Full Results
Voorhees, led by Dylan's Fritz's victory, maintained its stranglehold on the boys championship by rolling to its seventh straight title, and Hunterdon Central and Emma McGill of Voorhees continued their strong seasons with victories at Thursday's Hunterdon-Warren-Sussex County Championships at the Phillipsburg Athletic Complex.
In the boys race, Fritz (16:37) and rising sophomore star Jack Tavaglione (16:40) went 1-2 to ignite the attack for Voorhees, which went 1-2-4-14-16, averaged 17:13, and had a split of 1:22 on the way to a convincing 37-91 victory over runner-up Pope John.
Fritz, who was second as a junior last year, has quietly put together a very strong season as the leader of the pack for Voorhees. He's dropped big PR's on every course he's raced on this season, including a 13 second improvement from the 16:50 he ran on the very rugged 3.1-mile course at P-Burg last year when he was fifth at the Skyland Conference Championships.
While Fritz might be a bit under some people's radar this year, watch out for him at the conference, sectionals, and state's. He has the talent and potential to drop even more time and be a major contender in every race he runs.
On the girls side, McGill, a junior, continued her torrid campaign on the trails by winning her fifth major title this fall. McGill ran 19:14 to finish first by 40 seconds over junior Laurel Kurtz of Hunterdon Central. McGill, fourth at the HWS meet last year, has now improved her times on every course she's run this season.
Kurtz, second in 20:04, spearheaded Hunterdon Central's impressive run to the team title as the Red Devils put five runners ahead of the No. 3 runner for Voorhees to secure a 35-60 victory over a very strong Voorhees squad. NJ #2 North Hunterdon, the defending champion, held out their top runners.
Hunterdon Central, a team that's been on the rise the last couple years and is knocking of the door of state Top 10 rankings, used a lineup that consisted of six underclassmen.
After Kurtz, the rest of the scoring runner for Hunterdon Central were sophomore Samantha Apanovitch, sixth in 20:28, sophomore Shannon Bedard, seventh in 20:31, senior Cassidy Quinn, in 20:32, and junior Bethlehem Dooley, 13th in 21:37.
The top finishers from Sussex County were senior Ethan Billings of High Point, third in the boys race in 16:50, and Natalie O'Hearn of Pope John, fourth in the girls race in 20:20.
