It wasn't perfection, but it was what St. Charles Preparatory School cross country coach Damien Brandon expected.

The Cardinals had the top three finishers and five of the top seven in the CCL meet Oct. 13 at Westerville Recreation Center as they won their sixth consecutive league title and 13th in 14 seasons.

St. Charles (19 points) outdistanced Watterson (56), DeSales (68), Ready (116) and Hartley (120).

Brian Vetter won the race in 16 minutes, 53.6 seconds while teammates Brendan Harty (17:15.7) and Nick Marino (17:22.4) were second and third, respectively.

"We have had the champion individual (runner) in all four years that I have been a coach and we take pride in that," Brandon said. "(The race) pretty much played out like we thought it would."

Nate Herriman (sixth, 17:35.8) was next for St. Charles, followed by Will Herriman (seventh, 17:36), Eric Taylor (ninth, 17:46) and Connor Bowman (12th, 17:59.6).

"Brendan Harty usually is our No. 4 runner, but he stepped up and finished second," Brandon said. "He had a really good race when we needed it from him."

On Saturday, Oct. 20, St. Charles runs in the Division I, district 1 meet at Watkins Memorial. The top five teams and top 20 individuals advance to regional Oct. 27 at Pickerington North.

"We're seeded 10th in the district and I think we have a great shot of making it out (as a team to regional), especially if we run like we did (in the CCL meet)," Brandon said. "We have a training schedule that will have us peaking in the next couple of weeks."

Last season, St. Charles qualified for its second consecutive Division I regional by finishing fifth (136) in the 14-team district 2 race at Watkins Memorial. New Albany (64), Hilliard Bradley (72), Pickerington North (74) and Westerville Central (80) also advanced.

On Oct. 6, the Cardinals finished fifth (180) in the 19-team Eisenhart Invitational at Thomas Worthington behind champion Pickerington North (73). Vetter (18th, 16:42) led St. Charles, followed by Bowman (26th, 16:50), Harty (16:58), Marino (54th, 17:25), Nate Herriman (61st, 17:30), Taylor (63rd, 17:31) and Anthony Schneider (68th, 17:37).

Golf team finishes season at district

The golf team finished eighth (332) in the 15-team Division I district tournament Oct. 9 at Apple Valley. The top three teams and top three individuals not on qualifying teams advanced to state Friday, Oct. 19, and Saturday, Oct. 20, at Ohio State's Scarlet Course.

Sophomore Eddie O'Brien (80) led the Cardinals, followed by junior Connor Huelsman (83), sophomore Connor Yakubov (83), junior Tanner Plewa (86) and junior Sam Schmelzer (87).

"We were probably one of the few teams here who didn't have a senior playing," said coach Andy MacKinnon, who completed his second season. "We had a team that didn't have a lot of varsity experience coming into the season, but they settled in and played better and better as the season went on."

State-qualifying teams were New Albany (298), Dublin Coffman (300) and Dublin Jerome (306). Individual qualifiers were Thomas' Curtis Salmans (73), Reynoldburg's Darnell Ellis (74) and Pickerington North's Scot Sapp (75).

On Oct. 2, the Cardinals finished third (313) in the 13-team sectional at Granville Golf Course behind Pickerington North (294) and Upper Arlington (295) and ahead of the final district-qualifier in fourth-place Mount Vernon (316). Schmelzer (76) led St. Charles, followed by Plewa (77), Yakubov (79), Huelsman (81) and O'Brien (86).

"The players learned a lot about what it takes to be a varsity golfer," said MacKinnon, whose team finished sixth (328) in the 16-team Dublin Jerome Honorary Invitational on Oct. 6 at Riviera behind champion UA (304). "I think they realize that because the Central District is so difficult, they need to get out in March or April and start preparing for the fall season."

Other golfers expected to return include juniors Will Knudson, Corey McCullers and Troy Plewa and freshman Jacob Rumfola.

Football team to face Watterson

The football team takes records of 5-3 overall and 0-1 in the CCL-Silver Division into its home game against Watterson on Friday, Oct. 19.

Last season, the Cardinals defeated Watterson 23-13 for their first win in the series since 2000.

Watterson leads the series 37-9. The teams did not play from 1964-72 but have met in all other seasons since 1957. Watterson improved to 5-3 and 1-0 by defeating DeSales 24-21 in three overtimes on Oct. 12.

The Eagles got a 2-yard touchdown run from running back DeAndre Golden to tie DeSales at 7 and force overtime.

Quarterback Andy Elberson connected with wide receiver Michael Vlahakis on a 23-yard touchdown pass in the first OT and Elberson ran for a 3-yard score in the second.

Michael Harper made a 21-yard field goal for the winning points.

The Cardinals have split games the past two weeks. They defeated Canal Fulton Northwest 37-21 on Oct. 5 and lost to Kings Mills Kings 21-17 on Oct. 12.

Against Kings, running back Sean Fitzmartin rushed for 231 yards and touchdowns of 67 and 11 yards on 31 attempts and running back Jon Radney added 65 yards on six carries. John Colosimo had a 23-yard field goal.

Against Northwest, Colosimo had field goals of 28, 31 and 21 yards and was 4-for-4 on extra points. Fitzmartin had touchdowns of 56 and 7 yards, and quarterback Ryan Bailey had a 5-yard scoring run and a 13-yard touchdown pass to David Shuster.