Class meets and Shootouts dominated the New Jersey scene this weekend as NJ Cross Country ended it's second week. Several Jersers went beyond the state lines to find success in a number of "foreign" meets. Teams travel out of state for a lot of reasons...A trip for the kids, sseking other/diferent competition, or maybe a chance to experiment before the season gets serious in a very short time.
Let's take a look at the NJ teams that went on real road trips this weekend.
Not one to save the best for last, over the Delaware to Philly we go as the venerable Briarwood Invitational was held on Saturday at the historic Belmont Plateau course. After an impressive win over 3200m at the Cherokee Challenge last week, senior Megan Lacy made a statement of sorts as she took the Championship Girls Race with a Belmont #3 AT mark of 18:04.2. Last year, on her way to a historic season, the since graduated Megan Venables won this race with CR of 17:39.4. Let's hope this is an omen (a Good one). The Cherokee team took 3rd in the team race with some solid pack running at 2-5 (20-23-26-27) with a mere 26 second gap for that group.
Also at Briarwood, In the Div. 1 race, Lenape took home the winners hardware with 57 points to runner-up's Upper Dublin's 91. Lenape was paced by a solid 3-4-6-10-34 race with Natalia Ocasio (19:22.1) and Emily McGee (19:23.9) leading the way.
On the Boys side, the Shawnee tandem of Connor Herr and Peter Murray went 3-4 (16:09.9/16:12.1) in the Championship Race. In the Div. 1 event, Lenape earned the Silver medals behind a 3rd place finish by Sean Mulroy (16:31.5) and Highland Reg. picked up Bronze with 4 in the top 20 led by 6th placer Steve Maines (16:49.2). Also in the Div. 1 Race, Paul IV jr. Neil MacFarlane took 9th in 16:58.5. In the Div. 2 Race, The Lawrenceville School took 4th place behind a 9th place (17:18.2) by Nyall Islam.
Still in Pa, but much further west, the Ridgewood girls traveled to Happy Valley to compete in the Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational at Penn State. The lady Maroons came away with a silver medal performance and a pleasant surprise in the early emergence of frosh Catherine Pagano who finished second (19:00) behind wiiner Tessa Mundell of Gov. Mifflin (Pa.). Ridgewood went 2-7-9-12-19 to average 19:35 with a gap of 1:17
Moving in a triangular pattern, we go now to historic Williamsburg Virginia and to the William & Mary Invitational where the Colts Neck teams toed the line for both the Boys and Girls races. Ladies first... The Cougars got 7th place in the "A" Race and got a top 10 finish from sr. Arielle Weiner who took 8thin 19:38. The Cougar boys picked up 5th in the "A" Race with Riley Leder, a junior taking 2nd in a race where according to coach Jim Schlentz, the top 3 spots were decided by less than a 1 second gap. Schlentz said "He dove into the air to try to win it but fell a foot short. An outstanding effort!" Must have been a sight to see. Leder's teamates came in 12-19-67-70 to round out the scoring.
A lot of NJ teams venture into New York to compete and this weekend was no different. A few teams made the trip, so we'll start upstate and work our way down to THE CITY.
The Red Raider Run in Stony Point played host to Ramsey and Northern Highlands. Both teams had some sucess as the Ramsey Boys scored Silver in their race and the Northern Highland Girls picked up 3rd place medals in theirs. Ramsey took second behind always strong North Rockland with srs. Erick Buser (17:01) and Chris Eltringham ( 17:04) finishing 2nd and 3rd. North Rockland's Liam Purdy won in 16:54. Ramsey backed up thier top 2 with a nice pack, running 18-21-23 for an average of 17:45. The No. Highland boys took 10th in the race.
Behind the North sisters, jr. Ariana (9th / 21:21) and frosh Karina (10th / 21:33), Northern Highlands took 3rd in their event with 69 points. the team ran an average time of 21:55 with a 1:15 gap 1-5. Also in the Varsity girls race, Ramsey took 6th with jr. Kaitlyn Johnston taking 19th
Our little tour ends in the Big Apple and the granddaddy of all XC courses, Van Cortandt Park. The Ironmen of Don Bosco Prep made their invitational debut at the Regis Invitational. Don Bosco won the Boys Varsity race over 4000m behind the 13:00.24 victory by Christian Costello.They went 1-3-5-6-7 and put all 7 in the top 10 with a team avg was 13:10. their 1-5 Gap was 22 sec
Photo Credits:
Colts Neck @ W&M - Ryan Kelly for MileSplit Virginia
Ridgewood @ PSU - "blueisback" for PTXC
Lenape @ Briarwood - Patty Morgan for PTXC
Cover Image - Don Rich for PTXC