Ed Grant Weekly XC Report
Week 10 (16 Nov 09)
With the individual titles all but conceded in advance to Chelsea Ley of Kingsway and the Rosa twins of West Windsor-Plainsboro North, two close team battles will take center stage this Saturday at the 38th annual New Jersey all-group championships at Holmdel County Park. On a muddy course last weekend at Holmdel, Ley outclassed the rest of the field as she won the Gr. III race by 100 yards from Megan Venables in 17:52, much the fastest of the day. Her target this time is to break the course record of 17:35.9, set 16 years ago by three-time all-group champion Janet Smith of North Edison. Joe Rosa has already broken the boys’ mark with his 15:04 win over twin James at the Shore Coaches Invitational in early October. The two ran a virtual dead heat last weekend in 15:37 as they paced the Knights to a repeat victory in Gr. III, finishing 40 yards ahead of defending AG champ Tyler Udland of Millburn. Four other group champs went under 16:00, Joe Kotran of Toms River North in IV, Jon Vitez of Haddonfield with his third victory in II, David Oster of Verona, repeating in I, and Mike Mazzaccaro of Christian Brothers in Parochial B. The Rosas have another goal this week, of course, to lead the Knights to a repeat victory in the team race. This will be a lot harder than taking individual honors with Haddonfield, Don Bosco and CBA all having similar ambitions and a tighter pack to achieve them. Thanks to the Rosas, West Windsor-Plainsboro had the fastest team average last week at 16:28, but that will not insure victory this time with the fourth and fifth runners on each team probably deciding the issue. Haddonfield had a 1-2-3 finish and the lowest score of the day at 30 points in Gr. II and its fourth man was in 5th place at 16:38, but had await of almost a minute to complete its score. Don Bosco went 5-6-7 with Michael Belgiovine, Rafael Vargas and Howard Rosas and freshman Brandon Baxter closed it out only 33 seconds later. West Windsor, as usual, had the largest spread of all, more than two minutes between first and fifth. The real question mark is CBA, which had two earlier wins over Haddonfield and had beaten Don Bosco handily at the Easterns a month ago. Mazzaccaro was the only Colt to run to form last weekend and it is possible that there will be lineup changes this week, something only the deep CBA squad can do to any advantage. (Their sophomore group probably ranks among the top 30 teams in the state.) The other group winners---Westfield in IV, Robbinsville in I and St. Rose---are not in the picture this time. The Blue Devils, led by soph Jack Leahy, used their tight pack to reverse a sectional loss to Ridge, Robbinsville did its part toward a boy-girl sweep as it repeated its sectional win over Metuchen and Colin Richmond led St. Rose to a 38-67 win over neighbor Mater Dei in Parochal B. The girls’ team race is a three-team affair among the 1-2 finishers in Gr. IV, Randolph and Hillsboro, and Parochial A champ Holy Angels. The Gr. IV finish was so close, 69-73, that it could easily be reversed this weekend. The heroine for Randolph was soph Jennifer Zackowski, who finished 18th in 19:53, backing up the veteran trio of Joelle Amaral, Molly Higgins and Natalie Anthony. Ashley Smolinka led Hillsboro as usual, placing second to Kellner in 18:59. Holy Angels had its usual tight pack to make up for a 1-2 finish by Michelle Capozzi and Molly McNamara of Red Bank Catholic. The Angels’ average was about 10 seconds behind the Gr. IV teams, but they ran at the end of the day when the course was at its worst. Two-time AG defender Voorhees, won again in Gr. III, but is still showing the effects of a flu epidemic which has swept through a number of West Jersey schools. Delsea repeated its sectional win over Haddonfield in II, led by Felicia O’Donnell and Ashley Deckert, Mt. Lakes spoiled Robbinsville’s double bid in I, 50-58, and Villa Walsh took its first Parochial B title in a race that had only nine team finish, as opposed to 19 in Parochial A (the boys’ divisions were equally unbalanced, 26-13). Two sophomores claimed individual honors, Brianna Feerst of Pt. Pleasant Beach in I at 19:47, and the season-s biggest winner, Kristen Traub of Eastern Christian in PB at 19:43.
