Once in a while and idea forms about something spectacular. This particular idea was to have a cross county meet at Six Flags Great Adventure & Wild Safari. This Saturday, Jim Schlentz’s (head xc coach at Colts Neck) dream meet will come true as almost 4000 high school athletes will take to the 5000m course that traverse’s through the wild safari. The meet will start promptly at 9:00am. For a complete schedule go to http://coltsnecktrack.com/great%20adventure/meetschedule.htm. According to Schlentz’s meet preview the team race of the day will be the Girls Varsity “C” race. It has pitted RBC (NJRuners #6), Pearl River NY (Section 1 #3 as ranked by Armorytrack.com), Voorhees (NJRunners #5), Manasquan (NJRunners pre-season #4 in Group II), Raritan, Ramsey and Cranford who were ranked in the pre-season as #’s 6, 8, and 10 respectively in Group II. For a complete list of teams attending check out the meet pages by NJRunners
Boys teams
Girls teams
Middle School teams
One other exciting thing about this day and meet is that any spectators, and athletes can get into the Six Flags Theme Park after the meet for a discounted price of $20. Just follow this link to purchase tickets (they must be bought online).
Here’s a quick look at what the top 10 ranked teams are doing this weekend
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BOYS: |
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RANK |
TEAM |
VOTES |
Meet attending weekend of 9/25 |
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1 |
CBA |
100 |
Bowdoin XC Classic, Wappingers Falls, NY |
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2 |
WW-P No. |
83 |
1st meet of season will be Shore Coaches |
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3 |
Westfield |
78 |
Stewart Memorial, Warinaco Park, Elizabeth, NJ |
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4 |
Don Bosco |
63 |
Warwick Wave Mania Invite, Warwick, NY |
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5 |
Ridgewood |
61 |
Passaic Coaches Invite, Garrett Mtn, West Paterson, NJ |
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6 |
Ridge |
42 |
No meet |
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7 |
Haddonfield |
39 |
Bowdoin XC Classic, Wappingers Falls, NY |
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8 |
Mendham |
34 |
Stewart Memorial, Warinaco Park, Elizabeth, NJ |
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9 |
Southern |
21 |
Six Flags Wild Safari Invite, Jackson, NJ |
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10 |
E. Brunswick |
10 |
Six Flags Wild Safari Invite, Jackson, NJ |
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Girls: |
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RANK |
TEAM |
VOTES |
Meet attending weekend of 9/25 |
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1 |
Hunterdon Central |
100 |
Stewart Memorial, Warinaco Park, Elizabeth, NJ |
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2 |
Hillsborough |
83 |
No meet |
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3 |
Holy Angels |
78 |
Six Flags Wild Safari Invite, Jackson, NJ |
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4 |
Randolph |
63 |
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5 |
Voorhees |
61 |
Six Flags Wild Safari Invite, Jackson, NJ |
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6 |
RBC |
42 |
Six Flags Wild Safari Invite, Jackson, NJ |
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7 |
Ridge |
39 |
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8 |
Toms River N. |
34 |
Six Flags Wild Safari Invite, Jackson, NJ |
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9 |
Mtn Lakes |
21 |
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10 |
Delsea |
10 |
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From the breakdown above you can see most teams are competing this weekend and many top 10 teams will be racing against each other. There could be some shake up next week in the Top 10 rankings.
The 1st Saturday in October for the last 38 years has marked the annual Shore Coahes invitational and this year will be no different. But the 39th straight year the Shore Coaches invite will take place at Holmdel Park and for the 2nd straight year it it offering out of state schools a chance at the famed Holmdel Park. Last year saw some of the biggest fireworks NJ cross country has EVER seen with Joe Rosa and Jim Rosa tying or beating the course record that was held by former Colts Neck runner Craig Forys. Joe Rosa took the course record (then was 15:15) and obliterated it running an jaw dropping 15:04. So when I asked coach Brian Gould how he thinks his team will fair there this year, he said
“We have the makings of an improved pack, we’ll see what happens on race day”
I don’t know about you but I can’t wait for this meet. One big reason why is it will be the 1st meet this season that I am able to attend. This meet is a major early attraction for teams that have a chance at advancing to the meet of champions as it will be the only shot they get to prepare they’re young runners to conquer the course. West Windsor-Plainsboro North won’t be the only top team in attendance so we might get to see some top teams square off as this year for the 1st time the Shore Coaches have implemented a “championship” race. Other top teams that have committed to running at the Shore Coaches (as told to me by those teams’ coaches)
Boys – Ridge, Ridgewood, Southern, CBA, and Haddonfield
Girls – RBC, Randolph, Voorhees, Hunterdon Central, Hillsborough, and Holy Angels.