Interview with last year's A Race winner Abby Loveys of Randolph, 18:14 fourth all-time at Freedom Park.
The Randolph Cross-Country Invitational, one of the state's most popular season opening meets over the last several years, has been cancelled, Meet Director Len Pietrewicz announced on Thursday.
Pietrewicz said the Sept. 7 meet, which moved from Freedom Park to Greystone Park this year for budget reasons, didn't generate enough interest after the location was changed.
"We only had 14 teams entered, so unfortunately we can't have the meet this year and I don't think it'll ever come back,'' said Pietrewicz, who had 34 teams compete last year. "It's a real shame that after 30 years we have to end it. It was a great meet.''
One of the biggest reasons for the popularity of Randolph Invite, which was annually the season opener in NJ, was its electric atmosphere as it was the only XC meet in the state to run under the lights.
But Pietrewicz had to move the meet out of Freedom Park to Greystone this year due to added expenses, which meant no more lights.
The Randolph XC Invitational, which began at Brundage Park before moving to Freedom in 2002, had been run under the lights at Freedom since the early 2000's.
Pietrewicz said it was his intention to keep the meet at Freedom, but he couldn't afford to.
"There were a lot of added expenses to run the meet at Freedom,'' said Pietrewicz. "Between what Randolph High School, the police, and Freedom Park wanted to charge us, we couldn't afford to run the meet at Freedom anymore. We were run out of there, and now it looks like the meet is done forever. It's very disappointing.''
Here is the course map of the 5K course at Freedom Park.
