At the Dallas Marathon, seniors Asa McCaleb, Clark Cooper, Parker Steinbrueck and Raja Mehendale and junior Noah Roby competed together to win the five-man marathon relay, finishing with a time of about 2:31 Dec. 10. The athletes are continuing a tradition for the team by competing in the race, and this year, the athletes achieved the school’s best performance yet.

“Each of us ran a leg between four and eight miles depending on our ability,” McCaleb said.  “For pretty much the whole race, we were in the top ten or so runners.”

In the race, McCaleb ran 6.5 miles, Roby ran four miles, Steinbrueck ran 4.5 miles, Cooper ran 3.1 miles and Mehendale ran 8.1 miles in that order.

“As the anchor leg and the longest leg, it was an absolutely brutal effort,” Mehendale said. “But the scenic run into and through Downtown Dallas made it go by quickly.”

And the team wasn’t the only group of people excited for the marathon – the race was crowded the whole way through.

“The running community in Dallas has boomed recently and every single race in the marathon was sold out this year,” Mehendale said. “There were also tons of people lining the streets to cheer the runners on.”

The team’s victory was a pleasant result, especially for the four seniors who raced for the last time with their fellow Marksmen.
“We’re all definitely pumped about the win,” McCaleb said. “It eased some of the sting from losing SPC.”

“Winning was super impressive, but also the overall time was much faster than even I believed we could manage,” Mehendale said. “I’m super happy with it.”