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The Skyland Conference Championships ran in a modified form on Monday at Phillipsburg. Voorhees and Montgomery juniors Jack Tavaglione and Caroline Mehlhorn both took on some of the best competition they've seen this fall, both stepping up to the challenge and bringing home hardware.
This year, to meet with COVID-19 safety guidelines from the NJSIAA, the Skyland Championships were individually focused with advancers from each Skyland Divisional meet held earlier in October. The top three runners from each race advanced along with 18 wild cards.
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There was a great dual here between Emma McGill and Caroline Mehlhorn! Mehlhorn eventually ran away with the win at 19:04 remaining undefeated this season and said she was excited for the chance to go head to head again with McGill heading in.
Mehlhorn was second at the 2019 XC Meet of Champions, third at this Skyland meet last fall. The next we'll see the Skyland winner is at Sectionals on Nov 14, she'll be leading her No. 11 ranked team there.
Voorhees senior Emma McGill ran second today with 19:15 for her third straight top five finish at Skyland Conference, she's never finished lower than the 11th place run she had as a freshman at this championship.
NJ No. 3 ranked North Hunterdon had a good showing place wise from their squad of four who qualified through to this individual based meet. Alexandra Carlson, Magdalyn Hoffman, and Addison Schmidt all finished third through fifth, add in sophomore Paige Boyce in 16th and the quartet averaged 20:14.
Laurel Kurtz of Hunterdon Central ran sixth at 20:28 and a freshman star Hannah Adhikari of Franklin Township finished seventh at 20:35. Another up and coming freshman Julia Scrudato of Montgomery ran 11th with a 20:50, she won the Middle School XC Championships last fall.
Jack Tavaglione has toed the line for five races so far this season emerging victorious from every one of them. The Voorhees junior brought home the Skyland Conference title with a 16:37 course PR, on a day with less than optimal conditions fighting wind and a wet course. He feels ready for a great performance at Sectionals.
There was some strong competition in the boys race as well with the likes of James Ptack second at 16:50, Mike Fama, 16:53, and Brian Pedretti, 16:58.
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Ptack was trying to make it two straight years for Immaculata to have an individual winner, his now graduated teammate TJ Harkins earning the win in 2019. Warren Hills senior Mike Fama had a nice kick to the finish gaining a spot on Pedretti at 16:53.
The No. 3 North Hunterdon boys led by Brian and Dan Pedretti in fourth and fifth qualified five boys into this individual based meet. They averaged 17:31 and split 1:08. Hunterdon Central was the only other squad to send five to the meet averaging 18:08.
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Also wanted to throw a shoutout to the Phillipsburg crew for putting together another great meet and presenting a well marked well kept championship quality course.
