Westfield pulled off a stunning sweep, tiebreakers decided two team titles, some of the fastest times in course history were thrown down, first-time champions were crowned, and the Skyland Conference girls rocked the course on an unforgettable day of racing at Saturday's NJSIAA North Jersey, Section 2 Championships at Oak Ridge Park in Clark.
There are so many off the hook highlights, so let's dive right into it.
BLUE DEVIL BROOM JOB
We have to start off with the dazzling daily double by Westfield!!!
The Westfield boys, disappointed with how it raced when the Blue Devils were second at the Union County Championships on Oct. 20, used that as motivation and rebounded with its best race of the season and the fastest team race in course history!!
Westfield, ranked No. 5 in the state, got the Blue Devil broom party started by blowing up the 3.1-mile layout with a course record average of 15:46 on the way to a convincing 40-66 victory over No. 4 ranked Ridge, who won the last three titles.
Westfield, which broke the course record average of 15:49 set by Union Catholic at the Union County Conference Championships last year, jammed five runners in the top 15 and had a 51-second compression as the Blue Devils raised their NJ. Sec. 2 record total to 22 titles! The Westfield boys have also won three championships in Central Jersey for a combined total of 25.
Junior Avery Keith led the charge for Westfield as he continued his torrid rookie season on the trails with a runner-up finish in 15:13, the fourth fastest time in course history! Keith, now the third fastest runner ever at Oak Ridge, finished a step behind Akshay Vadul of Edison, who won in 15:12.
Sophomore Ryan Daly was sixth for Westfield in 15:43, junior Tage Mehta finished seventh in 15:48, senior Jonathan Scalia was 10th in 16:00, and junior Graham Korins placed 15th in 16:04.
About an hour after the Westfield boys sizzling victory, the unranked Westfield girls completed the Blue Devil sweep with a heart-pounding 65-66 victory over No. 14 ranked Hunterdon Central. It's the first title for Westfield since 2004 and its the seventh sectional title overall.
This marks the fifth time that Westfield has swept the Group 4 sectional crowns. The Blue Devils also swept the titles in 1991, 1994, 1996, and 2004.
One of the biggest keys to victory for Westfield, which averaged 19:58, was the frontal attack of senior Sonia Olson and junior Lina Wright. Olson, second in 18:53, and Wright, seventh in 19:44, both finished ahead of Hunterdon Central's No. 1 runner. The rest of Westfield's pack consisted of senior Bella Hill, 13th in 19:59, senior Stacey Salz, 21st in 20:37, and senior Catherine Collins, 22nd in 20:38.
Akshay Vadul had some anxious moments as he battled Westfield's Avery Keith over the final half mile in the Group 4 race.
Vadul, a senior at Edison, was leading the race when he stumbled while making a sharp turn around a tree before heading into the homestretch. The mishap allowed Keith to open about a 10-meter gap on Vadul.
But Vadul was able to regroup and made a huge surge over the final 75 yards and overtook Keith about 20 yards from the finish before stopping the clock at 15:12!!! That's makes Vadul the second fastest runner in course history. Keith was second in 15:13 as he became the third fastest runner ever at Oak Ridge.
Only current Villanova freshman Marco Langon of Bridgewater-Raritan has run faster here than Vadul and Keith. Langon went 15:02 at the sectional meet last year and ran 15:10 at Oak Ridge at the 2021 Bernie Magee Class Meet.
Vadul, who won the GMC title last week, is the first runner from Edison to capture a sectional title since Shawn Hynes won the Central Jersey, Group 4 race in 1991.
The Skyland Conference once again flexed its distance dominance in the girls competition by winning five of the eight titles (three individual and two team championships)
No. 15 ranked North Hunterdon, led by repeat champion Cassidy Roop, and No. 16 Voorhees, behind champion Daphne Roskowski, each successfully defended their titles, and senior Brooke Hunter of Phillipsburg captured her second straight Group 4 championships.
In the Group 3 race, North Hunterdon finally had its top seven on the line for the first time all season, and the Lions roared to their eighth straight title with a 42-72 victory over Summit. It's the 24th sectional championship for North Hunterdon.
Roop, who ran 18:46 and won by 23 seconds, has made a great comeback since suffering a stress fracture in her foot over the summer. This was just the third race of the season for Roop, who won the HWS title last week, and has gotten stronger with each race.
North Hunterdon, which put all seven runners in the top 23 and had 5-runner average of 19:49, also received a huge boost from senior Paige Boyce, who finished fourth in her season debut in 19:22. This was Boyce's first race since last May. She had been sidelined with an injury to her femur.
The rest of North Hunterdon's scorers were junior Aubrey Carlson, 12th in 20:26, junior Saralyn Frederick, sixth in 19:53, and junior Peyton Lewis, 18th in 20:37.
