At the Mountain Valley Conference (MVC) meet last Tuesday Cranford sophomore William Smith ran 17:33.31, the third fastest overall time. The only drawback for the Cougars was that it happened in the Junior Varsity race where Smith finished more than two minutes ahead of the second place runner. While coach Tim Styler noted that Smith would not have made a difference in the varsity race, he was pleasantly surprised that his prodigy looks ready to make a solid Cougar team that much stronger for the championship races coming up.
Smith was left off the varsity seven because he had missed most of the season with a lingering viral infection and had been unable to run under 20 minutes in practice.
“A few days before the race he was mentioning how he was feeling pretty good
and wanted to run varsity at the conference meet, however I couldn't pull one of our other seven runners out of the varsity lineup. So we had Will run the JV race hoping that he would get his confidence back and challenge for a spot in the top seven,” said Styler who added.
“ Will is talented and we expect him to drop his time this fall. His third place finish overall would not have changed the varsity team standings. We would have still finished third,” said Styler.
“Our other seven guys have been running well all season and steadily dropping their personal bests,” said Styler.
With Smith sidelined, fellow sophomore Roy Colicchio has stepped up to become the team leader, followed closely by senior captain Steven Phillips.
Colicchio ran 18:03.44 (5:48.8 per mile) to lead the team in eighth place. Phillips followed in 11th in 18:19.555:54).
“These two are always leading the workouts and runs and along with Will should be a good nucleus moving forward,” said Styler, who envisioned 2007 as a bit of a rebuilding season due to the graduation of one of Cranford’s greatest all time runners, Joe McKenney as well as solid performers Kevin Boyle and Eddie Baker.
“We had a very talented senior class last year but you always have to replace good people,” said Styler who noted that McKenney has continued his outstanding running at New York University, who is currently ranked second in the country.
But Styler has been pleasantly surprised by the overall balance that his team has shown.” We’ve had great improvement from our young team, Sophomore John Powasnik is becoming a steady fourth runner and freshman Michael Cassidy has run in the mid 18s so far and is very determined to be among the best freshman in our school history books,” said Styler.
Juniors Tyler Schott and Miguel Caulfield have also shown improvement and rounded out the top seven along with senior Billy Albert. With Smith healthy, it makes for eight runners battling for the top seven.
“We have great competition with these guys battling for spots and setting personal bests every race,” said Styler.
Powasnik was 14th in 18:35.04 (5:58.9), followed by Cassidy 17th in 18:42.39(6:01.3) and Schott completed the scoring in 20th in 19:00.83(6:07.2). Caulfield was 22nd in 19:05.88 Albert was 27th in 19:44.16.
In addition to Smith, three other Cougars competed in the junior varsity race.
Seniors Jacob Skelcy, Max Lasky and Mark Kuczynski ran 21:01.56, 21:57.35 and 22:25.60 respectively.
“The competition is great for the team and will certainly lead us to some good
results in the upcoming races. “
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