NJSIAA Groups: Gordon Wins Third, Team Sweeps, CBA Record

NJ State Meet Coverage
Jim Lambert

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The NJSIAA Group Championships produced another unforgettable day of racing, highlighted by CBA's electrifying performance, Liliah Gordon's impressive 3-peat, sweeps by Colts Neck and Metuchen, and several historic victories that sent the huge energetic crowd into a frenzy on Saturday at Holmdel Park.

This meet had it all, so let's get right to it. Unless noted as national, all rankings listed in this article were New Jersey state rankings heading into the State Championships.


HISTORIC PACE

Christian Brothers Academy dropped the biggest bomb of the day when the N.J. No. 1 / U.S. No. 2 Colts swept the top seven places to register a perfect score of 15 and burned a course record average of 15:50.0 on their way to a third straight Non-Public A title.

This raised their state record to 33 state championships overall. Senior Joe Barrett led the way for CBA by winning his second straight title in 15:35, the fastest time of the day.

MORE: CBA Drops Perfect Score & Course Record Feature


BRING THE BROOMS

One of the most impressive accomplishments a school can achieve is sweeping both the boys' and girls' state titles. So big shoutout to Metuchen and Colts Neck for busting out the brooms and hoisting up both trophies.

This is nothing new for Metuchen. The Bulldogs pulled off the daily double last year also!

In the boys Group 1 race, Metuchen defeated runner-up Indian Hills, 111-128. Metuchen averaged 17:47 and had a scoring combination of 10-12-13-34-42.

The Group 1 girls race was a blowout as Metuchen put five runners across the line ahead of Shore's No. 2 runner on the way to a 48-102 win over Shore. Metuchen averaged 20:28.

The Metuchen boys and girls have now both won seven state Group Championships.

Colts Neck pulled off the sweep in Group 3 as both the boys and girls defeated several ranked teams to return to the winner's circle.

In the boys' Group 3 race, the dynamic duo of Jay Adimala (16:10) and Hunter Celkupa (16:11) finished 1-2 to spark the Colts Neck, ranked No. 3 in the state, to a 64-82 victory over No. 11 Ocean City. No. 12 Chatham was third with 146 and No. 14 North Hunterdon finished fourth with 175.

The victory for Colts Neck, its first since 2016 and second overall, was especially sweet after finishing second to Mendham by seven points last year. Colts Neck averaged 16:38 and put its scoring five in the top 25.

The girls' Group 3 team race featured another great duel between No. 7 Colts Neck and Monmouth County rival No. 9 Middletown South.

Middletown South, the defending champion, led 31-37 after each team had three runners across the line, but Colts Neck's No. 4 and No. 5 runners picked up 17 points on Middletown South to give Colts Neck an 89-100 victory. No. 2 ranked Ocean City was third with 137.


GROUP 4 BOYS LIVE UP TO HYPE

There was a lot of hype surrounding the boys' Group 4 race and it certainly lived up to it by producing the closest team race of the day and four sub-16 runners.

The team battle was another South Jersey showdown between No. 5 ranked Cherokee and No. 6 Cherry Hill East. A week after Cherokee defeated Cherry Hill East by 10 points in the SJ Group 4 Sectional race a week ago, the Chiefs again came out on top in a thriller, 73-75. Defending champions No. 4 Westfield was third with 97 points.

Cherokee was trailing Cherry Hill East, 47-54 after each team had four runners in, but Cherokee sophomore Sean Sooy finished 12 places ahead of Cherry Hill East's No. 5 man to secure the win.

Individually, Luke Pash of Ridgewood, third last year, used his wicked wheels to overtake Clay Stevens of Manalapan as he emerged from the woods and then held off a hard-charging pack to win in 15:52. Stevens was second in 15:53, Max Bonilla of Elizabeth placed third in 15:54, and Lukas Disko of Bridgewater-Raritan was fourth in 15:59.


