Cross Country (B/G)
The Husky cross country squad had a season to remember with many fantastic accomplishments. This year was also the largest team Ritenour has had in recent history.
On the women’s side they celebrated some successes that hadn’t been seen in quite some time. For starters, the women’s team won the Northside Invitational on September 21 at Wilmore Park beating a strong Metro team. This was the women’s first team championship! They were led by Tori Beard and Elizabeth Weissler who both grabbed top-6 finishes. Speaking of Beard and Weissler, they helped rewrite the record books for several courses this year as Beard grabbed a Ritenour Course record at McNair park while Weissler did the same at Koch Park. Denisse Chaidez and Adriana Gutierrez also made huge impacts this year grabbing lifetime PR’s and medalist honors at a couple of races. Mia Neeb was another varsity contributor for the Huskies also grabbing a lifetime PR this season.
On the men’s side the team was led by sophomore Micah Weissler. Weissler improved upon a strong freshman year by grabbing medalist honors in 2 varsity races and narrowly missed running in the 17’s for the 5k distance. Newcomer’s Viktor Pingel and Eric Vasquez became important varsity pieces this season with Viktor regularly finishing as our #2. Ronald Johnson and Roi Mundin also contributed to the varsity squad rounding out our top-5.
Both teams are really young with only 2 graduating seniors in total so we look forward to building on this strong foundation heading into the next cross country season.
Football
We had a great season posting a 5-5 record on varsity and a 4-4 record on JV, after going winless on both levels last season. We increased our overall player numbers to 55 from 34 in one year and we expect an increase next season as well. We averaged 33 points per game this season on offense and 26 points per game on defense, both are dramatic improvements from last season. Jayden Barnett has passed for over 2000 yards this season, the trio of Derrick Smith Jr, Eli Mitchell, and Leon Mitchell-Williams all have amassed over 600 receiving. The running back duo of Billy Hall and Elijah Fry have combined for over 800 yards rushing. Defensively, Trevion Foundren, Elijah Fry and Percy Childs led the team in tackles and sacks. Newcomers Tyrell Whitfield, Joe Wood III, Bryan Steiger, Tyler Hewitt and Yarmon Kirksey Jr all had great seasons on the offensive and defensive lines this year and we look forward to an even better season next year. Overall, the Ritenour football program is heading in the right direction and changing the culture is starting to become a reality! Next season should be even better with 16 starters returning from this year’s team and the commitment to trusting the process.
Soccer (B)
Boys soccer increased its number of participants this season and was able to field three teams during the 2022 season. None of the three teams had winning records, but there is a lot to be optimistic about moving forward. Varsity carried eight 9th-grade players and there are also several dynamic young players that played at the JV and C levels. The future is bright for the program; JV improved right up until the last game of their season and won the consolation bracket of the extremely competitive Metro League post season tournament.
Varsity ended the season with a record of 8 wins and 12 losses. After having graduated four seniors that were responsible for 52 goals and 33 assists last season, we knew it would likely be tough to replicate the offensive prowess shown by last year’s team. Fortunately, the team was able to convert a center back from the previous year’s team to a formidable striker. Senior, Aaron Rico, led the team with 13 goals and 6 assists. After having started the season as a striker, senior, Nbaye Thiam, moved to center back and helped solidify the team’s defense. His performances became even more important when junior center back, Steve Chicas, sustained a broken collar bone. Junior, Coe Reardean, impressed as a keeper that can stop shots and play with his feet.
Our players all worked extremely hard in the off season, preseason, at practices, and in games. Our boys represented Ritenour well and showed grit and determination that meant that even games we lost were a battle for our opponents.
Swimming (B)
Swim continues to rebuild and get better. With the team returning more swimmers from the previous season and gained an extra one we still managed a solid 4th place out of 10 teams at conference and a winning record of 11-4. We have goals for next year including improving our times and building our team. At the end-of-season awards banquet, Jackson Leong shouted his way to the sportsmanship award, Shawn Buttry earned the Steadfast Award, The Medley Master award was earned by Anthony Finizia, The Most Yards covered was definitely earned by Holden Myers, and Johnell Weeden, without a doubt earned most improved this season!
Once again all of our swimmers placed in the conference meet and earned All Conference honors.
