CVC XC Championships: Boys Recap
The inaugural CVC XC Championships were a success! When this meet replaced the MCTA’s Mercer County Championships, one might’ve thought that it wouldn’t be much more than a merge of last week’s CVC Divisional XC Championships. But the more challenging course, the larger pack sizes, and the introduction of full-strength teams like Princeton, and the higher stakes created exciting new dynamics — for both individuals and teams — that made this feel like a very different meet.
Below are some highlights from the boys race. The girls race recap is here. Full results (as well as one-mile splits and some video) are available from 2L Race Services here.
West Windsor-Plainsboro North’s Agrim Jha and Paul Wittenberg lead a huge group of boys past the one-mile marker. | Tom Smith for MileSplit
Boys Individuals
The boys race started out conservatively, with a huge pack of 20-25 boys going through the one-mile marker in 5:24. That’s not slow – it’s still 16:47 pace – but it’s also not too aggressive for the flattest and fastest part of the course. Towards the front of the pack was Shravan Pradeep (West Windsor-Plainsboro South), the heavy favorite whose pre-race plan was to start pretty conservatively and slowly ratchet down the pace.
And that’s exactly what Pradeep did. Within the next 800 meters, the large pack was whittled down to about ten boys, strung out single file in the tell-tale sign that the pace had quickened. That chase pack stayed in contact until about the two-mile mark, when Pradeep finally gained some separation going down and up the big hill. He put 12-15 seconds on the chase pack over the last mile and crossed the line in 16:29, the fourth-fastest time at Thompson Park this year.
There was an exciting battle for the next eight places. With 400m to go, Tyler Hurst (Steinert) had a 4-second lead over the chase pack, and he managed to extend that lead on nearly everyone – except Luke Ferrer (West Windsor-Plainsboro North), who laid down an incredible kick but came up just short of catching Hurst. Hurst was 2nd in 16:46 and Ferrer was 3rd in 16:47.
Tarun Kovoor (Notre Dame) had an excellent kick of his own, passing four runners in the last 400m and getting 4th in 16:51. The freshman Agrim Jha (WW-P North) barely held off a charge from sophomore Silas Allevik (Hopewell Valley) in the final steps, as the two youngsters went 5th-6th and were both credited with 16:52.5. The WW-P South duo of Kevin Lang (7th in 16:55) and Aditya Deshpande (8th in 16:56) pushed each other to the line just ahead of Hightstown’s Burke Thompson, who was gaining ground but finished just behind in 16:56 for 9th.
A Princeton trio rounded out the 12 runners who ran 17:00 or under, with Braedyn Capone (10th in 16:58), Finn Wedmid (11th in 17:00.1), and Felix Farrugia (12th in 17:00.5).
Boys Teams
West Windsor-Plainsboro North backed up their win at the divisional championships last week with the outright CVC Championship this week! Their top six runners finished within :50 of each other, an outstanding compression for a team that has frontrunners like Ferrer and Jha. After the race, Ferrer credited their impressive compression to the fact that the Knights run all their workouts together too, often taking turns leading reps and breaking the wind for each other. This is a tight squad that has turned XC into a true team sport, and that teamwork is resulting in major achievements for them all.
West Windsor-Plainsboro South has blasted some incredible team averages on fast courses this year, including 16:37 at Six Flags and 16:26 at Robbinsville HS (a course record!). Yesterday, with a 2nd-place finish, they showed that they can get it done on tougher courses, too. Their team average of 17:12 was just a half-second behind WW-P North’s, and they even closed the gap on WW-P North in terms of scoring: In the merged results from CVC Divisional Meet last week, the Pirates were 20 points behind the Knights; this week, they were only 15 points behind, and that’s even with some additional Princeton scorers in the mix.
Hopewell Valley edged Princeton for 3rd place by 1 point! That was thanks in part to a big performance by freshman Julian Hiraldo, who missed almost all of the regular season but is back and rapidly improving this postseason. He ran 17:43 at divisionals last week, and then ran 17:49 this week – just six seconds slower on a much tougher course. He was 46th in last week’s merge but 28th today, his first time breaking into the Bulldogs’ top five.
