While there were Big Fireworks on the other side of the Hudson on Saturday, there was also some fine racing here in the Garden State. Let's take a look.
The day started out up in Mahwah with theBrett Taylor Memorial Invitational. Highlights included;
Kristen Traub (Eastern Christian '12) winning the "B" race comfortably in 18:48
In the Boys "A" race, senior Jose Veras led a pretty good Dickinson team to the win. Veras took the individual title, winning in 16:17. Dickinson is a team that may be on the cusp of being in the NJRunners Top Ten before the end of the season.
Moving a little further south, The Central Jersey XC Shootouttook place at Thompson Park. A 2pm start made it a great way to spend the afternoon. The weather was perfect for this event, which is held in the shootout format that matches up runners according to the spot they hold on their respective teams. The varsity races started with the #'s 7/8/9 runners, then the 4/5/6 runners took to the course and the day closed with the "Studs" and "Studettes" (1/2/3 runners) toeing the line.
The two winning teams, Voorhees on the girls side and Freehold Twp. on the boys each scored their wins with dominating performances. Freehold Twp., which made it's invitational debut here put all six of their runners in the top 11 throughout the 3 races including a 1-2 finish in the "Stud Race". Keenan Huggins-Filozof took the Fastest Time watch, winning that race in 16:08. His time is the #3 mark on the Thompson course this year.
Voorhees, which was bumped from the top spot in the NJRunners rankings after Shore Coaches was simply amazing here. With wins in all three of the varsity races, Coach Cassavell's squad also took 2 seconds along with a 4th and a 5th. In the process, they took the measure of highly ranked Hunterdon Central. "Studette" race winner (18: 57) Nisa Cicitta took home the Girls Fastest Time watch.
The South Jersey Open, also an afternoon affair, held at Delsea HS, saw Moorestown senior Anthony Horten outduel Connor Herr (Shawnee '12) 15:53 to 15:57 to record the only 2 sub 16's for the day. In girls racing, Bishop Eutace standout Holly Bischof ran the fastest time of the day as she led her team to an oustanding performance in the Division 1 race. Eustace went 1-2-3-10-11 for the win. Soph Natalia Ocasio of Lenape was the only other girls to dip under 19 min. as she won the Div. 3 contest with a mark of 18:56.
Ocen City's standout senior,Miles Schoedler went way south to score the win in the Elite Boys race at the Disney World Classic in beutiful, you guessed it...Disney World (Orlando, Fl.). Schoedler led the Red raiders to a 3rd place team finish.
And, oh yeah, there was that small, low key meet in NYC. Check out our sister site ArmoryTrack.com - Manhattan Invitational a ton of coveage.
HAVE A GREAT WEEK!