With important races such as Sectionals, and Groups coming up, the Cross Country team is training hard in preparation for what they’ve waited for all season.
So far this season, the team has made their mark with standout meets such as the Stewart Memorial Invitational at Greystone Park in New Jersey (where girls varsity earned second place out of 28 teams and boys varsity earned fourth place ahead of a loaded pack of 27 teams), and the Somerset County Championships (where both boys and girls teams snagged sixth place overall). With these meets under their belts, the team feels ready to take on their next major races.
Sophomore Abigail Lim says, “I’m excited for all the big meets because a lot of people come so it’s an extremely encouraging atmosphere. I’m also excited to spend the rest of the season with this amazing team!”
Most recently, on October 19th, the team ran at Natirar Park, their home course, in Gladstone, New Jersey for the highly anticipated Skyland Conference Championships. Each year, this meet is scored out of all the teams together. However, this year, larger schools are separated from smaller schools, meaning that their scores are unrelated to each other. Last year at the Skyland Conference Championship, the girls team took seventh place with a 20:53 average, while the boys took ninth place with a season best of a 17:23 average.
This year in preparation for this season’s defining meet, the team had a difficult workout where they practiced technique for the Natirar course, ranging from running 1200s, 800s, and hill repeats. When it came down to the actual race, the boys team won first place, becoming 2017 small school Skyland Conference Champions with a 17:28 average. The girls team also finishing strong, coming in second place with a 20:49 average.
Junior Hadley Meckes says, “We have been training really hard and based off of our racing so far, I think we are going to do really well in theses upcoming meets. It’s been great to see all of our hard work paying off. I think part of the reason why we’ve had such a successful season so far is because we are such a close team and we are really supportive of each other.”
The next step for Cross Country is Sectionals on November 4th, hoping to advance their way to Groups on November 11th. Last season, the girls team finished in eighth place, fighting hard, but did not reach their goal of qualifying for Groups. The boys; however, took third place and qualified for Groups where they then earned eighth place in the state for Group 2.
This season, the team is ready to take on their opposing teams on familiar courses such as Greystone and Holmdel Park and are looking forward to moving on towards more challenging competition.