GORDON GETS REDEMPTION/HITS TRIFECTA 

Liliah Gordon knew after her loss to Allison Lee in the Central Jersey, Group 3 race last week that she could reverse that outcome if she ran aggressively and attacked the course at Holmdel, where she always races well.

That's exactly what happened!

Gordon, a senior at Northern Burlington, and Lee, a junior at West Windsor-Plainsboro North, were side-by-side just before they hit the downhill into the bowl. Gordon flew down that steep hill to take the lead and when they climbed out of the bowl, Gordon was four seconds ahead. The Penn State-bound Gordon, a Foot Locker National finalist last year, kept pounding the pace and put the race away when she opened a 10 second gap on Lee when she went past the 2-mile mark.

With her third straight title all but locked up, Gordon still wanted more.

She wanted sub 18! 

So she hammered down the final straight as she raced the clock, and she won the battle also, freezing the numbers at 17:58 for a new Holmdel PR. Lee, who ran a Thompson Park course record 17:47 at the Central Sectional meet last week, was second in 18:24.

Gordon will seek her first Meet of Champions title next week in a highly anticipated showdown with sophomore Paige Sheppard of Union Catholic, who won the Non-Public A race in 17:56.  

Gordon is the 13th girl in New Jersey history to capture three or more state titles.

Here is the updated list of the 13 girls to win three or more State Group Championships. 

4-TIME CHAMPS

  • Janet Smith, J.P. Stevens (1980-1983)
  • Erin Donohue, Haddonfield (1997-2000)
  • Vanessa Wright, Haddonfield (2002-2005)

3-TIME CHAMPS

    • HiIlary Noden, Hopewell Valley (1972-1974)
    • Meg Waldron, Bernards (1980-1982)
    • Monal Chokshi, Bridgewater-Raritan West (1989-1991)
    • Lindsay Van Alstine, Hawthorne Christian (1999-2001)
    • Abby Hinds, Mountain Lakes (2003, 2005-2006)
    • Melanie Thompson, Voorhees (2006-2008)
    • Briana Gess, Haddonfield (2013, 2015-2016)
    • Alyssa Aldridge, Mainland (2015-2017)
    • Nicole Vanasse, Pingry (2017-2019)
    • Liliah Gordon, Northern Burlington (2022-24)


    OH, BROTHER

    Junior Ben Andrus of No. 2 ranked Haddonfield Memorial completed a very rare family double when he won the Group 2 race in 16:03 to ignite No. 2 ranked Haddonfield to its seventh straight Group 2 title and 22nd overall, the third most in NJ history.

    With the victory, Andrus joined his brother, George as a state champ. George, now a sophomore at Villanova, won the Group 2 championship for Haddonfield in 2022. The Andrus brothers are just the fourth set of brothers to win state XC titles.

    The other three are Gene (1948, '59, and 50) and Tom Fekete (1952 and '53) of Lower Camden, Joe (2009) and Jim Rosa (2010) of West Windsor-Plainsboro North, and Tyler (2008) and Blake Udland (2010) of Millburn.


    FOUR-PEAT

    N.J. No. 1 / U.S. No. 7 Union Catholic, which didn't run at full strength, overcame some adversity to extend its winning streak to four in a row in the girls' Non-Public A race.

    While sophomores Paige Sheppard, who won her second straight title in 17:56, and Cayleigh Kaiser (18:44), finished 1-2 to ignite the attack for the Vikings in their, 45-70 victory over N.J. No. 11 Pingry, it took some gutsy and clutch races from their 3-4-5 runners to seal the deal.

    UC, who held out sophomore Sophia Thompson (she's expected back for the Meet of Champions), had two runners unable to finish. So the Vikings needed huge runs from Emmy O'Hearn, Ella Solorzano, and Joelle Ruccio. And the juniors delivered in a big way. 

