Results
The Bernards boys, led by individual winner Brody Watt, put together a historic race to win their first title in 36 years, the Pingry girls repeated as champions and Mai Zalmover of Ridge won the girls race at Thursday's Somerset County Championships at Pleasant Valley Park in Bernards Township.
The boys race was an all-time classic and an epic showdown between Watt, defending champion Brenden McMahon of Ridge and Lukas Disko of Bridgewater-Raritan, who all took down some all-time greats on Pleasant Valley's all-time list.
Watt, a junior, used a wicked kick down the final stretch to emerge victorious with a time of 15:41, No. 3 in course history!!!!! Disko was second in 15:42, No. 4 all-time!! McMahon finished third in 15:44, No. 5 all-time!!!
I told you this race was lit!!!!
The only runners to go faster at Pleasant Valley Park are Doug Smith of Gill St. Bernard's, who ran the CR of 15:26 at the 2007 county meet, and Liam Mullett of Pingry, who won the 2013 Somerset County title in 15:36.
Watt is the first boy from Bernards to win the county XC title since Tom Praisner in 1986, and his victory ignited a 1-4-5-16-22 scoring combination for Bernards, who left lots of smoke on the course with 7 course PR's and a school course record average of 16:31!!!
Bernards, ranked No. 15 in the state, outscored runner-up Pingry 48-63 to secure is first title since 1988 and its 19th county championship overall. Pingry went 7-10-13-14-19 and averaged an impressive 16:49. Ridge, which was seeking a sixth straight title, placed third with 82 points.
The five scorers for Bernards were Watt, senior John Richardson, fourth in 16:20, junior Julian Bonk, fifth in 16:23, junior Sean Griffin, 16thi n 17:00, and sophomore Daniel Richardson, 22nd in 17:15. Griffin, Daniel Richardson. and sophomore Aiden Arienta, 40th in 17:59, all ran lifetime PR's for an course. Freshmen Sean Carey, 36th in 17:47, also had a very strong race for Bernards.
PINGRY AND ZALMOVER WIN GIRLS TITLES
The girls race featured a great clash between No. 10 ranked Pingry and No. 18 Ridge and a big win by talented freshman Maia Zalmover of Ridge.
Ridge finished 1-2 in the race with Zalmover (19:26) and sophomore Isabella Beadry (19:33) and held a 23-25 edge over Pingry after each team had four runners across the line. But Pingry's No. 5 runner, sophomore Caroline Naulty came through with a huge race, placing 12th in 20:13, 8 spots of Ridge's No. 5 runner, to lock up the team championship for Pingry, 37-43 over Ridge.
Pingry's top five went 3-5-7-10-12, averaged 19:56 and had a big edge with a compression of just 39 seconds. Ridge countered with a 1-2-9-11-20, averaged 20:06 and had a 1-5 split of 1:57.
Pingry's top five runners were senior Lucy Ambrogio, third in 19:44, senior Kayla Kerr, fifth in 19:46, junior sari Berman, seventh in 19:51 junior Julia Ronnen, 10th in 20:08 and Naulty.
