The Shore Coaches Invitational falls at the right time of the season for most teams. It's a chance to "take tempertures" and, if needed, plot mid course corrections prior to the long kick to the November finish. The meet also gives any team that is not from Monmpouth County its only chance to run the course in a "big race" setting prior to the Group Championships. This year should be no different. 7 races for each gender, 6 of them divided up by reletive school size and this year's new addition, a Championship Race that teams had to ask into to. Once again, it should be a great day of racing.
The following is a breif breakdown of the teams and individuals to look for in each race.
Girls First
Girls Varsity Races
Varsity F - 11:05am
Top Teams
* Pt. Pleasant Beach
* Pingry
* Hasbrouck Hts
* Villa Walsh
* Newark Academy
Individuals to Watch
Kristen Traub - Eastern Christian '12
Brianna Feerst - Pt. Pleasant Beach '12
Rebecca Fortoul - Hasbrouck '12
Sarah Quinn - Gill St. Bernards '12
Caroline O'Connor - Villa Walsh ' 11
This race which will includes smaller Gr. 1 and NP "B" schools, will be more interesting from an individual perspective. Kristen Traub, who won this race last year, will square off with Brianna Feerst of Pt. Pleasant Beach. Traub has run 18:37 this year while winning the Season Opener Invite at Darlington. Feerst ran18:39 for the 5th fastest time at the Six Flags Invitational.
Pingry comes into the race with a 5 girl average of 21:27
Varsity E - 11:25am
Top Teams
* Robbinsviile
* Mtn. Lakes
* Mt. St. Dominic
* Westwood
* Shore Regional
Individuals to Watch
Amanda Corbosiero - Mt. St. Dominic '14
Meagan Lesniak - Robbinsville '11
Kristen Landry - Mtn. Lakes '11
Kim Oppenheim - Westwood '14
Lisa Leszcynski - Robbinsville '12
This race could be one of the more interesting events of the morning portion of the program. From a team standpoint, Robbinsville, coming off of a nice 3rd place finish at Six Flags (2nd NJ team behind Bernards), the Ravens had a 20:45 average / 63 pt team performance with Lesniak in 4th. Mountain Lakes led by Kristen Landry (2nd / 20:17)won the Gr. 1 race at the Passaic Coaches meet on the 6th girl tie breaker over a pretty good Mt. St. Domiic squad that had the winner in frosh Amanda Corbosiero (19:55). On the individual side, while all three of the girls mentioned above will try to lead their teams to the win, they will most likely be batttling each other for a personal triumph.
Varsity D - 11:45am
Top Teams
* Rumson-Haven
* Pope John XXIII
* Chatham
* A.L. Johnson
* Ramsey
Individuals to Watch
Meghan Malloy - Cinnaminson '13
Alyssa LaGuardia - De Paul '11
Tara Hanley - Chatham '12
Georgianna Honrath - Manasquan '12
Sara Vagie - A L Johnson '11
Tess Keller - Pope John XXIII '12
Nina Pocci - Pope John XXIII '12
With a very good 1-2 punch in Tess Keller and Nina Pocci Pope John looks to be the favorite in the team race here.They ran 2nd to Warwick Valley last week at the Wave Mania meet up in NY.
The individual battle could be between Cinnaminson soph Meghan Malloy and Tara hanely, a junior from Chatham. Do not rule out Depaul's Alyssa LaGuardia, Georgianna Honrath of Manasquan and a resurgent Sara Vagie to be there or close to there at the end.
That Completes the Morning Portion of the Program - Keep Coming Back for the rest of the Preview
Girls Championship Reace - 12:20pm
When the list of race assignments first came out, this race had only 7 teams opting in. I'm told that at least 3 more have been added, but this has not been confirmed.
Top Teams
* Voorhees
* Hillsborough
* Hunterdon Central
* Toms River No.
