The Cross Country Week in Review
A Recap of W/E Sept. 23
The 2nd week of the 2006 New Jersey Cross Country season had some exciting racing here in NJ as well as in other parts of the region. In state there was a pair of Class meets, an Invite with some interesting team and individual match ups for the early going, along with the 3rd edition of the South Jersey Shootout. This hybrid event offers a unique set of races pitting runners of similar ability against each other in 3 separate varsity races.
Elsewhere in the Region, Colts Neck competed at the Penn State Spiked Shoe Invitational while the Girls of The Academy of the Holy Angels traveled north of the border to compete at the Adirondack XC Classic at Queensbury, NY.
Working from farthest out, Colts Neck Sr. and nationally ranked harrier, Craig Forys blitzed the Penn State course to win the Boys event at the Spiked Shoe Invitational in 15:20.6. Craig led the CN Boys to the team title as well. Brendan Krewer ran 8th in 16:29.7 with Jason Weiner in 11th (16:56.2). Colts Neck's team was completed by Devrin Vivino, 37th (17:36.1), and Dan Fiascarano 66th (18:08.2).
The Colts Neck Girls squad, still missing FL finalist Brianna Jackucewicz, took it on the chin on Saturday. Ranked #2 in the NE NTN Poll, Colts Neck was beaten soundly by Saratoga Springs despite a 2nd place (17:49.7) finish by Ashley Higginson. Saratoga was totally dominant, placing 6 runners in the top 11. They were led by individual winner Hannah Davidson (17:24.1). CN returns to action in the Garden State on Friday to host the Cougar Invitational at their home course, Bucks Mill Park.
Traveling to Upstate New York the Holy Angels team placed a solid 4th in the Div. 2 race. They were led by Soph Mary Kaye Duff in 9th place (19:20.8)
The Passaic County Coaches Invitational, at Garret Mountain, gave us some interesting early season match ups and some great individual and team racing.
On the Boys side, Kyle Soloff (Morris Hills) and the Ridgewood team all came up big. Soloff took the Group 3 race in 15:58 to beat Brandon Jarrett of St. Benedicts Prep by 8 seconds. Soloff led the Mo Hills team to second place in the group and to the 4th best average time of the day. They also exacted a bit of revenge by besting CBA\'s team average.
The Ridgewood squad took top honors in the Group 4 race. With Sr. Dan Emont taking 2nd place overall, Ridgewood put away the field with 47 points to runner up Toms River East (98 pts) and CBA which placed 3rd with 108 points.
Nick Miehe of DePaul took the Group 2 race in 16:31and Andy Patton of Montclair Kimberly won in Group 1 (16:48)
The Roxbury Girls are proving that they have reloaded this year as they won in Group 4 with 54 points (20:15 avg). Junior Lauren Penny led all finishers (19:08) as Roxbury put 3 in the top 10.
Christina Valerio of West Milford won in Group 3 (19:17) over Kelsey Ramsey of Ramapo (19:37) with Patty Hannon of Paramus 3rd. (20:33).
The Group 2 race saw Monsignor Donovan take the team title with 35 points. Mon Don was led by Jr. Molly Kempton (19:31) who finished 2nd behind Mountain Lakes Sr. Abby Hinds (19:15). In Group 1 Elizabeth Campbell (19:36), a soph from Mount St. Mary took the measure of Emily Naranjo (20:29) of MKA, and Marie Walsh (20:34) of MaterDei.
Continuing southbound. While neither the Bernie Magee Class Meet at Warinanco Park nor the Battle of Monmouth meet at the Monmouth Battlefield provided the intrigue or national polling drama of the Penn State or Passaic meets, both events were full of good early season performances and you could pick out some teams and individuals to watch in spite of the class divisions.
The Ridge Girls had a good day at Warinanco as they put 3 runners in the top 5 of the senior event. Nicol Traynor led the way, winning in 19:17.4 over Kristin Cupido (19:46.6) of Bridgewater-Raritan Valerie Pocus (20:50.6) and Erin McCarthy (21:00.2) finished 3rd and 4th respectively. In the Junior Girls race Cassy Valdes of Scotch Plains-Fanwood took top honors with a time of 20:27.7 She was followed across the line by Danica Krivanos of Bridgewater-Raritan (20:37.9). Hmmm, Grote maybe right about B-R as a dark horse in Girls G4 this year. The Soph race saw Brittany Veeck of SP-F (20:25) best Dana Guglielmo of Ridge (20:26.1) and Julia Mark of Delaware Valley (20:39).
Morristown's Dale Kinney won the Frosh race in 13:12.06.
On the Boys side, Delbarton senior, Tom Poland posted the fastest time of the day, winning his division in 16:19.9 Christian Gonzales was 2nd (16:43.7) followed by Alex Brenner of Ridge (16:47.2). The winner of the Junior race was Andrew Brodeur of Brick Memorial. Brodeur ran 16:40.4 to beat Jermaine Cole of Franklin (16:43.9) and Dan Stiles of Somerville (17:39.2).George Galasso of Holmdel crossed the line in 17:31.9 to win the Soph division. Vinny Nicastro of Roselle Catholic (17:50.4) and Jordan Healy (18:03.3) of Summit followed. Runners from Bridgewater-Raritan took 1.2 in the frosh race as Dominic Tasco (12:26.2) led teammate Chris Banafato (12:27.7) across the line.
Tomorrow: The southward journey continues with the Battle of Monmouth and The SJ Shootout