Shawn Buttry: Honorable Mention-200 Medley Relay, 1st team-200 Freestyle Relay, Honorable Mention-100 Back Stroke, 2nd Team-400 Freestyle Relay
Anthony Finizia: Honorable Mention-200 Medley Relay, 1st Team: 200 Individual Medley, 1st team-200 Freestyle Relay
Jackson Leong: Honorable Mention-200 Medley Relay, 1st team-200 Freestyle Relay, 2nd Team-400 Freestyle Relay
Holden Myers: Honorable Mention-200 Medley Relay, 1st team-200 Freestyle Relay, Honorable Mention-100 Butterfly, 2nd Team-400 Freestyle Relay
Johnell Weeden: 2nd Team-400 Freestyle Relay
Softball
This softball season went by way too fast. The girls played their hearts out. We had a new coaching staff this year and to be honest, I was curious to know how the girls would respond to us all. They surprised me and it did not matter that we were all new together. We all were excited and happy to learn and play softball. They started the season off hot winning six games in a row. We had some tough times and we had some great times. Some of the tough times were losing to teams we had already beaten but they always came back ready to play. Some great times were winning our tournament this year, going 3-0, beating a tough Mehlville team (even getting to the game late because of a bus), and having a record of 17-6 on the season. We had some girls bring home a lot of awards for All Conference, All District, and we even had some girls make the All Region team.
All Conference:
1st Team:
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- Catcher: Samantha Lohnes
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- INF: Layla Fouche
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- INF: Tyler Frost
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- OF: Julia Lohnes
2nd Team:
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- INF: Elizabeth Dobbs
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- OF: Evelyn Dobbs
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- UTL: Hailey Ebert
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- Player of the year: Leyla Payton
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- Sportsmanship: Kara Sampson
All-District:
1st Team:
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- Pitcher: Leyla Payton
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- Catcher: Samantha Lohnes
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- INF: Layla Fouche
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- DP: Kara Sampson
2nd Team:
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- OF: Julia Lohnes
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- OF: Evelyn Dobbs
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- DP/Utility: Tyler Frost
All Region:
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- Pitcher: Leyla Payton-2nd team
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- Infield: Layla Fouche- 2nd team
Tennis (G)
Tennis is notorious for being an individual sport with individually minded players. Especially at the high school level, tennis players get a bad wrap for being unsportsmanlike-like or “stuck up,” but that could not be further from the truth this past fall season. We were lucky enough to add two new players: Mya Cates and Allison Madrid, who were welcomed with open arms. Despite the different levels of experience, each and every girl added something positive to the teams’ culture. They lifted each other up instead of tearing each other down. Our graduating senior, Chloe Sapp, was instrumental in creating a loving-supportive environment, and will be dearly missed.
Our ending record was (4-9), but the score does not reflect the growth that took place throughout the season. Every game, the girls performed better than the last, and to me that’s a win. We hit with the best in state at sectionals and got some valuable experience that lit a fire in the girls that will give us a strong start next season.
Volleyball (G)
The girls volleyball program made huge strides this year to overcome the poor results of last season. All three teams drastically improved their records. We had huge success with our fundraiser and charity event with our Pink Out Game. We raised $3,500 to donate. All three teams finished at or above .500. The freshmen team had a 9-9 record, the JV team finished 13-11-2, and the varsity team finished 13-12-2.
We had two players, Lexi Hahn and Carmen Lee-Taylor, earn 2nd team All-District honors. Lexi Hahn also broke several records this season. She had most aces in a season, most serve receives in a season, and most digs in a season. She also surpassed 1000 serve receives in a career at the varsity level.
For All-Conference, Lexi Hahn earned 2nd team honors, Carmen Lee-Taylor was Honorable Mention, and Jada Bradley was the Sportsmanship winner for Ritenour.
Golf (G)
The 2022 fall season was a year of growth for the girls’ golf team. The team grew to 11 golfers. Having little to no experience when they started, the team trained hard and improved every aspect of their game throughout the season. The Huskies competed in some very close matches. For the first time in a long time, the Huskies sent a full squad to the conference tournament where they placed third and Christina Vo earned a medal. There is a lot to look forward to in the future for the Huskies, as 10 of the 11 golfers were freshman, and 5 earned all-conference honors.
2nd Team All-Conference – Christina Vo
All-Conference Honorable Mention – Danielle Haynes, Maggie Kunshek, Hannah Cortez, Laiyana Norfleet
