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RING SZN: SPC Winter Championships Come to Houston
Some of the best private school athletes from Texas and beyond will descend on Houston this weekend for the Southwest Preparatory Conference (SPC) Winter Championships. Teams from each of the SPC’s 17 member high schools in Texas and Oklahoma will begin tournament bracket play in Girls and Boys Basketball as well as Girls and Boys Soccer today (Feb. 8) with Semifinal Matchups on Friday (Feb.) VYPE will broadcast the Boys and Girls 3A and 4A Championship games in both sports starting at 1:00 Saturday (Feb. 10).
Meanwhile, SPC swimmers and divers will compete Friday and Saturday at the University of Houston’s CRWC Natatorium while St. John’s will host the Wrestling competition on Saturday.
While Kinkaid enters the 4A Girls Basketball tournament as the top seed, there will be many eyes on McDonald’s All-American Me’Arah O’Neal, daughter of NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal, who will lead #2-seed Episcopal. St. Andrew’s and St. Stephen’s represent the Austin area as the top two seeds in 3A.
St. Mark’s School of Texas and St. John’s enter the 4A Boys Basketball bracket as the top seeds while The John Cooper School received a first-round bye in the 3A bracket.
Turning to the pitch, Kinkaid and Episcopal are also the top seeds in 4A Girls soccer while Houston Christian earned the first-round 3A Girls Soccer Bye. The St. Mark’s Boys Soccer team joins their basketball counterparts as the #1 seed in 4A ahead of Kinkaid while Irving’s Cistercian Prep drew the first-round Bye for the 3A Boys.
Swimming Preliminaries will dominate the action in the pool on Friday with the Finals and Diving splitting the pool on Saturday. St. John’s will try to defend their Wrestling title on Saturday.
For more information, including event times, locations and streaming info, please go the SPC Winter Championships link on their website: https://spcsports.org/sports/2023/8/5/2023-24-winter-championships.aspx
Houston will also host the Spring Championships later this year after the SPCS’s DFW-area schools hosted most of the Fall Championships.
St. Andrews takes down Austin Homeschool in private school battle
The St. Andrews Highlanders defeated the Austin Homeschool Crusaders 41-0 Friday night in front of a packed homecoming crowd at Beck Stadium.
The Highlanders' first offensive play was over halfway into the first quarter, but it was well worth the wait as Trason Armstrong hauled in a touchdown pass to go up 14-0. The passing game was in complete control in the first half as senior Sam Marsh tallied three touchdowns on three passing attempts.
The defense also got involved as they returned two interceptions for touchdowns and had the Crusaders scrambling for answers in the backfield all night.
The Crusaders had opportunities to put points on the board after multiple special teams mistakes from the home team, but were unable to capitalize after being knocked out of scoring range or turning the ball over on downs
This was the final home game of the season for St. Andrew's as they finish up their season next week at Frassati Catholic while Austin Crusaders have two games remaining.