Bergen County Girls Rankings Matt Joyce Oct 03, 2008

Matt Joyce Looks at The Bergen Girls Scene

 

1. IMMACULATE HEART ACADEMY

This past Saturday, the Blue Eagles jumped onto the New YorkState thruway and traveled north to Section 2 territory in New York, the most competitive Section in the United States to compete in the Queensbury Invitational.  IHA had an outstanding 3rd place finish behind the 8th ranked team in the USA, Queensbury and New YorkState’s 5th ranked team Arlington. In the process IHA also defeated #2 ranked Holy Angels.  Once again the team was paced by Sarah Pagano, who placed 2nd overall in 18:28.8.  Sophomore Erin Thompson finished 11th in 19:32.5 and Mary Kaye Duff was 14th in 19:47.6.  Julie Sinkovitz finished in 20:20.8 for 29th place and freshman Rachel Lotterman and Junior Tara Rutkowski were 49th and 50th in 21:09.8 and 21:10.2.  Freshman Katherine McCurdy rounded out IHA’s top 7 finishing in 21:22.1 for 53rd. 

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2008 XC - Bergen County Girls Preview Matt Joyce Sep 09, 2008

  1. IMMACULATE HEART ACADEMY

 Last year’s Bergen Meet of Champions winner IHA returns 5 of their 7 from last year’s squad. Among the returnees are last year’s Parochial A and BMOC winner Sarah Pagano.  Pagano had great track seasons as she improved her PR’s in the 1600 and 3200 to 4:56.56 and 10:29.79, the latter a Bergen County record.  Mary Kaye Duff also had great track seasons as well; she posted PR’s of 5:09.19 in the 1600 and 11:16.0 in the 3200. Duff was 3rd at last seasons BMOC in 19:05.  The combo of Pagano and Duff gives IHA a great 1-2 punch, but they also return sophomore Erin Thompson who was 5th at last years Bergen Meet of Champions in 19:22 and she also posted a 19:41 at Holmdel at the State Meet of Champs.  Junior Julie Sinkovitz also returns.  Sinkovitz placed 7th at BMOC in 19:40 last year in her first XC season and also posted a 20:44 at Garret Mountain. Junior Tara Rutkowski returns as well.  New editions could also make impact on the team.

 

Sarah Pagano        12        18:23

Mary Kaye Duff   12        19:05

Erin Thompson      10        19:22

Julie Sinkovitz       11        19:40

Tara Rutkowski     11        21:19

 

 

IHA senior Sarah Pagano returns to defend

her Bergen Crown

 

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Local Scene - Bergen County: ROY Awards Matt Joyce Nov 25, 2007

2007 BERGEN COUNTY

CROSS COUNTRY

RUNNER OF THE YEAR AWARDS

 

 BERGEN RUNNER OF THE YEAR

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SARAH PAGANO- IMMACULATE HEART ACADEMY

Plain and simply it was a banner year for Sarah Pagano of Immaculate Heart Academy.  The junior captured her first state title, helped lead IHA to league, county group and BMOC titles a 4th place finish at the State Meet of Champions. She also moved up on the all time lists on just about every course she ran on. In mid September, Pagano showed she was in midseason form against many of New Jersey’s and New York’s top runners. She placed 4th in 19:21.0 in the girl’s championship race at the Bowdoin XC Classic and just 7 days later at the Warwick Valley XC mania meet in Warwick, New York, she won the B race in 18:50.5. Pagano then began the championship season in stellar fashion as she won NNJIL League C race at Garret Mountain in 19:17.  She posted a 14:51.3 on the 2.5 mile course in the girls Eastern States race at the Manhattan Invitational.  It was the fastest time at Van Cortlandt Park for a Bergen athlete in 23 years. A week later Pagano moved on to the Bergen County Group Championships where she helped IHA claim the team title in the “A” race by winning in 18:23, the 7th fastest time ever for a Bergen girl at Darlington.  At the Bergen Meet of Champions, Pagano picked up her first ever individual win by outdistancing the field by 39 seconds as IHA captured the team title.  2 weeks later Pagano won her first state championship, winning the Non Public A race at the State Group meet in 19:20 at Holmdel.  At the State Meet of Champions she placed 7th in 18:39, which ranks 6th on the all time Bergen list. 

Photo: Sarah Pagano at the Bergen Groups Championships 

Courtesy of MaroonNews 

 

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Local Scene - Bergen County Girls Rankings Matt Joyce Oct 10, 2007

BERGEN COUNTY GIRLS XC RANKINGS

10/10/07  RANKINGS WEEK # 5

 

By: Matt Joyce

 

1) IHA - Dominate NNJIL League C race defeating #2 Holy Angels and Paramus Catholic at Garret Mountain on October 9th.  The Blue Eagles scored 18 points, had the top 3 finishers and placed 6 runners in the top 10.  Sarah Pagano won her second consecutive league title, finishing the 3.1 Garret course in a career best 19:16.  Junior Mary Kay Duff made her long awaited debut for IHA and placed 2nd in 20:05.  Sarah Mellea was 3rd in 20:13. Erin Thompson (20:39), Julie Sinkovitz (20:44), Maggie Senor (20:44) and Nadine Nixon (21:52) were all under 22 minutes.  IHA’s total time was 1:40.58, with an average of 20:11.60, which is 7th best in Bergen County History.  In dual meet action on October 2nd at Garret, IHA bested #2 ranked Holy Angels 17-38.  They also defeated Paramus and Hackensack with scores of 17-44 and 15-50.  The Blue Eagles next race will be Saturday, October 13th at the Manhattan Invitational in the Girls Eastern States Championship race.

2) HOLY ANGELS - 2nd place finish in NNJIL league C race, losing to IHA 18-41. Jen Molke was AHA’s top finisher, placing 4th in 20:33.  She was followed by Suzana Markolovic who placed 6th in 20:40 and Kat Baselice (9th 20:49). Their team average was 21:02 .80. Holy Angels suffered its first dual meet loss of the season to #1 IHA on October 2nd at Garret Mountain, 17-38. AHA beat Ridgewood and Clifton by scores of 22-34 and 29-30. Holy Angel’s next meet will be the Manhattan Invitational on October 13th.

3) RIDGEWOOD - Moves up in rankings by one spot courtesy of another league championship and a 21:15 team average as they top Paramus, Bloomfield and Belleville in NNJIL league B.  Junior Charlotte Mergel placed 2nd in 20:52 and Sarah Daly was not far behind in 21:01.  Jessica Vasquez (21:29), Grayson Llerandi (21:39) and Christy Bertelsen (22:00) were Ridgewood’s top 5. They also finished 7th in the girl’s varsity B race at the Shore Coaches Invitational on Saturday, October 6th. Daly and Bertelsen led the way finishing just a second apart in 21:48 and 21:49 respectively. Team average was 22:06.40. Beat Paramus 20-43 in dual meet action on October 2nd at Garret Mountain, but lost to Holy Angels 22-34 and narrowly lost to Clifton 27-30. 

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