Boys NJ MOCs: Barrett Wins, Leads CBA To Historic Victory

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Legendary teams and runners have produced several epic performances and iconic moments during the long storied history of New Jersey cross-country. But what Christian Brothers Academy's high-octane pack did on Saturday should go down in history as the single greatest feat we have ever seen. Not just in cross-country, but in any high school sport in this state!

WATCH: Boys Championship Race

With senior Joe Barrett igniting the charge up front by winning his second straight title in 15:24, CBA threw down a race for the ages by doing the once unimaginable and unfathomable as the Colts jammed six runners in the top 10, scored a near-perfect meet record 16 points and averaged a head-spinning and electrifying 15:42.0 on their way to a third straight title at the 52nd NJSIAA Meet of Champions, which was run in front of a huge energetic crowd at Holmdel Park.

Coaches and fans were shaking their heads in awe and shockwaves reverberated across the hallowed grounds of Holmdel Park when CBA lit up the 3.1-mile layout by storming across the finish line with a jaw-dropping scoring combination of 1-2-3-4-6 and a compression of just 29 seconds!! CBA, ranked No. 1 in N.J. and No. 2 in the U.S., defeated N.J. No. 2 Haddonfield, 16-83.

CBA missed a perfect score by just one place and one second! This is the Meet of Champions! How mind-blowing is that!? It's just crazy to think that a team did what CBA just did!!!    

The magnificent seven for the Colts, who sliced a whopping eight seconds off its course record of 15:50.4 that it ran at the State Non-Public A meet last week, were Barrett, junior Luke Hnatt, third in 15:41, senior Ryan Schmitt, fourth in 15:45, senior Alex Mastroly, fifth in 15:47, sophomore Gavin Schmitt, seventh in 15:53, junior Ryan Collins, 10th in 16:02, and senior Wyatt Falkowski, 14th in 16:10. Only Barrett, Mastroly and Falkowski were in CBA's top seven last year when the Colts ran a then Holmdel course record of 15:51.8 at the Non--Public A meet. 

Check this out. Only two runners on Saturday finished ahead of CBA's No. 6 man, and if you score every runner who finished, CBA outscored the entire field, 20-42! Yes, they beat the entire state! Holy smokes! That's just plain ridiculous! Talk about leveling up and dropping a bomb! This was the ultimate cross-country flex!

Boys Top Six Team Scoring

To put CBA's average of 15:42.2 into perspective, that's faster than what 21 individual winners ran to win this race!!! It's faster than what 2-time champions Bob Keino of Ridgewood and Steve Slattery of Mt. Olive ran when they won!!! Those are two all-time greats! And only 69 runners in state history have faster than CBA's average!!!    

CBA's victory also extended its state record to 27 M of C titles (3 more than the rest of the state combined) and gives the Colts a very strong case to move from No. 2 in the nation to No. 1 when the next national rankings come out. Herriman of Utah, the defending Nike National Champions, are currently ranked No. 1.  

While very excited about all the smoke they left after torching the trails, the runners for CBA, which will head into the Nike Northeast Regional as huge favorites next Saturday at Bowdoin Park, said it can't be called the best team in NJ history yet.

"We feel that we have to win the national title to be called the best Jersey team ever,'' said Barrett, who also said that his team has been fueled to win the national title since placing sixth last year. "CBA won the national title in 2011 and we feel our team can win it again.''

Oh, one more thing. CBA's returning 5-runner Holmdel average heading into next season is 16:02, five seconds faster than the returning average that last year's team brought into this season. Yowzaaaaa! 

BACK-TO-BACK   

Barrett wasn't running just to win his second straight title. All season, he has been targeting a sub-15 for his final race at Holmdel Park as he attempted to join  Edward Cheserek of St. Benedict's Prep (14:53 in 2011) and Joe Rosa of West Windsor-Plainsboro North (14:56 in 2009) as the only two runners to ever do it.

While the final result will show that Barrett came up short in his bid to go under 15 with his winning time of 15:24, that doesn't tell the whole story.

The University of North Carolina-bound Barrett spilled everything he had in his quest for sub-15. He absolutely hammered the opening uphill and the roller coasters on his way to a 5:04 first mile, the second fastest opening mile in course history, to open a 10-second gap on the field. Only Edward Cheserek of St. Benedict's ran a faster first mile when he dropped a 5:01 en route to his course record 14:53 at the 2011 Shore Coaches Invitational. 

Barrett really hammered the bowl mile and went by the two-mile mark in 10:05 to increase his lead to 17 seconds. But after he hit the tennis courts, he said he started to pay the price for his aggressive early pace.

"I felt great at two miles and thought I was ready to close fast and make a run at 15,'' said Barrett. "But then all of a sudden I just started to run out of gas. I was really feeling it. I went out a bit too fast, 2:57 at 1K, and that caught up with me.''

Barrett had built a big enough lead by that point, so he shifted his focus to locking in on securing his second straight victory.

When Barrett crossed the line to complete the repeat, he cemented his legacy as a NJ XC Legend of the Fall. He's just the eighth boy ever to win two straight Meet of Champions cross-country titles, and the fourth from the Shore Conference to repeat. He's also just the second runner to ever run under 15:30 at Holmdel three times.  

The other seven two-time champs are Jason DiJoseph of Paul VI (1987-88), Bryan Spoonire of Asbury Park (1989-90), Bob Keino of Ridgewood (1992-93), Steve Slattery of Mount Olive (1996-97), Mohamed Khadraoui of Paterson Kennedy (2002-03), Craig Forys of Colts Neck (2005-06), and Devin Hart of Point Pleasant Boro (2017). 

Barrett, who ran 15:21 to win the Non-Public A title last year, No. 10 in Holmdel history, 15:27 to win the M of C title last year and now 15:24, joined Jim Rosa, who graduated from West Windsor-Plainsboro North in 2011, as the only guys to break 15:30 three times on Holmdel's current layout, which has been used since 1979.  

"Being a two-time champ really does cement my legacy and it's a special feeling to be one of just eight guys to win two in a row,'' said Barrett. "I gave it all I had to get that sub 15. It's hard to do, but I couldn't be happier to win again and get that low stick for my team to help us win another title. Winning as a team is what it's all about.''

Barrett's victory touched off a parade of seven straight finishers from the Shore Conference's A North Division. That's right. The Shore A North Division went 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 and had eight of the top 10 finishers. It was CBA's top five plus Clay Stevens of Manalapan, second in 15:37, junior Jay Adimala of Colts Neck, sixth in 15:52, and CBA's Ryan Collins was 10th.

Stevens, a junior at Manalapan, ran the best of his life and he closed fast to finish second in a school record 15:37, a huge Holmdel PR. The finish by Stevens is the highest for a Manalapan runner since Tom Fischer won the race in 1981.  

Stevens was the top sophomore finisher last year when he was eighth, and after his runner-up finish, he said coming back and winning this race next year is something he feels is now within his reach. It sure is.

Luke Pash of Ridgewood, the Group 4 champ and one of the top contenders, tried to stick with Barrett early in the race, but like the rest of the field, he couldn't match Barret's ambitious pace. Pash was 10 seconds behind Barrett with a big chase pack at the mile, but then started to fade and wound up lacing 89th in 17:07.           

Boys Top 20 Individuals