The girls’ course record at the challenging five-kilometer layout at New Jersey’s Holmdel Park has stood for 27 years. While she knew it was within her reach, that wasn’t the top concern for Megan Venables going into the NJSIAA Group Championships this past Saturday.
The senior from Highland Regional in Blackwood knew the competition would be thin in the Group 3 race. Her main concern was just to run fast.
“I think I was mentally prepared before the race to run by myself,” she said. “I was kind of prepped for that and it wasn’t too hard. I just had to keep telling myself to keep pushing, to keep pushing hard.”
After a fast opening mile split of 5:30 on the most demanding part of the course, Venables pushed hard enough to etch her name into the record books with a magnificent 17:28 clocking, a time that smashed the existing mark of 17:35.5 by former national champion and J.P. Stevens standout Janet Smith set in 1983.
“I was actually just trying to run as fast as I could,” said Venables, who beat runner-up Mackenzie Barry, a freshman from West Morris, by 1:40. “If I was close to the record, my coach was going to tell me.”
The 17-year-old harrier, ranked No. 2 on the MileSplit national ranking, got the news she wanted to hear from head coach Bill Collins after she hit her second mile at 11:35.
“He said I was on pace if I had a good last mile,” Venables relates. “I was really excited when he said that. I really felt good initially, but I think just hearing that made me feel better.
“I also had the perfect day,” she continued. “The weather was perfect. It was a perfect running day – 50s with no wind. I think I got lucky with that part of it, too.”
Everything has been going right on cue for Venables in her final season of cross country at Highland. She began it with a record-breaking performance at the Belmont Plateau course in Philadelphia at the Briarwood Invitational where she ran 17:39. It has continued throughout the fall with a number of other sub 18-minute winning efforts, including a season-best of 17:23 at the NJSIAA South Sectionals just a week prior to her sizzling race at the Group Championships.
“I couldn’t be any happier,” she said. “I had a really good summer and it’s definitely paid off. It’s been the most exciting season ever. I’ve accomplished a lot of things. It’s been great.”
Unlike her latest race, Venables expects to be tested this Saturday when she lines up for the N.J. Meet of Champions, back at Holmdel Park. The meet, which attracts qualifiers from the four different divisions in the state, will include Cherokee’s Megan Lacy, last week’s Group 4 winner with a time of 17:55. Only a few weeks earlier, Lacy ran a PB of 17:35 with her victory on Oct. 22 at the Olympic Conference Championships in Sewell.
“Megan’s my biggest competition,” Venables admitted. “She’s running really well. There’s a group of girls that can run 18 minutes, but Megan’s the only one that’s broken 18. It should be good. People will push me the whole way.”
Venables likes the fact that the race will be at Holmdel’s rolling landscape.
“I like it a lot. I’d rather have a course that’s challenging,” she said.” It makes cross country more fun than track. I definitely like the hills.”
With the talented Lacy in the field, Venables might alter her strategy a little from her typical front-running approach. It all depends on how the race transpires.
“Each race, it’s a different plan. My coach will tell me,” she said. “I am not sure what I will do this weekend. I think I would like to go out a little faster at the beginning.”
Following the Meet of Champions, Venables will be looking to qualify for the Foot Locker Nationals in San Diego. The last two years she has finished 15th at the regionals and has fallen short of the top-10 placement needed to earn the trip out west.
She’ll embark on that endeavor two days after Thanksgiving on Nov. 27 in the Northeast Regionals at Sunken Meadows on Long Island.
I am going to try and get the top ten this year,” Venables said. “I really want to make it this year.”