Princeton will be disappointed to have been nipped by Hopewell Valley for third, but they still ran well, averaging almost the exact same time as at the XC Fall Classic on this course two weeks ago. They got a great result from Capone, who was their #1 runner for the first time this year. With Wedmid and Farrugia just two seconds behind – running the exact same times as at the XC Fall Classic, to the tenth – that’s a formidable top three. #5 runner Emilio Gonzalez Toro also stepped up, getting 36th in a new Thompson Park PR of 18:03.
Steinert was led by silver medalist Hurst, whose 16:46 broke the Thompson Park school record and made him just the third Steinert runner to break 17:00 on the course. Senior Nathanial Bigger continued showing off the huge improvements he’s made this year, cutting almost ninety seconds off his time from last year with a 17:47 for 27th place.
Notre Dame’s Tarun Kovoor cut six seconds off his Thompson Park PR to move from 10th to 7th on the Irish’s all-time list. Senior Max Whittle also bounced back from an off day last week, where his 17:40 was 39th in the merged results. This week, although he was almost 40th at the one-mile marker, he flew past 20+ runners in the last two miles and finished 15th in 17:20.
Hightstown’s Burke Thompson missed the first half of the season with an injury, but his upward trajectory has only been accelerating since then. His 16:56 yesterday was not only close to what he ran on the much faster Robbinsville HS course last week, but it was almost a full minute faster than his time on this course at the XC Fall Classic two weeks ago! The Rams also got big races from sophomores Mateo Abad-Delgado (44th in 18:24) and Dhurva Sribuddharju (46th in 18:25), who exceeded the 63th and 64th they got in the merged results from last week.
Princeton Day’s big takeaway was how well their 3rd, 4th, and 5th runners performed. Each of them beat their times on his course from just two weeks ago, with Alexander Chia going from 18:19 to 18:02, Michael Zhou going from 18:59 to 18:41, and Cy Cooper going from 20:09 to 19:27.
Allentown was 9th today, though that was without one of their top runners, Landon Kent. Amrit Moehringer’s great race helped make up for some of that, as he finished 24th in 17:37 to cut 16 seconds off his time from the XC Fall Classic.
Robbinsville was led by senior Wyatt Bassman getting 38th in 18:06, a Thompson Park PR for him by 40 seconds. Junior Nish Seshadri also returned to the lineup after being out for a few weeks, and he ran 18:20 for 41st. The whole team performed well yesterday, as shown by the fact that they totaled 306 points in last week’s merged results but only 237 in this week’s results.
Nottingham was led by senior Mohamed Toure, whose 17:27 for 17th place is the 4th fastest on the Northstars’ all-time Thompson Park list. Not bad for a former soccer player who finally converted to XC this year! His presence on the team may have lifted his teammates, who all set big Thompson Park PRs. One notable performer was sophomore Matthew Alvez, whose place of 75th was 45 spots better than in last week’s merged results and whose time of 19:44 was almost a minute faster than at the Thompson Park Class Meet last month.
One of Ewing’s best performers was sophomore Shazad Singh, who broke 19:00 for the second consecutive week and came within 10 seconds of his 5K PR – despite Thompson Park being a much more challenging course. Junior Taylor Saunders ran 19:51 to break his Thompson Park PR by a minute.
Trenton used good pack running from their 2-5 boys, who ran most of the race within a few strides of each other and finished in a 25-second spread. Having teammates in his sights helped carry #5 runner Ismael Vasquez to a new Thompson Park PR.
Hamilton West’s top finisher Franklin Pineda-Ramirez ran 19:33 to break 20:00 at Thompson Park for the first time. The Hornets also got excellent results from Robert Mellick (20:21) and Kevin Santiago (20:37), whose times were just a few seconds slower than what they ran at the much-faster Robbinsville HS course last week.
Lawrence’s Harrison Petrick (19:19) and Alden Smith (19:44) both broke the 20-minute barrier at Thompson Park for the first time. Their top three from yesterday – Petrick, Smith, and Wade Bullard – are all in their first year of XC, so Lawrence could see a lot of improvement over the next couple of years.
Race Video
Here are a few video highlights from the boys race! In addition to the start and finish, the video shows clips from roughly the 1600m, 3000m, and 4600m marks.