* Red Bank Catholic
Individuals to Watch
Megan Venables - Highland Reg. '11
Megan Lacy - Cherokee ' 12
Molly McNamara - Red Bank Catholic '11
Dana Giordano Bernards '12
Nisa Cicitta Voorhees '13
Jenna Dubrow Jackson Mem. '11
Julianna Miller - Hillsborough '11
Allison Payenski - Hunterdon Central '11
If the weather cooperates and everyone is healthy, this could be the early showcase for a possiple MOC showdown. The 3 teams that are currently ranked #'s 1,2 & 3 by NJRunners are all going to toe the line at 12:20. Hillsborough, the defending MOC champ and current #2 has not raced at an invite yet this year and might be ready to rip. The same is true of #3 Hunterdon Central, who made a token appearance at the Stewart meet last week. Interesting choice of openers for both squads. The team that has run and run well a couple of time this season is Voorhees. They dominated the field in their race at randolph to open and last week in the Wild Safari C race they put away a very talented, but nicked up RBC team. I think these girls are the real deal and a strong performance on Saturday may cement that for the time being. RBC ran tough at Six Flags, but needs to get a little healthier to be a factor in this race
Individually, this could be a monster run for the win. Earlier in the year, Highland reg. sr. Megan Venables destroyed the CR and became the first girls to go under 18 minutes on famed Belmont Plateau. last week anther Megan, Lacy, went to Richmond Va. and rolled to a 17:58 win. If it all comes together in this race, hold on to your hats. If you recall last year, a kid named Joe Rosa set a new Belmont CR and then took down the Holmdel CR at SCI. Deja Vu all over again? After these two stars, junior Dana Giordano of Bernards had the best time of the day at Great Adventure and is healthy and raring to take a shot at Holmdel. She will mix it up with the top guns from Voorhees, Hillsborough and Hunterdon Cent. Jenna Dubrow of Jackson Mem. has run well early and can be right there.
Varsity C - 3:30pm
Top Teams
* Holy Angels
* Delsea
* Princeton
* Holmdel
Individuals to Watch
Emily Dunne - Holy Angels '11
Caroline Ticse - Allentown '11
Tracy Campbell - Wall '12
Abby Seel - Mendham '13
With Red Bank Catholic moving to the Championship race, the complexion of this race changes drastically and makes the choice of Holy Angels to take the win pretty academic. They won the B race at Six Flags with a 20:06 average behind Emily Dunnes 2nd place (18:43) finish.
Varsity B - 3:50pm
Top Teams
* Ridge
* Morris Knolls
* Shawnee
* West WEindsor-Plainsboro So.
* Roxbury
Individuals to Watch
Caroline Kellner WW-P so. '12
Mary Migton Roxbury '11
Mary Kate Brelsford Ocean City '13
Simran Bains Ridge '11
Caelainn Carney '12
I think that this race may be Ridge's to lose. They are a team with no studette, but a solid pack. They may be a lttle light in the 5-7 spots and that could hurt in a big spot. They were only 11 points behinf randolph in the A race at the Randolph Invitational and are currently ranked at #7 by NJRunners.
Caroline Kellner's only invitational race was at the Cherokee Challenge over 3200m. The defending Gr. 4 champ looked very good recently at a Mercer Co. batch meet. She will do battle with the 2nd returning Gr. 4 runner in Mary Migton, who opened very well at the Roxbury Invitational (18:55).
Varsity A - 4:10pm
Top Teams
* Randolph
* North Hunterdon
* Howell
* Lenape
Individuals to Watch
Joelle Amaral - Randolph '11
Samantha Jones - Randolph '12
Emily McGee - Lenape '14
Cayla Delpiano - So. Brunswick '12
Dina Iacone - Washinton Twp. '12
With the defection of some big names to the Championship Race, look for big thing from the diminutive Joelle Amaral. After a DNF last week due to an asthma attack, she appears to be healthy and ready to roll. She is backed by a strong supporting cast and Randolph should toss up wins in both columns in the last Varsity race of the day.
Whew!!