but their running back got its groove back against Trinity Valley, collecting 517 yards on the ground against the Trojans.

Running back Preston Neal had a season-high 219 yards and a touchdown on 34 carries while quarterback Wes Wallace was back to his usual self, picking up 159 yards and three touchdowns on 20 carries. Running back Risher Randall scored the team’s other touchdown to account for all their points.

So all three Examiner-area SPC teams have a lot to play for on the final night of the season and after Friday night, the final two South Zone playoff representatives after St. John’s and Episcopal should be known.

Stratford Cross Country begins its postseason Oct. 22 at 9 a.m. with the District 22-4A meet at Spring Branch Park in Tomball. Memorial and Strake Jesuit go three days later (Oct 25) with the District 19-5A meet at 8 a.m. at Bear Creek Park. All had good meets last weekend in their final tune up prior to the district meets.

Stratford boys went to College Park to face their toughest competition of the year against 5A state powerhouses College Park and The Woodlands. Also competing were 5A state ranked Cinco Ranch as well as Seven Lakes, Klein and other top 5A schools. Stratford was encouraged by its 3rd place finish. Austin Richard and Brian Quinlan finished in the top 10. Nick Terrazas, Hayden Richard and Douglas Baker were the other scoring runners and finished in the top 50 over the challenging 3 mile course.

Stratford Girls travelled to Austin Westlake and were pleased with their 7th place finish that was better than 10 other schools. Ingvild Utengen and Shelby Kallus ran under 20 minutes for the 3 mile course, just missing a top 10 and top 25 finish respectively. Fiona Fahey and Christina Tirado finished close together in under 21 minutes while freshman Leah Bach edged closer to going under 21 minutes.

Memorial boys and girls stayed closer to home, going to Bear Creek Park to compete in the Strake Jesuit meet. Memorial boys were happy to finish 5th of 12 schools. Presley Good finished 9th and Alexander Potthast was 19th over the flat 5k course. Riki Kobayashi, Nic Hamilton and Luis Chaval rounded out the Memorial scoring runners.

Memorial girls finished second to Kingwood Park, beating over a dozen other schools. Khayla Patel was the overall winner while Leslie Romero finished 3rd, and Meredith Ackerson had a 10th place finish. Lauren Deutser and Paiton Raines finished in the top 20.

The Strake Jesuit boys felt right at home in their home meet easily beating Kingwood Park, who are expected to battle Stratford in early November for Region 3-4A supremacy. Strake had the top 3 finishers in Frank Lara, RJ Ammons and Andrew Hebert. Blake Bordelon had a top 10 finish, and Matt Solcher finished 20th to complete the Strake scoring.

RESULTS

College Park Meet

Stratford Boys (3rd) – Austin Richard (4th,15:29); Brian Quinlan (9th,15:44), Nick Terrazas (28th,16:15), Hayden Richard (35th, 16:25); Douglas Baker (47th,16:46), Paul Brastrom (55th, 16:53)

Austin Westlake

Stratford Girls (7th) – Ingvild Utengen (11th,18:41); Shelby Kallus (27th, 19:27); Fiona Fahey (50th, 20:42); Christina Tirado (51st, 20:43), Leah Bach (21:19), Makenzie Kooken (76th, 21:41)

Strake Jesuit

Strake Jesuit Boys (1st) – Frank Lara (1st,15:48); RJ Ammons (2nd 16:02); Andrew Herbert (3rd, 16:17), Blake Borderlon (7th,16:41), Matt Solcher (20th, 17:16), Colin Thompson (25th, 17:28)

Memorial Boys (5th) – Presley Good (9th, 16:52); Alexander Potthast (19th, 17:12); Riki Kobayashi (34th, 17:55), Nic Hamilton ((36th, 17:56); Luis Chavil (40th,17:59)

Memorial Girls (2nd) – Khayla Patel(1st,19:17), Leslie Romero (3rd,19:44); Meredith Ackerson (10th, 20:50); Lauren Deutser (18th, 21:35); Paiton Raines (20th, 21:40)

West University Elementary School’s magnet program will be eliminated next school year, which will cost the school $273,562 in funding.

West U Elementary is one of 20 HISD magnet programs that will be eliminated next school year because they are not drawing enough students from outside of the neighborhood.

The elementary school’s enrollment is 1,254. Of those, 41 are non-zoned magnet students, which represents 3.3 percent of the overall student population, HISD Media Relations Manager Jason Spencer told InstantNewsWestU.com. Magnet schools are expected to have about 20 percent non-zoned students, according to HISD policy.

West U’s school-based magnet programs include math and science. Magnet programs offer an integrated and enriched curriculum and teachers receive specialized training depending on the school’s focus, according to the school district.

The 20 HISD magnet programs that will be eliminated have a combined magnet budget of $4 million which will be used for other academic purposes. West U will no longer receive the additional $273,562 in magnet funding that it had been getting, Spencer said, and will be funded like all other non-magnet neighborhood schools.

