Girls Recap from the Shore Coaches Invitational 2024

The Shore Coaches Invitational, often considered the “midterm exam” of New Jersey XC, is hugely popular for a reason. It’s a rare opportunity to race on the challenging Holmdel Park course you’ll see at the state championships, against the type of competition you’ll see at the state championships. Add in the beautiful fall weather (a major improvement from last year) and it’s easy to see why 247 schools registered for today’s meet.

That said, although almost all the major teams showed up, not all the major individuals showed up. Many runners had real exams today — it was a big SAT day — and other schools decided to split off their best freshmen to run the two-mile races instead. So, we still don’t know everything about how teams stack up against each other, but we know a lot more than we did yesterday.

Below are recaps and highlights of how each Mercer County girls team did at Holmdel today. Read the boys recap here.

Girls Varsity A

The West Windsor-Plainsboro South girls team sat out much of their varsity squad, and only three girls ran in the varsity race. Their first finisher was sophomore Yana Chheda, who ran 21 seconds faster than last year. Their fifth runner today was freshman Kyuri Wangikar, who impressively ran faster on this hilly Holmdel course than she did at the quick Six Flags Wild Safari course last week.

Trenton ran four girls in the Varsity A JV race, though they were without their top runner, junior Rachael Ogungbangbe. Their second finisher today, junior Yarixa Macolas Corea, showed huge improvement from her first two races this season, running about 4 minutes per mile faster than at the Cherokee Challenge or the Jerry Hart Invitational.

Girls Varsity B

Allison Lee closes out her big win in the girls Varsity B race at the Shore Coaches Invitational 2024. | Tom Smith for MileSplit

In 2022, as a freshman racing at Holmdel for her first time, West Windsor-Plainsboro North’s Allison Lee ran an impressive 19:23 to place 4th at the Shore Coaches Invitational. Over the next two years, however, she ran at Holmdel several more times but could get her PR no lower than 19:16 – still superb, but not next level. Would she ever break through?

On Saturday, Lee smashed any doubts – and her PR – with a blistering 18:47 to dominate the Varsity B race. Not only is that time a Holmdel school record (at least according to MileSplit), it also puts her in the top 175 all-time at historic Holmdel. All this in her first major meet of the season! Lee was fifth overall in the merged results, which will give her confidence about what she can accomplish this postseason.

Lee’s teammate Zui Chinchalkar was 4th in 19:39, showing that West Windsor-Plainsboro North has one of the best one-two punches around. Chinchalkar is capable of going faster on this course, but this was a very solid season debut that bodes well for November.  

West Windsor-Plainsboro North was 6th in the team standings and averaged 21:22. But that was without likely scorers Juliette Halpin and Isabella Lee, who ran very well in the Freshman A race: Halpin was 6th in 14:24 and Lee was 8th in 14:27.

Lee and Chinchalkar were not the only Mercer County girls running fast in this race. Princeton sophomore Grace Hegedus finished 3rd in 19:27, a Holmdel PR for her by 14 seconds. Another takeaway for Hegedus is that she closed the gap on Ridgewood’s Natalie Knowles, whom Hegedus will be battling for the individual title at the Group 4 Championship next month. Knowles was 40 seconds ahead of Hegedus at Bowdoin last week, but only 14 seconds ahead this week.

In the team race, the Princeton girls took home the trophy with another spectacular performance that showcased their depth. They put six runners in the top 23 (and all seven in the top 40), and their team average was 20:28 – and that was all without their star #2 runner, Kajol Karra. Sophomore Phoenix Roth (12th in 20:33), freshman Rosemary Warren (16th in 20:39), and freshman Sevanne Knoch (17th in 20:49) were racing at Holmdel for the first time and showed that they were not intimidated by the tough course. Sophomore Eowyn Dees (19th in 20:55) and senior Florica Eleches-Lipsitz (23rd in 20:57) rounded out the six Princeton girls that all broke 21:00.

The Princeton girls, who are ranked #5 by MileSplit NJ, scored 67 points to take down #2 Ridgewood (100 points) and #14 Moorestown (115 points). To be fair, Ridgewood only ran three of its regular scorers. But Moorestown ran its full squad and still didn’t come close to Princeton. 

Hightstown averaged 25:35, though that was without star freshman Siena Rivera, who ran in the freshman race instead. Their top runner in the 5K, junior Madalyne Ng, continued to show remarkable improvement this season and took nearly three minutes off her time from last year’s Shore Coaches Invitational. Rivera did fantastic in the freshman race, getting 2nd place in 13:19. Hightstown also got a big result from senior Victoria Mora in the JV A race, who medaled in 29th with Hightstown’s second-fastest time of the day.

Girls Varsity C

Claire Dumont pushes all the way to the line in the girls Varsity C race at the Shore Coaches Invitational 2024. | Tom Smith for MileSplit

Hopewell Valley finished 3rd in the girls Varsity C race, with a team average of 21:19 – thirty seconds faster than they averaged at this race last year. Senior Claire Dumont led the way in 6th place in 19:47, a new Holmdel PR and one of the top times in Mercer County. Behind her, Anna Wilson made a solid Holmdel debut in 21:30 for 26th. Elsie Rey-de-Castro also showed that she’s rounding into form, running 21:33 to snag one of the last medals. That’s a season best for her, even despite the difficult course.

The Allentown girls were impressive, averaging 21:50 and finishing only one spot behind Hopewell Valley in 4th place. Senior Emilia Wroblewski got 8th place and joined the Holmdel sub-20 club with her 19:58. Madeline Ruchelman also medaled in 23rd in 21:16, which was a Holmdel PR by 30+ seconds. Sophomores Daria Wroblewski and Emma Ruchelman ran 22:04 and 22:27 in their Holmdel debuts.

Lawrence’s Izzy Meth continued her streak of solid Holmdel races with a 20:00 – 19:59.81 in the live results! – for 9th, just behind Wroblewski. Lawrence’s #2 girl, senior Kianna Verga, cut over two minutes off her time from this meet last year.

Teagan Walker was Ewing’s lone runner in this race and, despite being a bit further back from Dumont, Wroblewski, and Meth than she would’ve liked, she still ran a solid time of 20:33 for 15th place.

Girls Varsity E

Wilberforce averaged 22:27, led by junior Laura Sallade’s 8th place finish in 19:49, her first time under 20:00 at Holmdel. Adeline Edwards was also top 20, running 20:55 for 18th place. Wilberforce finished 5th with a team average of 22:27, though that was without #3 runner Eve Szeliga. Sophomore Stella Blanchard stepped up and ran 21:44 to cut over a minute off her time from last year; that’s almost the same time Blanchard ran at the much-faster Jerry Hart Invitational two weeks ago.

Robbinsville’s varsity team averaged 25:13. Senior Kellianne White led the way in 22:24, taking 61 seconds off her time from last year. Their #3 girl, junior Meghann Hansen, beat her 2023 time by over two minutes. Robbinsville also had two girls medal in the Freshman B race, Sahaili Patel and Snigda Gonugunta.

Girls Varsity F

Peddie sat their top two and ended up only running four girls. They were led by senior Eliza Lamar, who ran 22:11 in her Holmdel debut.

Like Peddie, Lawrenceville were also missing their top two girls – they ran in the freshman race instead – but they still ran a full team and averaged 23:34, led by Emily Zhang’s 22:23 and Essie Chafin’s 22:47. The Lawrenceville freshman girls put on a show in the Freshman B race, with Gigi Aitken-Davies and Yasmin Willie going 2-3 in 13:48 and 14:00. Emily Wu also ran a strong race to get 8th in 15:00.