A Few More Noteworthy Teams and Individuals from XC 2024
Jayden Studivant (Ewing) finishes strong at Central Group 3 sectionals. Not far behind, in the background, is his teammate Shazad Singh. | Tom Smith for MileSplit
Last week we talked about the top 7 Mercer County teams (boys and girls) and the top 21 all-CVC individuals (boys and girls) for this XC season. Before wrapping up the year, here are a few more teams and individuals that didn’t make either list but still deserve some recognition for their achievements.
Non-CVC runners who had stellar seasons:
Taksh Gupta (Lawrenceville, Sr.). Apart from his season opener at the George School – where he still ran an impressive 16:48 – Gupta never finished outside the top 3 in any race. He was 3rd at Prep States A and 1st at MAPLs. He ran a 5K PR of 16:17 on the Peddie course, and he capped his high school XC career with a 16:22 on the slightly tougher Lawrenceville course.
Laura Sallade (Wilberforce, Jr.). Sallade has been one of the top runners in the entire state. She ran 19:38 at Thompson Park to get 2nd at the XC Fall Classic, and she got 3rd in the Non-Public B group championship. She ran an overall 5K PR of 18:24 at DREAM Park to take 3rd at the Bob Kiessling Invitational. She broke 20:00 three times at Holmdel, including a course PR of 19:45 to get 37th at the Meet of Champions!
Matilda Kardhashi (Peddie, Sr.). Kardhashi had a major breakout race at the Peddie/Lawrenceville dual meet, where she ran 18:54 for the win. Peddie’s home course is fast, but so is Robbinsville’s, and only three non-Princeton girls broke 19:00 at the CVC divisional meet there! Kardhashi backed it up by going even faster on Peddie’s modified course in a dual meet against Blair Academy, winning in 18:35.
Other teams that had one of their best seasons in a long time, if not ever:
The Princeton Day boys had a historic season, winning their first Non-Public B Group Championship! They were also the Prep States B champions. This was Princeton Day’s best squad ever, as reflected in those results and also the boys’ individual times. Four boys climbed into the Panthers’ all-time leaderboard for Thompson Park: Grayson McLaughlin (#2), Edward Letko (#3), Alexander Chia (#5), and Michael Zhou (#9). Those first three also became #1, #3, and #8 all-time at Holmdel Park.
The Hightstown boys had one of their best seasons in a long time, and they timed their peak just right. At Central Group 4 sectionals, their whole top five – Burke Thompson, Mason Johnson, Dhruva Sribuddharju, Mateo Abad-Delgado, and Javin Spearman – ran big Thompson Park PRs. They finished just 25 points away from qualifying for their first group championships since 2013!
The Allentown boys ran really well at the XC Fall Classic and the CVC Divisional Championship, finishing ahead of teams like Steinert and Notre Dame. They had some untimely injuries to key runners heading into the final meets, and yet they still finished just one spot out from qualifying for the group championships. This was their best team in the last five years.
The Ewing boys also had their strongest team in at least a decade. Jayden Studivant, Shazad Singh, and Landyn Loesch ran the 3rd-, 5th-, and 7th-fastest times ever by a Ewing boy at Thompson park – and all three of them are just sophomores!
It had been almost ten years since the Trenton girls were last able to field a complete team and receive a team score at a championship meet. But they broke that streak this year when they ran five girls at both the CVC Divisional Championship and the CVC Championship!
Of course, the XC season isn’t officially over for Mercer County! Allison Lee (WW-P North) is running at Foot Locker Northeast in Boston on Saturday. She’s effectively seeded 15th based on her speed rating from the group championships, and the top 10 advance to Foot Locker Nationals, so she’s got a decent shot!
Also, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, thank you to everyone who has followed along with Track Mercer this XC season! This website has been great fun for me, and it’s gotten much more traction and positive feedback than I expected after just a few months. I immensely appreciate all your views, likes, shares, messages, and other forms of support. Looking forward to track season!