HISD says that students who are currently enrolled in magnet programs that are being eliminated after the current school year will be allowed to continue attending those schools until they complete the highest grade level offered at those schools.

The phasing out of the magnet programs was developed along with a new magnet program policy that was adopted by the HISD Board of Education. The policy set minimum standards for magnum programs to meet with it comes to attracting students from outside their attendance boundaries. While some magnet programs are being eliminated, the district is also adding new magnet programs to meet current demands.

West University Elementary Principal John Threet says that the school has been anticipating the decision to eliminate the magnet program for several years but the school will continue to provide educational excellence without any of their programs suffering.

Threet issued the following statement this morning:

“The decision to close the Magnet program at West University Elementary School has been anticipated by us for many years. When our school began to achieve Exemplary status in 2001, and received recognition from the Texas Business & Education Coalition as an Honor Roll School, from Children At Risk as one of the higher performing schools in Houston and Texas, and from the National Center for Educational Achievement as a Higher Performing School, our enrollment from families within our school attendance zone began to grow dramatically. Like many successful HISD schools, we accommodated this neighborhood growth by reducing the number of Magnet transfer students we accepted each year. While we are a whole school Magnet program and all children benefit from the program, our Magnet transfer enrollment has dropped to thirty-one children. Our percentage of neighborhood children has grown from 65 percent in 1996 to 98 percent today.

“One goal of the Magnet policy is for all Magnet schools to have 20 percent of their students transfer from outside the school attendance zone. In order to meet this goal and still educate the 1,200 students who live within our neighborhood, we would have to have a total enrollment of more than 1,600 students. This isn’t possible given the size of our building.

“We anticipated the eventual reduction or loss of Magnet funds over 15 years ago and began planning for it. The District has discussed the new goals for the last couple of years and we knew we would probably lose our program. Our PTO, administration, and community have already begun planning for this eventuality and will make sure that the educational excellence for which our school is well-known will continue without any of our programs suffering. We will continue to have the same great classes, teachers, and programs upon which our reputation stands.”

The Southwest Preparatory Conference South Zone football championship will probably be on the line Friday night when unbeaten Episcopal travels to undefeated Kinkaid in what could be an epic matchup.

Both schools have clinched playoff berths in the upcoming SPC Big School playoffs after each took easy Zone victories last Friday night to improve both schools to 4-0 in the league. Everyone else in the league has at least two losses, meaning with just two weeks left in the SPC season, Kinkaid and Episcopal are both in.

And when one looks at the numbers, it’s no wonder both have yet to lose a game because simply put – both teams with their fast-paced, sling-it-around-the-field offenses and mentality have yet to be stopped, much less slowed down by anyone.

Kinkaid, which is 7-0 and has had only one close call, got to this spot with a 42-0 victory over Trinity Valley Friday night in Fort Worth while Episcopal, which is 6-0 and has had zero close calls, went to Fort Worth as well and defeated Country Day, 42-0, to also remaining undefeated going into Friday’s game.

In their seven games, led by junior quarterback JT Granato, who has thrown for 31 touchdowns and over 2,400 yards during that time, the Falcons have accumulated nearly 3,100 yards overall. Granato has completed 156-of-255 attempts and he spreads the ball all over the place with four different guys, who can all run, having caught at least 20 passes.

Running back Jacob Matthews, who also leads the team in rushing, has caught 46 out of the backfield, but is averaging 15 yards a catch to lead the team. Sam Mays is second with 39 receptions for 10 touchdowns and 645 yards.

six-foot-8 Senior Mavin Saunders is third with 24 passes caught and seven more scores and Stephen O’Suji has pulled in exactly 20 throws, giving the Falcons one of the more diverse passing games around.

Their low-point total was 36 in their opener against St. Pius and they got to 39 the next week when they rallied for a 39-38 victory over Bellville. Since then, they’ve not been held below 40,outscoring Houston Christian, Country Day, Beaumont Kelly, St. Andrew’s Episcopal and Trinity Valley, 227-54.

In their win over Trinity Valley in Fort Worth, Granato threw five touchdown passes, including two to Sam Mays (6, 50 yards); two to Saunders (48 and 49 yards); and one to Michael Goldak for 67 yards.

But they’ve also shined defensively this season with nearly half the points they’ve surrendered coming in the win over Bellville. In the league, they’ve allowed only 34 points and they held Trinity Valley to less than 80 yards in total offense last Friday night in pitching their first shutout of the season. They also kept Beaumont Kelly out of the end zone, but Kelly scored four points on a pair of safeties in a Kinkaid 40-4 victory.

And they have racked up 10 interceptions to this point with safety Thomas Dillon, another highly-recruited defensive player, having half of them with five. Dillon has taken two back for touchdowns this season.

