North Hunterdon swept the team titles, and Jack Tavaglione of Voorhees and Cassidy Roop of North Hunterdon were the individual winners at Thursday's Hunterdon-Warren-Sussex Championships at Phillipsburg.
The North Hunterdon boys, ranked No. 4 in the state, have waited a long time to capture this title as the Lions finally dethroned Voorhees, which had won the previous seven titles. The victory came in dominating fashion for North Hunterdon, which crammed five runners in the top 16 and averaged 17:39 on the rugged 3.1-mile layout on the way to a 36-65 victory over runner-up Hunterdon Central. Voorhees was third with 126.
Leading the surge for the Lions was senior Aaron Wysocki, second in 16:57. The rest of the North Hunterdon pack, which had a 1-5 compression of 1:14, consisted of junior David McKinnon, third in 17:11, senior Carter Beswick, sixth in 17:21, junior Asa Alderman, 11th in 17:48, and junior Jeremy Bavaro, 16th in 18:11.
Tavaglione, second at this meet as a sophomore when it was last held in 2019, won the boys race by 30 seconds in 16:27.The victory was especially satisfying for Tavaglione because he's been running very fast times this season, but had yet to a score a big victory to show for it. In his previous two races, Tavaglione ran a PR of 15:34 to place second at the Bernie Magee Invit. at Oak Ridge Park in Clark, and 16:01 at the Shore Coaches Invit. at Holmdel Park, again placing second.
In the girls race, Roop, a sophomore, e, ran the best race of her young career to finish first in 19:29 and spark the 12th ranked North Hunterdon to a 30-79 victory over runner-up Voorhees. North Hunterdon has now won five of the past six titles (the meet wasn't held last year). The Lions won four straight from 2016 through 2019.
Roop's winning time of 19:29 was a PR of 19 seconds as she finished 11 seconds of junior Brooke Hunter of Phillipsburg. Roop's previous best of 19:48 came earlier this month at the Shore Coaches Invitational at Holmdel Park.
The remainder of North Hunterdon's scoring five were senior Addison Schmidt, third in 19:44, junior Paige Boyce, third in 20:16, sophomore Saralyn Frederick, 11th in 21:13, and sophomore Peyton Lewis, 16th in 22:02.