Several of New Jersey's biggest stars and premier packs rocked the trails on Saturday when the Garden State picked up three big victories at the Bowdoin Park Classic on a steamy day on the banks of the Hudson River in Wappingers Falls, N.Y.
The boys Division 1 race was dominated by New Jersey as NJ #1 and US #10 Christian Brothers Academy and Devin Hart of Point Pleasant Boro grabbed titles, and William Hare of Princeton captured the boys Division 2 race.
On the girls side, Kingsway was the top N.J. squad and Warren Hills star Alexa Westley ran the fastest N.J. time.
In the Division 1 boys competition, CBA, letting it rip for the first time this season, repeated as champion by defeating runner-up and NJ # 9 Haddonfield, 73-95. NJ #2 Kingsway was 4th with 115 and Voorhees 6th with 178. Haddonfield averaged 16:59, Kingsway 17:07 and Voorhees 17:25.
CBA, led by senior Brian Hill's runner-up finish in a Bowdoin PR of 16:05, had scoring places of 1-11-15-21-25 and the Colts averaged 16:48. CBA, which won the Nike Northeast Regional last year and placed 7th at the Nike Nationals, averaged 16:41 at this meet last year.
In a clash between three of the state's best, Hart, who won the 3,200 at the NJSIAA Meet of Champions as a sophomore last spring, won the race with the top time of the day of 15:58, seven seconds in front of Hill. Chris Romero of Voorhees was third in 16:27.
The Division 2 boys race was won individually by Hare in 16:25.2 as he led NJ #3 Princeton, the NJSIAA Meet of Champions winner last year, to a fourth place finish with 111 points. Princeton averaged 17:25.
In the girls competition, Kingsway, led by Alexis Mullarkey (6th in 20:19) had scoring places of 5-17-24-29-31 and placed second in the Division 2 race, 67-106 behind James Madison. Westley, who won the 3,200 at the Meet of Champions as a sophomore last spring, was third in the Division 2 race in 19:20.
In the girls Division 1 race, Haddonfield placed third with 112 and Princeton was fourth with 117. Freshman Allison Colflesh led the charge for Haddonfield by placing ninth in 20:48 as Haddonfield went 9-18-24-26-35. Princeton's Chloe Taylor placed 7th in 20:38 as Princeton went 7-15-29-30-36.