Christian Brothers Academy went head to head with some of the top talent in the country and state on Saturday. / Photo by Aaron Laserna for MileSplit
New Jersey visited the Bowdoin XC Classic on Saturday featuring top talent in both the men and women races. After all the athletes crossed the line and stumbled down the chute the stat lines showed us ... well they showed us that we're pretty good at running!
Christian Brothers Academy was set to faceoff against US#4 La Salle Academy and NJ#2 Don Bosco on Saturday. This was the opening meet for the top CBA boys as some of the underclassmen already showed some talent at earlier meets. Individually CBA was led by junior Blaise Ferro who showcased a 16:10 time to win the race with a 5 second lead on second. This was after firing home with a monster move over the last mile. Watch his interview below with our on-site photographer Aaron Laserna.
Taking a look at the rest of the CBA Squad, they averaged 16:29 and only had a 28 second split between 1 and 5! The scoring line went as follows 1-8-9-10-13-(14-17).
| Christian Brothers Academy | All Results | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Event | Place | Athlete | Result | Points | |
| M 5000m Finals | 1 | Ferro, Blaise | 16:10.10 | 1 | |
| M 5000m Finals | 9 | Morris, John | 16:30.70 | 8 | |
| M 5000m Finals | 10 | Durney, Aidan | 16:31.90 | 9 | |
| M 5000m Finals | 11 | Trigani, Nick | 16:34.40 | 10 | |
| M 5000m Finals | 14 | Dengler, Thomas | 16:38.90 | 13 | |
| M 5000m Finals | 16 | Paugh, Greg | 16:50.00 | 14 | |
| M 5000m Finals | 19 | Dengler, Brian | 17:11.60 | 17 | |
Photo by Aaron Laserna for MileSplit
They defeated La Salle and Don Bosco 41 to 54 and 67 in the team scoring category. Don Bosco went 3-5-12-15-19 in the race and averaged a 16:49 with a 54 second split. They were led by Patrick Sullivan who took 7th with a 16:25 and Connor Nicholson in 8th with 16:27.
Also at the top individually was Craig Corti of Wallkill Vaelley, he placed 4th overall with a time of 16:20. He's been having a great start to the season as he opened back in week 1 at the Randolph Invite with a first place 15:56.
We also had winning representation in the Division 1 Boys race as Haddonfield took the team title with 55 points and a team average of 16:57! They would place 5-10-12-13-15 and were led by Greg Pelose in 5th with a 16:38 as well as Chad Evens in 10th with a time of 16:54. Check out the full results for Division 1 here. Haddonfield took first, South Brunswick took third as a team with 95 points, and Westfield fourth with 106 points.
Leading Westfield and the entire Jersey crew in the Division 1 race was Matt Russo of Westfield who took third with a time of 16:32, the 13th fastest time of the meet. At point for South Brunswick was Nicholas Neville in 7th with a time of 16:41.
One last note on the boys side of the meet, CBA wasn't done with the Varsity win as they blew the freshmen and junior varsity races out of the water! In the freshmen race Brian Hill won the 2500 meter run with a time of 10:13 and CBA would score 1-4-5-7-13 to win the race by 19 points over La Salle Academy's freshmen squad. Don Bosco's future stars took third with 64 points and were led by Jun Omiya. CBA won the JV race with a perfect score sweeping the first 6 places and taking 10 of the top 11 spots!!
Next we'll take a look at the girls where Briana Gess of Haddonfield posted the fastest time of the day at 18:22 winning the Varsity 1 Division. That time is also tied at 39th all-time for the course at Bowdoin Park.
Briana was by almost two full minutes with second place coming in at 20:18. During the Varsity 2 Division the second fastest girls time of the meet was posted at 19:26 by Emily Burns of Guilderland (NY). Still over a minute behind Gess overall.
The story doesn't end there for the Haddonfield girls however. Cross Country is a team sport after all, the girls won with 41 points scoring 1-6-10-11-13 an a 20:21 team average! That would hold up to be the second fastest girls team average of the meet, only behind Guilderland (NY) who ran a 20:06 average. This also completed a Division 1 sweep since the boys and girls of Haddonfield both won their races!
(Photo to the Left: Briana Gess leading the way at the Bowdoin XC Classic on Saturday. / Aaron Laserna for MileSplit)
Here is a look at the overall team performance by the Haddonfield girls. Meg Schroeter finished top ten overall with a 7th place 20:38 run and the rest of the top five all came through in the top 15 for the division!
| Haddonfield Mem. HS | All Results | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Event | Place | Athlete | Result | Points | |
| F 5000m Finals | 1 | Gess, Briana | 18:22.60 | 1 | |
| F 5000m Finals | 7 | Schroeter, Meg | 20:38.00 | 6 | |
| F 5000m Finals | 11 | Lynch, Lauren | 20:53.50 | 10 | |
| F 5000m Finals | 12 | Haley, Anna | 20:54.10 | 11 | |
| F 5000m Finals | 14 | McCrudden, Natalie | 20:57.00 | 13 | |
| F 5000m Finals | 18 | Fonshell, Julia | 21:34.40 | 17 | |
| F 5000m Finals | 38 | Gostovich, Alexa | 22:56.80 | 36 | |
Also running well for the Jersey girls were the NJ#1 Randolph and Princeton squads who raced the Division 2 Race. They would take second and third to Guilderland (NY) who posted the fastest team average out of all the Girls Varisty races with 20:06.
Randolph was led by Margaret Thompson who took 6th with a time of 19:57 and Carole Harsch who finished in 10th with a time of 20:31. The girls posted a 20:33 average, it would have been fun seeing them take Haddonfield on in the same division. Take a look at their full team performance just below.
Princeton HS was led by Mary Sutton who finished 11th with a time of 20:33 and the squad would finish 3rd with an average time of 21:18. There were more New Jersey performances as well you can check out the full results here.
| Team Scores | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Place | Team | Points | Scorers | Times | ||
| 1 | Guilderland | 34 | 1+4+7+9+13 (15+17) | 1:17 1-5 Split | 20:06 Avg | ||
| 2 | Randolph HS | 62 | 6+10+12+16+18 (23) | 0:59 1-5 Split | 20:33 Avg | ||
| 3 | Princeton HS | 114 | 11+20+24+29+30 (31+40) | 1:22 1-5 Split | 21:18 Avg | ||
| Randolph HS | All Results | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Event | Place | Athlete | Result | Points | |
| F 5000m Finals | 6 | Thomson, Margaret | 19:57.50 | 6 | |
| F 5000m Finals | 10 | Harsch, Carole | 20:31.10 | 10 | |
| F 5000m Finals | 12 | McSorley, Nora May | 20:35.20 | 12 | |
| F 5000m Finals | 16 | Olson, Brooke | 20:48.60 | 16 | |
| F 5000m Finals | 18 | Gihorski, Kate | 20:57.30 | 18 | |
| F 5000m Finals | 23 | Lansing, Elizabeth | 21:13.30 | 23 | |