Voorhees, a team comprised of all underclassmen, repeated as champion in Group 2 when the Vikings crammed all of their scorers in the top eight and had all seven runners in the top 14 en route to a 22-96 victory over Parsippany Hills.
Roskowski continued her sensational freshman season by winning the race for Voorhees with a PR of 19:42. The remaining scorers for the Vikings were sophomore Lexie Mizzone, second in 20:09, freshman Lucy D'Allesandro, fifth in 20:21, sophomore Emilia Beard, sixth in 20:23, and sophomore Rylan Brennan, eighth in 20:28.
Hunter, a senior who started running XC last year, cut one second off her Oak Ridge PR by winning the Group 4 race in 18:42. Last year, Hunter became P-Burg's first ever girls sectional champ!
Led by Hunter, who has bounced back strong after a bout with COVID a few weeks ago, helped P-Burg finish fourth to qualify for the State Group 4 meet as a team for the first time in several years.
Summit coach Neal Sharma said being battle-tested from competing against the teams in a county as stacked as Union County would make his team stronger when the state meets rolled around.
He was right!
The Hilltoppers, ranked No. 7 in the state, ran their best race of the season and won the most dramatic race of the day as Summit defeated No. 10 North Hunterdon, the Hunterdon-Warren-Sussex County Champs on a tiebreaker after both teams finished with 56 points. No. 8 Chatham, the Morris County champion, was third with 62. Summit averaged 16:16 and finished 5-7-12-14-23. Summit senior Sam Ard broke the tie by finishing 23rd, seven spots ahead of Chatham's No. 6 man.
It's the first title for Summit since 2014 and its fifth overall.
"Union County is the best county in the state,'' said Sharma, whose team placed third in Union County behind No. 2 ranked Union Catholic and No. 5 ranked Westfield. "Knowing how hard you have to train and race to compete with the teams in our county makes us fearless when we come to these races. You know the saying that irons sharpens iron. That's what happens when you run in the best county. I knew that we'd be ready for this race because of how hard we've had to work all season. I figured we'd have to score under 60 to win, and we had lots of guys step up to give us this championship.''
It was a historic day for Micah Lawson of Rahway.
Lawson, a senior became the first boy ever from Rahway to win a sectional title, and he did it red hot fashion as he dropped a time of 15:20, No. 7 in course history. Lawson, who blasted put to a quick lead and kept hi foot on the gas the whole way, broke his own school course record!
- BOGOTA AND WEST MORRIS BREAKTHROUGH
The Bogota girls and West Morris boys have been waiting a long time to end their sectional championship droughts.
Bogota, led by senior Amandine Fernandez and a young and hungry pack behind her, and West Morris, thanks to its great depth, finally made the breakthrough it had been seeking with impressive and dramatic victories.
Fernandez won the race in 19:48 to become Bogota's first sectional girls champ since 1995, and the Bucs outscored defending champ Hasbrouck Heights, 62-75 to win their first title since winning a fifth straight championship in 1998.
Bogota's scorers behind Fernandez were junior Isabel Michel, seventh in 20:26, freshman Fergie Onate, 17th in 23:03, freshman Ana Michel, 18th in 23:15, and freshman Taitum Sandoval-Diaz.
One of the biggest celebrations of the day came when the teams scores were announced after the boys Group 2 race. When the West Morris runners heard they had had defeated Bernards on a sixth-runner tiebreaker, the whole team exploded in jubilation. It's the first title for for West Morris since 1992 and its third ever!! I also won in 1969.
West Morris and Bernards were knotted at 56-56 after each team had five runners across the line, so the outcome was decided when West Morris 6th man, senior Joe LaPella, finished 19th in 17:16, six spots ahead of the No. 6 man for Bernards. West Morris went 6-9-11-12-18 (19) and Bernards finished 4-5-7-17-23 (24)
McNair Academic, the 2020 sectional Group 1 champion, recaptured that title by outscoring defending champion Hasbrouck Heights, 34-47. McNair, which has now won five sectional championships (all since 2011) put six runners ahead of the No. 4 man for Hasbrouck Heights.
Ian Zalewski , the Essex County champion, continued his breakout junior season by running a personal best 16:12 to become the first champion from Verona since the great Dave Oster won his second straight title in 2009. Zalewski used a huge kick late to hold off a hard-charging of Younes Abada, who was second in 16:13.
Senior Tadael Mihret ran 16:09 to win the Group 2 race to become the third champion from Rutherford. He joined Cole Dailey (North 1, Group 2 in 2000) and Sean Sullivan, who won his second straight in North 2, Group 2 in 2015.