CBA, UC Aim To 4-Peat, Individual Titles Up For Grabs At MOC

NJ State Meet Coverage
Jim Lambert


Here we go!!!!

The NJSIAA XC Meet of Champions, the greatest single event in New Jersey high school sports, will celebrate its 53rd running on Saturday on the hallowed grounds of Holmdel Park in what has all the makings of an epic meet.

The girls race is scheduled for 11 a.m. and the boys at 12 p.m.

There will be lots of sparks flying and no crumbs will be left on the trails when the best runners in the state start cooking and go shoulder-to-shoulder on the legendary 3.1-mile layout. Some of the fastest times in course history are expected to be thrown down. Clock it!

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In the team competition, CBA and the Union Catholic girls, the top ranked teams in the state all season and both ranked No. 4 nationally, are both chasing a 4-peat and it doesn't appear to be any teams that can stop that from happening. While there's always a chance for an upset, CBA and UC are just so much ??? anyone else winning the team titles   

That's not the case with the individual races as a pair of electrifying showdowns are truly up for grabs in what could be instant classics. 


BOYS RACE

Can anyone challenge CBA and possibly score a monumental upset?

Can the Colts make a run at the course record average they set last year?

Who will cross the line first in a wide open individual race?

Those are the biggest questions looming in this race.

Let's dive into the team race first. 

CBA, ranked No. 1 in NJ and No. 4 in the US, come into this race as a huge favorite to win their 4th title in a row and extend its state record to 28 titles (the rest of the state has won a combined 24 - there was no scoring at the first meet in 1972 and Covid knocked the meet out in 2020). 

The entire CBA pack aid after they won the Non-Public A title and averaged 16:01 last Saturday they had a lot more in them and felt they could drop a lot of time. With Luke Hnatt and Gavin Schmitt up front (they ran the two fastest times this season at Holmdel last week-15:40/15:42), can the Colts go under 15:42,  which is the course record they set a year ago?  That's a big drop, but anything is possible with this squad, who will be seeking to jam its five scorers in the top 10.

Haddonnfield appears to be CBA's biggest challenger. The No. 2 ranked Dawgs made a big statement last week by averaging 16:16, the third fastest average by a public school pack in course history, when they won their 8th straight title. Haddonfield will probably have to break or at least come close to the the public school average record of 16:01 set by Westfield in the 2023 Group 4 race, in order to have a chance at taking down CBA. 

The other top contenders are No. 3 Union Catholic, the Non-Public A runner-up, No. 4 Manalapan, the Group 4 champs, and No. 5 Cherokee, who lost to Manalapan by 5 in Group 4.

As for the individual battle up front, there a few guys with a legitimate shot at winning.

Hnatt (15:40) and Schmitt (15:42) have run 10-plus seconds faster than anyone else this season at Holmdel, but there is a runner with a faster PR at Holmdel. That's Clay Stevens of Manalapan, who ran 15:37 to finish second to Joe Barrett of CBA at the M of C last year. Stevens is coming off a runner-up finish in 16:04 in the Group 4 race, but he showed last year that he's capble of making a huge drop. Last year, Stevens was also second in Group 4 (15:53) and then sliced 16 seconds off that at the M of C. Can he do that again?   

Other guys who are contenders include Group 4 champ Jack Tindall of Cherokee (15:54), Group 3 winner Jay Admiala of Colts Neck (15:53), Group 2 champ Ryan Gibson of Haddonfield (15:57) and Group 3 runner-up Marcus Valenzuela of Chatham (15:56). Tindall is seeking to become the first sophomore to ever win this race!

In case you're wondering, only two runners have ever dipped under that magical 15 minute mark at Holmdel and only eight have ever run under 15:20 on the current course, which has been used since 1979.

Edward Cheserek of St. Benedict's Prep owns the CR (14:53 in 2011) and Joe Rosa of West Windsor-Plainsboro North  went 14:56 in 2009). There is a reason why it took 30 years for the first sub-15 to be run at Holmdel (the current course has been used since 1979) and why just two guys have ever run that fast. IT'S HARD TO DO!!!

The record for the most runners going sub-16 in one race at Holmdel is 18, which happened at the 2013 Meet of Champions. There will be 7 sub-16 runners in the race on Saturday, and six more guys who have run between 16:00 and 16:10 this season!! So there's a chance we could see more than a dozen guys going under 16. 

