Monroe Boys Repeat, Metuchen Girls Win At GMC Championships


Results 

The Monroe boys made its two straight titles, and the Metuchen girls rolled to its first title in 11 years at Saturday's Greater Middlesex Conference Championships at muddy Thompson Park in Jamesburg.

Both winning teams also produced the individual champions as Maan Patel of Monroe crossed the line first in the boys race in 16:28, and Gianna Hernandez of Metuchen ran 20:10 to capture the girls title.    

Patel, who was second as junior last year, is just the second boy from Monroe to win the GMC title. He joined 2-time champ Steve Roman (1996 and '98), as the only Falcons to capture the boys championship.

In the boys team competition, Patel led a 1-2-12-13-22 scoring combination for Monroe, who edged South Brunswick, 50-54. South Brunswick went 5-7-10-15-17.

The five scorers for Monroe were Patel, senior Matthew Lucas, second in 16:36, sophomore James Giordano, 12th in 17:21, junior Stephen Barbera,13th in 17:26, and senior Ryan Daunais, 22nd in 18:06. 

On the girls side, Hernandez, who was third as a sophomore last year, was the catalyst for a dominate performance by Metuchen, second to Monroe last year, overwhelmed the competition to capture its fourth title ever and first since winning a third straight in 2012.

Hernandez, the fourth girl in Metuchen history to win the GMC XC title, sparked a 1-10-11-12-16 finish by the Bulldogs, who outscored runner-up East Brunswick, 50-97. Metuchen had its five scoring runners finish before any other team had three across the line.

Metuchen's top five consisted of Hernandez, junior Lilly Kupersmit, 10th in 21:37, senior Maggie Rivera, 11th in 21:39,  
junior Kaitlyn Hseuh, 12th in 21:43, and freshman Ella Andersen, 23rd in 22:04.