CVC Rankings (Boys) for October 16

Introducing rankings from Track Mercer! Here is a list of teams and individuals that have risen to the top of Mercer County. Ranking XC teams inherently requires some subjectivity and guessing, since every race is different and it’s rare for teams to go head-to-head at full-strength in the regular season. So if you disagree with these rankings, I’m happy to be proven wrong!

Note: For now, these rankings only include CVC schools. Starting later this month, these rankings will expand to include non-CVC schools. Read the girls rankings here.

Boys Teams

The top three teams in the CVC are all very close, as they showed at the Shore Coaches Invitational. If you merge just the Mercer County teams at that meet, these three were separated by only 15 points: Princeton (63), WW-P South (72), and WW-P North (78).

#1 West Windsor-Plainsboro South

West Windsor-Plainsboro South established themselves as the team to beat when they averaged a blistering 16:37 at the Six Flags Wild Safari. At the hillier Shore Coaches, however, they didn’t run quite so well and averaged just 17:42, three seconds slower than Princeton. But that one off day was not enough to knock them off the top spot, especially when they were still so close to Princeton. WW-P South also has more room for error than Princeton, since they have 3-4 similarly talented runners who could be their 5th (or 4th) scorer on any given day.

#2 Princeton

Princeton’s strength is their depth. They had a 1-5 split of :49 at Shore Coaches (one of the smallest in the whole meet), and then they were even tighter at the XC Fall Classic, with a split of :46. And that’s not to say they don’t have good front runners! In fact, they have three boys among the best in Mercer County. Princeton dominated the XC Fall Classic with a 17:20 average, which is very fast for Thompson Park. Princeton has proven that it can run fast on challenging courses, which might help them leapfrog WW-P South this postseason.

#3 West Windsor-Plainsboro North

West Windsor-Plainsboro North was the third fastest Mercer County team at Shore Coaches, where they averaged 17:47. But their varsity lineup at Shore Coaches was missing several boys who either were on the varsity XC team last year, were among their top 3200m runners last track season, or ran well at the Thompson Park Class Meet earlier this season. Will those boys be back in the lineup this postseason? If so, WW-P North could very easily upend these rankings.

#4 Hopewell Valley

Hopewell Valley impressed with a 17:15 average in their win at the TCNJ Invitational, and the same squad averaged 17:59 at Shore Coaches. Those were their only two 5K invitationals this year, so we don’t have too many other data points to evaluate. But they’re bringing back their top 6 from last year’s team that took 3rd at Group 3 sectionals, so they’ll likely run well again this postseason.

#5 Allentown

Allentown joined Princeton as the only two teams to average sub-18 at the XC Fall Classic, beating out Notre Dame for 3rd place. They averaged 18:32 at Shore Coaches, but that was without #1 runner Landon Kent. The whole squad has improved a ton from last year, and they should be confident going into the postseason.

Bubble

Notre Dame averaged 17:35 to finish 3rd at the Jerry Hart Invitational. … Princeton Day finished just 13 points back from Notre Dame at the XC Fall Classic.

Boys Individuals

#1 Shravan Pradeep (WW-P South) hinted at big things to come with his 9:53 win at the Thompson 2 Miler, but it was his 15:35 at Six Flags that really announced his arrival as an all-state XC runner. That’s the 2nd fastest time by any Mercer County runner in the past 5 years. He was also the top local runner at Shore Coaches, running 16:31 for 7th in the Varsity A race.

#2 Tarun Kovoor (Notre Dame) opened up with an impressive 16:32 victory at the Jerry Hart Invitational, but the next week he had to drop out of the Six Flag Wild Safari Invitational because of a glute injury. Fortunately, Kovoor bounced back quickly, as shown by his win at the XC Fall Classic in 16:57. That makes him one of just two current Mercer County runners to have gone sub-17 at Thompson Park (the other being Luke Ferrer). Given the down weeks his injury required, it’s likely that Kovoor is still just getting stronger.  

#3 Agrim Jha (WW-P North) won the freshman race at the Thompson 2 Miler, but it was still a shock to watch him run 17:03 at Holmdel. That’s the 4th-fastest Holmdel time by a Mercer County freshman ever. It’s also his only 5K result on MileSplit, so it’s hard to get a fuller picture of his season – but I’m guessing that Shore Coaches was no fluke.

#4 Silas Allevik (Hopewell Valley) ran 16:36 at the TCNJ Invitational for a huge 5K PR. He followed it up with 17:08 at Shore Coaches, tied with Hurst for 3rd among Mercer County boys.

#5 Tyler Hurst (Steinert) made a big step up this season and has been consistently impressive, running 16:43 at the TCNJ Invitational (a 5K PR), 17:15 at the Thompson Park Class Meet, and 17:08 at Shore Coaches.

#6 Luke Ferrer (WW-P North) was 5th among Mercer County boys at Shore Coaches, running 17:10. That’s already very good, and his past results indicate that he’ll be capable of even more this postseason.

#7 Finnegan Curley (Hopewell Valley) ran 16:51 at the TCNJ Invitational to join the sub-17 club. Then he ran only 23 seconds slower at the much harder Shore Coaches Invitational, finishing in 17:14 for 18th in the Varsity C race.

#8 Felix Farrugia (Princeton) has consistently been one of Princeton’s top runners. He was their first finisher at the Bowdoin XC Classic, finished right with Braedyn Capone at Shore Coaches in 17:22, and then right with Finn Wedmid at the XC Fall Classic in 17:00.

#9 Finn Wedmid (Princeton) took 2nd at the XC Fall Classic in 17:00, a step ahead of his teammate Farrugia. He was a bit further back at Shore Coaches, where he ran 17:31, but he’s shown steady improvement throughout the season: his time on the tough Thompson Park course last week was even faster than his time at the Jerry Hart Invitational in September.

#10 Max Whittle (Notre Dame) is one of the few runners to go sub-17 twice this season, with a 16:49 at the Jerry Hart Invitational and a 16:47 at Six Flags. He proved that he can run well on hilly courses too, getting 4th at the XC Fall Classic in 17:13.

Bubble: Braedyn Capone (Princeton) finished right with Farrguia at Shore Coaches. … WW-P South’s Aditya Deshpande and Kevin Lang both ran very fast at Six Flags (16:23 and 16:31), but they were further back at Shore Coaches. Watch out if they’re in their Six Flags form this postseason. … Grayson McLaughlin (Princeton Day) has run between 17:12 and 17:19 three times this season, including getting 5th at the XC Fall Classic.