Results | Photos
Christian Brothers Academy, ranked No. 1 in New Jersey and No. 9 nationally, the NJ No. 2 Union Catholic girls, Jimmy Wischusen of Union Catholic, and the Westfield boys and the Haddonfield girls stole the show with huge statement victories to highlight a dominating performance by the Garden State at the Bowdoin Park Classic on Saturday in Wappingers Falls, N.Y.
CBA, in the first of many showdowns this season with NJ No. 2/US No. 13 Union Catholic, solidified their lofty ranking with a remarkable race as the Colts finished 2-4-10-12-13 and averaged 16:26 on the rugged 3.1-mile layout, on the way to a 41-98 victory in the Division 2 race over UC, the defending Meet of Champions winner.
CBA's tight and deep pack put its seven runners in front of UC's No. 3 runner and had a 1-5 spread of 43 seconds and a 1-7 compression of 51 seconds, including a gap of just 13 seconds between their 3-7 runners. The 16:25 average by CBA makes this team the fourth fastest in school history on this course, trailing only the 16:14.6 run in 2012, the 16:15.0 in 2013, and the 16:24.6 by the 2011 team. The 2011 squad won the Nike National Championship.
The top seven for CBA were Nick Sullivan, second in 16:00.7, Joe Barrett, fourth in 16:07, Lucas Ward, 10th in 16:38, Alex Kemp, 12th in 16:39, Jack Falkowski, 13th in 16:43, Zach Shroba, 15th in 16:43, and Ryan Schmitt, 17th in 16:51.
CBA coach Sean McCafferty was very happy with his his pack executed the race plan.
"It was a great September race for us,'' said McCafferty. "Our 7 followed the plan well and finished well. The boys have been working hard and they care about each other as much as any team I've coached. We have some work to do and need to get fully healthy before championship season, but we're close. Sullivan has been a great leader, and I'm excited he's starting to realize his potential.''
Wischusen, a junior at UC who is the favorite to win the M of C title this season, opened his season with a very controlled and impressive victory in 15:54.2, the ninth fastest time by a NJ runner in course history. Led by Wischusen, UC averaged 16:50.
The top girls performance of the day was delivered by Union Catholic, who steamrolled its way to a 20-91 victory over Bronxville (N.Y) in the Division 2 race. Ridgewood was third with 95. Union Catholic also came out on top in the team merge, 39-49, over NJ No. 1 Haddonfield.
UC, led by junior Peyton Hollis (first in a school record 18:51.5) finished 1-2-3-5-10 and averaged a school record 19:42! The scorers for UC behind Hollis were Kaleigh Gunsiorowski, who recovered from a fall and still finished second in 19:13, Courtney Kaiser, third in 19:31, Ella Solorzano, fifth in 20:05, and Victoria Urbaez, 10th in 20:52.
The No. 1 ranked Haddonfield girls also threw down a strong race when the Dawgs went 3-6-7-8-9 and averaged 20:05 en route to a 28-72 win over New Milford, in the Division 1 competition. Haddonfield's scorers were Helene Usher, third in 19:39, Ava Thomas, sixth in 19:57, Riley Slootsky, seventh in 20:12, Riley Austin eighth in 20:14, and Audrey Naticchia, ninth in 20:20.
In the boys Division 1 race, NJ No. 3 Westfield rolled to a 47-70 victory over No. 4 Haddonfield. Summit was fourth at 106.
Westfield averaged 16:54 and had a remarkable 1-5 compression of just 13 seconds. Westfield's first five were Graham Korins, fourth in 16:48, Daniel Cortese, seventh in 16:52, Ryan Daly, 10th in 16:56, Avery Keith, 11th in 16:57, and Jonathan Scalia, 15th in 17:01.
Haddonfield was led by George Andrus, who placed second in 16:02.9, just behind Adam Furman of Tri-Valley, first in 16:02.3.