LAMBERT BOYS PREDICTIONS

TEAM: CBA wins big and averages around 15:50.

INDIVIDUAL: Hnatt wins in around 15:30



GIRLS RACE

UC AIMS FOR HISTORY- AGAIN/ SHEPPARD-STARKEY CLASH

Union Catholic, No. 1 in the state and No. 4 in the nation, is probably the biggest lock in meet hsitory to win their fourth straight title and become just the third girls' program in state history to win four in a row. Red Bank Catholic won five straight from 1972-76 and North Hunterdon captured four in a row from 1983-86 .

UC has the state's most lethal 1-2 punch with juniors Paige Sheppard and Cayleigh Kaiser, and a loaded pack behind them that have fused together to form arguably the greastest team we've ever seen in this state.

The Vikings are coming off their 5th straight Non-Public A Championship last week when they ran a course record average of 18:36. The scary thing about it that they all had more run in them!!!

This pack has so much firepower that they could average close to 18:20!!!!! 

Looking for a team that could make a run at UC and push them?

While the chance for an upset couldn't be slimmer, there are some powerhouse packs chasing UC. Leading that group are No. 2 ranked Ridgewood, the Group 4 champs,  No. 3 Voorhees, the Group 2 winner, No. 4 Princeton, the Group 4 runner-up, and No. 5 Paul VI, the Non-Public A runner-up. And don't forget about No. 6 Ocean City, the Group 3 winner. 


SIZZLING SHOWDOWN

Defending champion Paige Sheppard vs. Leah Starkey!!!

This is the showdown everyone has been waiting all season for!

This might just be the most eagerly awaited girls' race in meet history and could be the best matchup on paper that we have ever seen at this meet.

Check this out!!

There has never been a girls race at the Meet of Champions featuurng two runners with sub 17:40 PR's at Holmdel, until now!!!

The undefeated Starkey, who was 10th last year as a freshman at Ocean Township in this race and won the 3,200 at the M of C last June, ran a sophomore course record 17:31, No. 7 in course history, to repeat as Group 2 champ last week. It was third time that Starkey, who has been upushed all season, has been under 18 at Holmdel this season.

UC's Sheppard, who broke the state record in the mile and won the national title in the mile last June, ran her Holmdel PR of 17:38, No. 9 in course history, at the Shore Coaches Invitational last month. Sheppard won her third straight Non-Public A title last Saturday in an unchallenged 17:50.  

There are several other great runners in this field, including Group 3 champ Allison Lee of West Windsor-Plainsbor North (18:14), Cayleigh Kaiser of Union Catholic (18:13), Group 4 winner Molly Domurat of Hunterdon Central (18:33), Kaitlyn Hathaway of Rumson (18:40), Harper Telesca of UC (18:41), Katherine Keating of Ridgewood (18:42), Non-Public A champ Julia Flanagan of Holy Cross (18L:44) and Lexie Mizzone of Voorhees (18:45).

No matter who wins, this could go down as race for the ages between two of the best we've ever seen!!!

How will the race play out?

Odds are Starkey will attempt to make a push at some point to try to create a gap, but can she? That's the million dollar question. Sheppard is a savvy racer and great closer, so if she stays within striking distance she will be very tough to hold off. 

Only once have two girls broken 17:40 in the same race at the Meet of Champions, but Sheppard and Starkey are so fit that they coud both go well under 17:30.
 
The only other time that two girls went sub 17:40 at the M of C was in 2021 when Angelina Perez of Lakeland won in 17:09 and Lilly Shapiro of Colts Neck was second in 17:35. Perez owns the NJ CR of 17:07 that she ran at the 2021 Group 3 race.

In case you're wondering, the course record is 16:21 by the great Katelyn Tuohy of North Rockland NY at the 218 Shore Coaches Invitational!!! That's not a misprint. That really did happen!!!

Good luck to everyone!!

Time to level up!!!

Get ur PR's on!!

Get ur NJ XC on!!!

LAMBERT GIRLS PREDICTIONS

TEAM: Union Catholic wins and averages around 18:25

INDIVIDUAL: Sheppard goes around 17:25 to win a thriller with Starkey also under 17:30