Kemoy Campbell with fantastic run to National record                                   

Christian Brothers Academy, Pope John XXIII, and Don Bosco Prep hit US#1#2#3 times in the DMR!!!!!! NEW JERSEY TRACK AND FIELD IS AMAZING!

US#2 Futsum Zeinasellassie blasted a CR 14:36 for 5000 meters! Angel Piccirillo #2 AT @ Spiked Shoe. Fay-Man girls perfect in opener!  US#1 Frazier opens season quietly in NC. (Photo by Bob Piccirillo)

Who will dominate the North Jersey XC scene this year? NJRunners' Matt Murphy takes a look at what may happen in Bergen, Passaic and Hudson Counties  

Many top teams will see head-to-head action this weekend

      SO MANY QUESTIONS, SO LITTLE TIME!   THE 2010 XC SEASON TOES THE LINE IN ABOUT 2 DAYS. NJRUNNERS FINISHES UP IT'S  PREVIEWS TODAY & TOMORRROW. KEEP COMING BACK!

THE INTREPID XC "PANEL OF EXPERTS" TOES THE LINE FOR THE 5TH YEAR TO BRING YOU A WEEKLY SNAPSHOT OF THE STATE OF XC IN NEW JERSEY.  GIRLS PRESEASON WILL APPEAR SAT. 9/4.

  SEE WHO NEW JERSEY'S OWN MARC BLOOM HAS PICKED AS THE CREAM OF THE CROP  

One week from now, 44 teams will be in Portland, and each with the dream of contending for the national championship of high school cross country. Photo by Alan Versaw.

photo courtesy of Good Doggie Photo

  Photo courtesy John Olson, SCRUNNERS                                                    

ArmoryTrack.com is pleased to welcome Don Bosco Prep's Kevin Kilduff to this edition of the Coaches’ Corner.

Post Shore Coaches Edition When the dust cleared on Saturday afternoon, it was clearer than ever that Joe Rosa had just done the historic and that twin brother Jim was also one of those once in forever athletes,What became less clear was the team scene on both the Boys and Girls sides as some "Oldies but Goodies" re- emerged and some teams that were not on the radar at the start of the season are now more than a blip. Coming up this weekend is the venerable Mannhattan College Invitational on a under construction Van Cortlandt Park.  "Laissez les bons temps rouler."   BOYS: Wk. 4               Last RANK TEAM VOTES 1ST PLACE Week 1 Haddonfield 88 7 1 2 CBA 82 2 2 3 Don Bosco 71   3 4 TRN 55   7 5 Westfield 37   N/R 6 Old Bridge 36   8 7 Millburn 31   N/R 8 E. Brunswick 27   N/R 9 So. Reg. 21   10 10 Ridge 19   4           Also Receiving Votes:       WW-P No. (15) WW-P So. (10) Cherokee (1)     The top 3 ranked teams did not change, with Haddonfield and CBA runnning mostly subs (Although CBA had am impressive 16:41 avg.)and Don Bosco bypassing Shore Coaches entirely,   The rest of the Top Ten underwent a huge shake up. an astounding 4 squads that were not in the rankings last week ended up there in Wk.4. Ridge dropped to #10 and three others fell out completely.   Click on Headline to View Girls Rankings

WARWICK – Everyone keeps saying that the season is still early. They say that their team is still trying to find out who they are or that they’re working through a heavy training period or even that these races don’t matter yet.  And that all sounds good until the best team in New Jersey and one of the best in New York take the starting line together. That’s when it doesn’t matter as much that it’s still September, suddenly teams have a measuring stick.

PHILADELPHIA PA - The Rosa twins, sensational juniors from West Windsor-Plainsboro North had a spectacular Saturday going 1-2 on a notoriously tough course (Belmont Plateau).  Coming into the meet the course record was set by Joe Rosa last year running 15:33.1.  Joe crossed the finised line this year knocking another 14 seconds off the course record clocking 15:19.3.  Not surprising by no means was Joe's twin brother Jim Rosa finishing not far behind brother Joe for a fantastic 1-2 finish.  Jim finished in 15:38.0.  Along with the Rosa's, teammates Jon Saveri (6th 16:16.8), Casey Dalrymple (14th 16:54.2) and Pat O'Connell (40th 18:04.2) finished with a tallied score of 63 to top the Philadelphia native LaSalle College HS. Video interview with WWPN coach Brian Gould photo courtesy of Don Rich click on the headline for the full article       

NEW YORK – St. John Villa coach Mike Proffitt was honest when he said he didn’t show up to Van Cortlandt Park expecting his team to leave with a win. But while three of his top runners resting for the weekend it couldn’t have been better to walk away with a victory in his pocket.

PORTLAND, Ore. – It’s not uncommon for it to get rough at the start of an elite cross country race. Shoving happens. Elbows. Some tripping. But rarely does an entire team bite it the opening meters of a national race. Let alone, get up and finish fourth.

WAPPINGERS FALLS – It’s hard enough not to dance when you win but how do you not dance when 50 kids are chanting for you to? “Shake your booty,” Don Bosco called. “Shake your booty.”