    O'Hearn ran a gutsy race, getting out well, holding her spot and finishing with a big kick to finish sixth with a Holmdel PR of 19:45. Solorzano showed lots of heart on her way to a 17th place finish in 20:26, and Ruccio put an exclamation point on the 4-peat with a 19th place finish in 20:35. Big shoutout to Ruccio, who was inserted into the lineup in place of Thompson and up with the race of her life  in her first time running on such a big stage.    

    UC coach Mike McCabe had a feeling Ruccio might be a huge factor for his squad

    ''Right before we went to the line, I told Joelle to be ready and that if I tell her she is 5, she had to make it happen,'' said McCabe. '"At 1K, I told her she was 5 and she came through for us.'"   

    BACK TO BACK

    Another team that repeated as champs was the Villa Walsh Academy girls in Non-Public B. Junior Blythe Dudley, who won for the second straight year in 19:15, and senior Maggie Boler, second in 19:32, led the way for Villa Walsh, who defeated Wilberforce, 25-53. Boler is one of several first-year XC runners for No. 20 ranked Villa Walsh who made an immediate impact this season. 

    BATTLE OF THE BULLDOGS

    Rumson-Fair Haven's frontal attack was too much for 3-time defending champion Haddonfield to handle as the No. 8 ranked Rumson Bulldogs defeated the Haddonfield Bulldogs, 63-97. It's the first title for Rumson-Fair Haven since 2015 and fifth overall.

    The difference in this race came up front as Rumson's trio of sophomore Kaitlyn Hathaway (19:24), senior Logan Rettino (19:25), and senior Clemmie Lilley (19:34) finished 6-7-8 to spark Rumson to a big early lead. The back of Rumson's pack also ran strong to put the finishing touches on the victory.


    HISTORIC BREAKTHROUGHS 

    The Princeton girls and Princeton Day School boys both captured state titles for the first time in school history, while individually, Delana Einreinhofer of Wallkill Valley and Sadie Honig of Manalapan became the first girls champions ever for their schools, and Nicholas Troiano of Morristown-Beard captured the first championship ever for his school.

    The Princeton girls, ranked No. 3 in NJ, won their first state title ever with an 84-95 victory over runner-up and No. 12 Ridgewood in Group 4. Princeton's No. 5 runner, sophomore Phoenix Roth, proved to be the difference maker for Princeton as she finished 24 places ahead of Ridgewood's No. 5 to secure the victory.

    In the boys' Non-Public B race, Princeton Day put three runners ahead of the No. 1 runner from Rutgers Prep en route to a 60-94 win over Rutgers Prep. Troiano, a senior who missed most of the season last year with a shin injury, won the race in 17:00.

    Einreinhofer, second in Group 1 last year to Jordan Hadfield of Schalick, reversed that finish by winning the Group 1 race in a school course record 19:08. Hadfield was second in 19:25.

    Honig, a senior, remained undefeated when she ran 18:40 to win the Group 4 race and become the first girl from Manalapan to win a state XC title.


    MORE HIGHLIGHTS

    Leah Starkey of Ocean Township continued her amazing freshman season by winning the girls' Group 2 race in 18:56. Starkey is just the second girl from Ocean Township to win a State XC title. The other is Megan Phillips, who captured the State Group 3 title in 1993.

    Senior Aidan Morrow of Hasbrouck Heights blew out the field to win the boys' Group 1 title. Morrow is just the second runner from Hasbrouck Heights to win a state XC title. The other champ from Hasbrouck Heights is Dale Thompson, who won the Group 1 title in 1970.

    Four races featured 1-2 finishes by teammates - the boys Group 3 race (Jay Adimala and Hunter Celkupa of Colts Neck), girls Group 4 (Sadie Honig and Jessica Abbott of Manalapan), girls Non-Public A (Paige Sheppard and Cayleigh Kaiser of Union Catholic) and the girls Non-Public B (Blythe Dudley and Maggie Boler of Villa Walsh).