The Lakeland cross-country celebrated its greatest performance in meet history by ending a long title drought and sweeping the individual titles, and the Clifton girls won its third straight title at the Passaic County Championships on Friday at Garret Mountain in Woodland Park.
Check out what Lakeland did!!!
Senior Jesse Campoverde finished first in 16:19 to lead Lakeland to its first boys championship in 21 years, and Lakeland sophomore Angelina Perez moved all the up to No. 8 all-time in course history and No. 3 among Passaic County runners with her blazing time of 18:13. Perez finished 31 seconds ahead of defending champion Mia Dubac, a junior at Clifton.
Perez is now the second fastest underclassman in the long history of Garret Mountain. Only Missy Duchini of Wayne Valley (18:12 in 1983) ran faster as an underclassman than Perez.
In the boys race, Campoverde's two second victory over Pompton Lakes junior Nathan Armstrong (16:21) made him the first boys champion from Lakeland since Andy Latinsics in 1983, and sparked Lakeland to a 17:22 average and a 47-67 victory over runner-up Clifton.
Lakeland's scoring five were Campoverde, senior Zachary Voll, sixth in 16:58, senior Mason Murphy, ninth in 17:31, junior Ethan Lehr, 15th in 18:01, and sophomore Owen Gibson, 16th in 18:02.
On the girls side, Clifton won a great down-to-the wire battle with a strong Lakeland squad, 35-41, to keep its crown.
Lakeland and Clifton were tied at 21-21 after each team had four runners across the line, but Clifton's No. 5 runner, junior Angelica Peralta, pulled out the victory for Clifton by finishing six places ahead of Lakeland's No. 5.
Dubac, whose 18:44 was a PR for any course, led a strong surge up front for Clifton with her runner-up finish. Rounding out Clifton's top five were senior Andrea Dubbels, fourth in 19:36, freshman Remy Dubac, fifth in 20:09, and Carol Arantxa Martinez, 10th in 21:34.