Blair Bartlett and the Union Catholic girls threw down historic performances, and Christian Brothers Academy flexed its firepower by unleashing its top guns for the first time this season to highlight Saturday's 50th Shore Coaches Invitational that was run in unseasonably hot conditions at venerable Holmdel Park.
Boys Merge | Girls Merge
Running in the girls' F Division race, Bartlett, a junior at Lawrenceville, continued her remarkable rookie season by blowing apart the legendary 3.1-mile layout with the most stunning debut in course history by stopping the clock at an eye-popping 17:24! That makes her the fourth fastest girl in Holmdel Park history!!!
The only girls to ever run faster at Holmdel are the great Katelyn Tuohy of North Rockland, N.Y., who ran a mind-boggling 16:21 during her junior year at the 2018 Shore Coaches Invitational, Angelina Perez of Lakeland, who won the 2021 Group 2 race in 17:07, and another Lawrenceville star, Charlotte Bednar, who dropped a 17:21 at the 2020 Holmdel Invitational.
Bartlett, a very humble star who said she had never even been to Holmdel to train, won the race by more than 90 seconds (Regan Moore of Oak Knoll was second in 18:56) as she blasted away from the field in the opening mile and kept pouring it on. Bartlett, who gave up tennis to run XC this season, wasn't targeting a specific time, but she was well aware of the big names on top of Holmdel's all-time list. She said it's honor to now be alongside them.
In her previous two races this season, Bartlett ran a red hot 16:48.70 to smash the course record at Peddie at the Jerry Hart Invitational, which is one of the fastest 5K races ever run in NJ high school history, and at the Bowdoin Park Classic last week, she stopped the clock at 18:02.3, the second fastest time in course history for a NJ girl.
UNION CATHOLIC LEFT NO CRUMBS
It came as no surprise that NJ No. 1/US No. 3 Union Catholic produced the best girls team performance of the day, but the way they blitzed the trails and nearly broke the course record average on their way to an impressive 12-point win over New York power Shenendehowa, ranked No. 8 in the nation, certainly sent a strong message to the rest of the country.
The Vikings, with defending Meet of Champions winner Paige Sheppard leading the charge with a course PR of 17:38, No. 9 in course history, just missed breaking their own course record with a 5-runner average of 18:40. That's just 3 seconds off the CR of 18:37 that UC ran when they won the 2023 Meet of Champions. UC has now run the 3 fastest times ever at Holmdel. They ran 18:45 at the Shore Coaches Invitational last year, which is No. 3 all-time.
- 2023 Meet of Champions - 18:37 (All-Time Record)
- 2025-Shore Coaches Invitational - 18:40 (No. 2 All-Time)
- 2024-Shore Coaches Invitational - 18:45 (No. 3 All-Time)
UC had a scoring combination of 1-3-6-9-11 for 30 points. Shenendehowa went 2-5-7-8-20 for 42 points and averaged a very fast 19:03, which is No. 6 in course history!
UC also finished on top of the team merge results, 74-139 over Shen, with Voorhees third with 279. Voorhees won the D Division race and ran the third fastets average of the day of 19:52.
The scary thing about what UC did on Saturday is that they have the potential to go much faster. How low will they go when junior Sophia Thompson returns to the lineup? Thompson, one of the top runners in the state, is working her way back from an injury and will add to the stunning depth that the Vikings possess.
UC's scoring 5 consisted of Sheppard, a junior, junior Cayleigh Kaiser (course PR of 18:24), freshman star Harper Telesca (18:42), senior Ella Solorzano (19:15), and her sister, freshman Eden Solorzano (19:24).
CBA LETS IT RIP
We finally got to see NJ No. 1/US No. 6 CBA let it rip, and the Colts delivered the best boys performance of the meet, defeating a very strong pack from LaSalle College of Rhode Island, 40-72, in the A Division race, which ran with the temperature in the 80s. CBA also finished on top in the team merge, 79-160 over LaSalle.
CBA, missing one regular (Wyatt Falkowski-college visit to UCLA), averaged a meet best 16:13 with University of Virginia-bound Luke Hnatt igniting the attack by placing second in 15:41, which matches his Holmdel PR.
In a clash between three Nike National qualifiers from last year, Sean Gray of Portsmouth of Rhode Island, won in 15:34, Hnatt was second in 15:41, and Marshall Vernon of LaSalle, the 2024 Rhode Island state champ, was third in 15:42. Five runners broke 16 in the A Division!!
CBA's top 5 went 1-4-6-9-20, and LaSalle went 11-13-16-17 and averaged 16:37, which was tied with Union Catholic for the second-best average of the day.
The scoring 5 for CBA were Hnatt, Gavin Schmitt (15:59), Ryan Collins (16:09), Sean Galvin (16:24), and Matt McInerney (16:52).
MORE HIGHLIGHTS
Junior Danny Kuran of Union Catholic ran a big PR of 16:13 to win the boys F Division race. Junior Jayran Rodriguez of Manville finished first in the boys G race with a PR of 16:47.
Senior Nathan Vroom of Somerville dropped a massive PR to win the boys E race in 16:33, , Brody Watt of Bernards captured the D race in 16:17, and Claudel Chery of North Rockland edged Sean Wemmlinger of Morris Knolls, 16:12 to 16:13 to win the B race.
On the girls' side, sophomore Leah Starkey of Ocean Township, the Meet of Champions 3,200 champ last spring, won the girls D Division race in 18:00.
Amelia Pattwell of Middletown South matched her PR when she won the C race in 19:02, senior Allison Lee of West Windsor-Plainsboro North won the B race in 18:36, and Julia Kelly of Downington West in Pa., who finished 49th at the Nike Nationals as a freshman last year, ran 18:22 to finish first in the A race.