PHILADELPHIA, PA - The Rosa twins, sensational juniors from West Windsor-Plainsboro North had a spectacular Saturday going 1-2 on a notoriously tough course (Belmont Plateau). Coming into the meet the course record was set by Joe Rosa last year running 15:33.1. Joe crossed the finised line this year knocking another 14 seconds off the course record clocking 15:19.3. Not surprising by no means was Joe's twin brother Jim Rosa finishing not far behind brother Joe for a fantastic 1-2 finish. Jim finished in 15:38.0. Along with the Rosa's, teammates Jon Saveri (6th 16:16.8), Casey Dalrymple (14th 16:54.2) and Pat O'Connell (40th 18:04.2) finished with a tallied score of 63 to top the Philadelphia native LaSalle College HS.
Don Bosco made their way up to Van Cortlandt Park (NY) and had an overall fantastic day. As a whole 'Bosco finished first in all 4 team categories: Frosh, Soph, Junior and Varsity. After graduating two big time seniors last year, 'Bosco once again seems like they are on a one way course to
battle Haddonfield and CBA at the Meet of Champions. 'Bosco was led by their varsity team as they finished 1,2,6,7,8,9,11 in the varsity race with Rafael Vargas and Howard Rosas the only two under 13:00 on the day. They finished in 12:55.2 and 12:57.6 respectively.
Action around the Garden State included the Season Opener Invitational in Mahwah running at Darlington Park. Patrick Rono (Lyndhurst HS) runs a season best and best time at the meet finishing in 16:00.0. Salim Corbin (16:03.0) of Eastside HS and Daniel Rondon (16:04.0) of North Bergen HS round out the top 3 times of the meet. On the girls side at Darlington, Alyssa LaGuardia of Depaul Catholic runs a personal best of 19:06.0 and the fastest of the day
In the middle of the state, at Thompson park in Jamesburg NJ (the site of the Central Jersey State sectionals), was this weekends Central Jersey Shootout. The closest race of the day came in the girls 1-2 race where Ashley Smolinka the NJRunners preseason #4 held off Rashmi Singh and Allison Payenski both from Hunterdon Central coming down the homestretch. Smolinka finished in 18:50 with Singh and Payenski finishing in 18:52 and 18:59 respectively.
Out at Warinaco Park in Elizabeth, two seniors showed experience as Caroline Williams (Mount St. Mary's Academy) and Curis Richburg both walk away with wins in their division and both had the fastest times of the day with 19:09.8 and 16:19.5 respectively
Don Bosco photo courtesy of tim@armorytrack.com