Cranford Cross Country Coach Tim Styler’s young teams both earned an extra week of competition by placing in the top five in their respective races at the Group II Section 2 races held at Warinanco Park Saturday November 3. The girl’s team, with four freshmen in their top six, finished third with 86 points, trailing only winner Chatham and Bernards. The Cougars actually had a faster team average time than Bernards running 21:34.41, which comes out to under seven minutes per mile for their top five. With sophomore Will Smith smashing his personal best for the second straight week, the boys squeezed into the fifth and final qualifier, defeating Rutherford by 19 points. Each team will compete in the state championships to be held Saturday at Holmdel Park.
“We are very happy to have qualified both of our teams to run in the state finals,” said Styler, who ran in the championships each of his years with the Cranford varsity.
“It is a tremendous experience to be able to mix it up with the state’s best runners and experience the Holmdel course. It will help everyone over the next few years,” said Styler.
The heavy favorites in the Group II girl’s race is expected to be Haddonfield, one of the state’s top teams that took the first four places in its South race.
“We will not be one of the top contenders there. We are not expecting miracles but we will be there competing and hoping for as many personal bests as possible,” added Styler.
Junior Joy Hanke led the girls with a fifth place finish, running a personal best of 20:21.97 (6:14 per mile) on the championship course. Finishing just behind her in sixth was spectacular freshman Alisa Commerato, who was sixth in 20:27.70. Senior Erin Hannen had another solid performance finishing ninth in 21:10.58.
The freshman Miller twins completed the scoring for the Cougars. Bridget Miller ran a personal best 21:59.74 for 19th and Veronica Miller was 48th in 23:52.02. Freshman Julia Langone was 58th in 24:09.66 and junior Meagan Monahan was 60th in 24:14.
Smith was in a pack with eventual winner Thomas Lavelle of Chatham and Mountain Valley conference (MVC) champion Christopher Johnson of Governor Livingston, who finished second.
“We are still working on Will’s strength. That will come with more experience and more mileage over the next season,” said Styler.
“Will certainly has the leg speed and turnover to stay with most top runners,” added Styler.
Fellow sophomore Roy Colicchio continued his solid season with a 25th with a 18:13.20 and senior Stephen Phillips was 34th in 18:36.84 Freshman Michael Cassidy was 38th in 18:47.70 and junior Miguel Caulfield was right behind in 18:50.76 for 41st.
Also competing were Senior William Albert was 52nd in 19:13.81 and junior Tyler Schott, 54th in 19:25.91) as the boys averaged 18:18.
No comments:
Post a Comment