Boys Week 7       1st Pl. Last Rank School PTS  Votes Week 1 Don Bosco 100 10 1 2 WW-P North 88   2 3 CBA 81   3 4 Haddonfield 70   4 5 Mendham 55   6 6 Morris Hills 50   5 7 WW-P So 38   7 8 Millburn 30   8 9 Old Bridge 18   9 10 Cherokee 6   10           Also Receiving Votes: Holmdel, Kingsway (4) RBC (3) Ridgewood (2) Randolph (1) The only change in this week's edition of the Boys Top Ten is a switch in #s 5 & 6 which could easily change back after Mendham and Morris Hills meet again at the Morris County meet on 11/1.   Runner of the Week                                 Jon Vitez (Jr. /Haddonfield)                               "Boo" ran 15:22 for the #2 AT mark at the Colonial Conf. All-Star Meet. His time is only surpassed by former Haddonfield star Chris Platt  

On the strength of its record-setting performance in winning the Sweepstakes race at the Mt. SAC Invitational, Saugus (CA) moves past Fayetteville-Manlius into the top spot in the team rankings.

Post Manhattan Edition Haddonfield Girls Vault to #1 Girls Week 5       1st Pl Last Rank School PTS  Votes Week 1 Haddonfield 108 9 2 2 Voorhees 100 2 1 3 Ridge  81   8 4 Randolph 60   3 5 Southern Reg 59   4 6 IHA 57   T6 7 Pope John XXIII 48   N/R 8 TRN 22   T6 9 RBC 21   5 10 WW-P So 20   N/R Also Receiving Votes: Hopewell Valley, Hunt. Central (10) Hillsborough (6) So. Brunswick (2) Msgr. Donovan (1) This week saw some major shifts in the Girls Top Ten, but none bigger than the ascnsion of Haddonfield Memorial to the top of the rankings. Finishing 1 place ahead of Voorhees in the Girls Eastern States Race at VCP, the Haddonfield girls put their #s 2 to 5 across the line within 30 places. Other changes in the rankings include, Ridge moving to #3 from #8, Debuts by Pope John XXIII (#7) and West Windsor-Plainsboro So. (10). Toms River North drops to #9 from #T6 and Red Bank Catholic goes to #9 from #5. Runner of The Week Lanie Thompson (Sr. / Voorhees)     The winner of the Eastern States Girls Race, Lanie ran 14:12.79 on the famed Van Cortlandt Park layout. Her time ties the mark for best NJ time ever on the 2.5mi. course and was the #7 time for the entire day.   MileSplit "Fast 4" - Lanie Thompson  

Several recent big meets, such as Nike South, Manhattan College and the Great American have helped to bring some clarity to the rankings. North Central boys and Fayetteville-Manlius girls hold the top spots.

Pre Shore Coaches Edition   Boys Week 3       1st Pl. Last Rank School        PTS  Votes Week 1 Don Bosco 109 10 1 2 WW-P North 93   2 3 CBA 92 1 3 4 Morris Hills 71   4 5 Millburn 62   T5 6 Haddonfield 57   T5 7 WW-P So 39   7 8 Mendham 31   8 9 Cherokee 19   9 10 Haddon Hts. 10   10           Also Receiving Votes: RBC (7) Randolph (5) TRN (4) Colts Neck (3) Pope John, Summit (1)  Photo Courtesy of Jim Crossin Runner of the Week: Tyler Udland (Jr. / Millburn) After a breakout last Spring, Udland is having a great early season in XC.  His 16:21 @ Warinanco leads  Millburn to the "B" Title at the Stewart Invite.   The weekend produced some nice performances around the state, but very little movement in the Top Ten as most teams continued to tinker away before this weekend's Shore Coaches Invite, the gateway to the Championship portion of the season.   #1 Don Bosco blitzed the field at the Warwick (NY) WaveMania race. Led by sr. Leighton Spencer, the Ironmen averaged 30 seconds faster than the runnersup.         Continued...To View Girls Rankings & ROW Click on Headline

A big weekend of competition generally means some major movement in the national rankings, and that is certainly the case this week.  Making the biggest leap is Tatnall (DE) (pictured by Brandon Miles), who after beating then U.S.#4 Collins Hill (GA) at the McDonald's XC Festival at Maymont jumps to US#8 in the girls rankings.

Each week from now until the end of the season, we'll provide a Top 15 Weekend Round-Up.  This MileSplit feature will include main highlights of each of the MileSplit nationally ranked squads and their results on the weekend.  See who performed well and who didn't live up to their ranking this week.

A lot of competitive invitationals took place last weekend, meaning that a few of the top teams in the country lost to unranked squads. With those loses comes new teams jumping into the week #4 MileSplit National Cross Country Rankings. See who's in and who's out in this week's edition.

With many of the top teams in the country running in their first or second competition of the year, the MileSplit National CC Rankings are starting to take better shape. Boys U.S.#1 North Central (WA) opened their season in victorious fashion, while Girls U.S.#1 Fayetteville-Manlius (NY) has yet to compete, but is looking strong in practices.