Episcopal’s numbers are right there as well although they have played two less games, but they have averaged over 460 yards per game and have both an excellent running game, led by flashy junior running back Tyreik Gray, and a solid passing attack, run by quarterback Will Taussig and all his receivers.

The Knights play fast and Taussig also likes to go to all the guys around him like Gray and seniors Colby Jones, Collin Leisz and Preston Heard, who all have are go-to targets at various points in a game.

But the real big threat is Gray, who has rushed for nearly 940 yards on only 69 carries and averages nearly 14 yards a run. He is quick, makes people miss, and does a good job of finding a way to the part of the field where no one else seems to be, giving him a chance to break off long runs. He has scored 17 touchdowns on those 69 rushes so one out of every four carries ends with him scoring on average.

The Knights have also been very good defensively, giving up just 67 points so far this year and linebacker Trey Horne, who had 19 tackles against St. John’s just two weeks ago, along with a veteran secondary has set the standard on that side.

And they are not afraid to take some risks, like putting 11 men in the box against St. John’s to stop the veer and daring the Mavericks to put the ball in the air against experienced defensive backs.

So they each will be playing in the SPC Big School playoffs the first weekend in November against someone out of the SPC North Zone. But first, there’s the matter of who is going to win the South Zone regular season championship.

And this game, with the kickoff set for 7 p.m. Friday, should settle that.

Published Thursday, “The Daily Beast’s Down & Dirty Guide to the Best Colleges 2013″ reports on what it calls “the very best schools in terms of real value.”

Read more …

The St. John’s girls cross country team had just one individual medal Saturday morning at its own Ramble three-mile run, but the Mavericks had seven of the first nine girls and nine of the first 12 overall to easily take the win at T.C. Jester Park.

With the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh-place runners accounting for their first five finishers, the Mavs needed only 25 points to win.

The real race was for second where Kinkaid came in second with 56 points, just a tick ahead of third-place finisher Episcopal, which closed with 57.

Episcopal junior Devina Schneider was the individual gold medalist (18:33.70), but the Knights only had one other girl in the top ten and that was their second place runner – freshman Emily Fleming – who came in officially tenth (21:38.70).

Kinkaid sophomore Lexie Ammons took the individual silver medal, by placing second overall (18.49.20) with the only other finishing time under 19 minutes. The Falcons did not have any else in the top 10 with their second runner – freshman Sophia Sole – coming in 12th (21:56.10).

After those two individual medalists though, it was all St. John’s with the Mavs taking the next nine places, including two from girls who were in the race, but weren’t officially part of the St. John’s seven eligible for the scoring.

Sophomore Lillian Chen came in third (19:05.70) and began the run of Mustangs that carried them to the team victory.

Freshman Peyton Brown was fourth overall (19:18.30) and finished over a minute ahead of St. John’s third runner – sophomore Maya Bhandari – who rounded out the top five (20:25.10).

Bhandari just edged out another sophomore, teammate Francie Williams, for fifth as Williams placed sixth (20:26.80) and she was just in front of another tenth grader, Margaret Trautner, who was seventh (20:51.50) and accounted for St. John’s final points.

The next four runners were also St. John’s girls with senior Elise Viguet placing eighth (20:57.50) and sophomore Julia Moody coming in ninth (20:58.70) with the last time below 21 minutes. After them, Olivia Havel (21:21.80) and fellow sophomore Noel Higgason (21:30.00) came in next for the Mavericks, but they were in the race and not part of any team.

Kinkaid has Ammons as the runner-up and no one else in the top 10, but the Falcons were all bunched up from the 12th spot on, taking the 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th positions to collect their points.

Sole led the string of Kinkaid runners by placing 12th, in front of junior Natalie Barden, who took 13th (22:00) while freshman Catherine Baker was 14th (22:11.50) and fellow ninth grader Margaret Durning was officially 15th (22:49.50).

For Episcopal, after Schneider and Fleming, freshman Gwyneth Bryan was 11th (21:48.00) with Honor Milton coming in 16th overall and junior Angela Kemfack taking 19th officially.

This community tradition will take place on Oct. 19 from 10:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. with the Bazaar starting at 10 a.m. on University Blvd in front of West U Elementary.

It promises to be a boo-tastic good time for kids of all ages and this year’s Carnival Chairs, Caroline Adams Jones, Kristine Martinez and Kara Schaefer invite the community and surrounding neighbors to attend.

This year the Boo Bash Carnival will have more than 30 fun inflatables and games, an entertainment stage with a DJ, the popular Sweet Shop, confetti eggs and also a few new tricks and treats. The Boo Bash Bazaar will feature a variety of great vendors selling jewelry, clothing, gifts, housewares and much more. Jerry Built will be on hand grilling up some delicious burgers, chicken sandwiches and hot dogs. Satisfy your food cravings with Chick-fil-A, pizza, cotton candy and Kona Ice.

Individual tickets for the Boo Bash Carnival will be available on the day of the carnival.