Alex Pelov, Blythe Dudley, Villa Walsh, and the Morris Hills boys led a New Jersey assault at the Wave Mania Invitational on Saturday in Warwick Valley, N.Y.
Pelov, a senior at Montville, won the boys Division 1 title, Morris Hills captured the boys Division 2 Championship, and Dudley won the Division 1 race to spark Villa Walsh to the team title.
On the boys side, Pelov dropped a PR of 15:53, the fastest time of the day, to win by 15 seconds over Shane Ethakkan of Nanuet, N.Y, who was second in 16:08. Pelov's 15:53 is four seconds faster than his previous lifetime bets of 15:57 that he ran to place fourth at the Morris County Championships at Greystone last year.
In the boys Division 2 race Morris Hills edged Chaminade of N.Y., 92-97.Morris Hls also finished in top in the team merge, 146-152 over Chaminade.
Morris Hills, which went 2-7-24-28-31 and averaged 17:09, was trailing Chaminade by a point after each team had four runners across the line, but Luke O'Callaghan, the No. 5 man for Morris Hills, finished six places and 16 seconds ahead of the No. 5 runner from Chaminade to secure the victory for the Scarlet Knights. Junior Nicholas Falcone led the charge up front for Morris Hills, placing second in 16:18.
In the girls competition, Dudley, who won the State Non-Public B XC, State Prep and Morris County titles as a sophomore last fall, ran 18:30 to spark Villa Walsh to a dominating 27-87 victory over Mount Academy. Villa Walsh also came out on top in the team merge, 68-70 over Division 2 champion Somers of N.Y.
Villa Walsh jammed its first five runners in the to 15, averaged 20:01, and had a scoring combination of 1-2-5-8-11