Primarily a team event let's take a look at the team title sweep by New Jersey squads at NXN Northeast Regional meet on Saturday.
Watch the Boys Championship Race Here | Girls Championship Race Here
For the boys Christian Brothers Academy came back from their loss at NJ Meet of Champions with a vengeance scoring 122 points and finishing first overall at Regionals by 10 points over the rest of the field. This is CBA's seventh straight qualification for Nike Cross Nationals, a run that started in 2010. They were led by senior Genaro Anzalone who placed ninth in the race and seventh in team scoring running 16:12. A big part of CBA's success was how sophomore Patrick Kilcooley stepped up running 11th with a 16:13 and second for the squad. Kilcooley was the first underclassmen to finish after seniors swept the top ten spots.
1. 122 Brothers Track Club (16:31.1 82:35.5 0:38.1) =============================================== 1 7 Genaro Anzalone SR 16:12.5 2 9 Patrick Kilcooley SO 16:13.4 3 18 Matt Cavallaro SR 16:31.1 4 42 Ryan Miele JR 16:47.9 5 46 Colin Trigani SR 16:50.6 6 ( 74) Brian Hill JR 17:07.5 7 ( 78) Joe Boyle SR 17:11.7
Colts Neck, who finished second at MOCs last week, took fourth at Northeast with 212 points. They were led by senior Jordan Brannan who had a fantastic run finishing second with a 15:51.8. Princeton, the Meet of Champions winners, finished seventh led by Alex Roth in fourth with an impressive race of his own at 15:56.5.
For the girls.. The battle between North Hunterdon and Ridge continues to twist and turn, this time with North Hunterdon on top winning the girls Northeast Regional with an impressive 81 points and 19:24 average. That score had them a whopping 76 points ahead of second.
North Hunterdon was led by sophomore talent Ellie DiMarcello eighth overall, scoring third in the team score race, with a time of 18:47.3. She was followed by her sister Anna DiMarcello in 14th with a time of 19:09.5.
1. 81 Hunterdon Lions Track Club (19:24.1 97:00.4 1:08.1) =============================================== 1 3 Elena Dimarcello SO 18:47.3 2 7 Anna Dimarcello SR 19:09.5 3 12 Angela Kearsley SO 19:19.2 4 25 Brenna Talamo SO 19:49.0 5 34 Emily Nugent SO 19:55.4 6 ( 61) Skyler Farrand SR 20:32.3 7 ( 75) Kelley McCarten SR 20:44.7
Kingsway was the next New Jersey team in the girls standings finishing sixth with 237 points and a 20:07 average. They were led by senior Rachel Vick who placed sixth in the race running 18:46.6. Ridge was seventh as a team with 247 points and an average of 20:10.3.
Individually New Jersey saw some athletes move on to Nike Cross Nationals by finishing top five in the race. Jordan Brannan of Colts Neck secured his trip with his second place 15:51.8, as did Alex Roth of Princeton in fourth 15:56.5 and David Rosas of Don Bosco Prep in fifth at 15:59.7.
For the girls Chloe Wong of Hillsborough earned a fourth place finish running 18:43.2.
Congratulations to everyone advancing to Nationals and good luck to CBA and North Hunterdon as they continue the quest for a national title on December 3rd in Portland, OR.