Stay Local and Run Fast: Big Performances at the TCNJ and Jerry Hart Invites
The boys and girls races both got out quick at the Jerry Hart Invitational.
It was a Saturday of home meets in Mercer County, with TCNJ hosting the inaugural TCNJ High School XC Invitational in the morning and the Peddie School hosting the 11th annual Jerry Hart XC Invitational in the afternoon. Whether it was the flatter courses, the beautiful weather, or the short bus rides, it was a fast day!
TCNJ High School XC Invitational
TCNJ hosted its first XC invitational for high schoolers, and it was a success! Fast times, good competition, and a chance to visit the university could make this a popular meet for teams across the state.
Girls Individuals
Approaching the one-mile mark, Hopewell Valley’s Claire Dumont was pushing a hot pace, but a string of five girls — including Ewing’s Teagan Walker, West Milford’s Amanda Harvey and Ciara Clinton, Lawrence’s Izzy Meth, and Dumont’s teammate Anna Wilson — were still in contact. By the finish line, it was no contest. Dumont kept the pedal down for the last two laps around the Green Lane fields, building a 30-second lead and crossing the line in 18:47. That was a huge PR for the senior, whose previous best was 19:15 last year at Ocean County Park.
Behind Dumont, Walker was rewarded for her bold running with a 3rd place medal and another fast time (19:24), backing up her 19:11 at Ocean County Park last week. The sophomores Meth (20:00) and Wilson (20:23) held their positions in 5th and 6th through the finish.
Maddie LaChance (Hopewell Valley) was 8th in 21:03. To round out the top 10, Robbinsville’s Kellianne White just held off Hopewell Valley’s Sophia Pellegrino, 21:17 to 21:18.
Girls Teams
Hopewell Valley beat West Milford, 32-59, to make sure the team trophy stayed in Mercer County. The Bulldogs showcased their impressive depth, putting four in the top 10 and eight in the top 15. In addition to Dumont’s incredible performance up front, Wilson also deserves credit for going out with the leaders in her first full 5K at an invitational.
There was a tight finish for 3rd place, with Seneca (95 pts) holding off Lawrence (99 pts) and Robbinsville (105 pts). Both teams had #2 runners who made big moves over the last two miles, with Lawrence’s Kianna Verga moving from 34th to 24th and Robbinsville’s Rithika Bodicherla moving from 30th to 17th.
Steinert took 6th place, led by sophomore Ashley Foster in 14th place. Ewing’s team finished incomplete today, but it’s promising that, after their star senior Walker, the rest of Ewing’s top five is all freshmen.
Boys Individuals
Haddon Heights’ Reggie Hernandez led from the gun and ran away with the win in 16:26. Not far behind him, though, three Mercer County boys joined the sub-17 club with huge PRs by almost a minute each. Silas Allevik (Hopewell Valley) tracked Hernandez most closely and finished 2nd in 16:36. Next was Tyler Hurst (Steinert), who ran 16:43 for 3rd place. Finnegan Curley (Hopewell Valley) started more conservatively and then crushed the last mile, finishing 4th in 16:51.
Other local runners in the top 10 included Hopewell Valley’s Ethan Darst (8th in 17:25) and Robbinsville’s Wyatt Bassman (10th in 17:36).
Boys Teams
At the two-mile mark, Hopewell Valley was 6 points behind Haddon Heights, but the Bulldogs surged in the final mile to win the team title, 32-44. In addition to top-8 finishes from Allevik, Curley, and Darst, Collin Vickery (11th) and Mason O’Connor (13th) rounded out a top 5 that averaged a quick 17:15.
Steinert took 3rd place, led by Hurst’s 3rd place finish and a 15th place finish by senior Nathanial Bigger. Like Hurst, Bigger PR’d by over a minute and broke 18:00 for the first time, running 17:55.
Behind Steinert was Robbinsville in 4th place. Robbinsville got top-20 finishes from both Bassman (10th) and Nish Seshadri (20th). Ewing was 6th place, led by top-25 finishes from sophomores Jayden Studivant and Landyn Loesch. Lawrence’s top runner on Saturday was Harrison Petrick, who was the 3rd fastest freshman in the varsity race. Petrick’s teammate Alden Smith finished just one second behind him.
Jerry Hart XC Invitational
The sun came out in time for the Jerry Hart Invitational, but the warmer temperatures didn’t stop the runners from grinding out impressive performances.
Boys Individuals
The boys race started off like a rocket. If we can believe the timing mats, Taruk Kovoor (Notre Dame) and Taksh Gupta (Lawrenceville) blasted the first mile in 4:51 (15:04 pace!). And it wasn’t just them — another 13 boys went through between 4:57 and 5:02. The pace slowed down, understandably, but many runners held on for fast times and PRs.
By the 2-mile mark, Kovoor had gained some separation from Gupta, and another 15 seconds back was a three-person chase pack made up of Arunav Sarkar (Lawrenceville), Max Whittle (Notre Dame), and Baker Pott (Peddie). Kovoor went on to win in 16:32, while Gupta held on for 2nd place in 16:42. Sarkar used a big last mile to finish just two seconds back from his teammate Gupta in 16:44. Whittle broke 17:00 for the first time with 16:49 in 4th place, and Pott got 5th in 17:01.
Finn Wedmid (Princeton), a sophomore in his first season of XC, ran an impressive debut of 17:04 to get 6th. Rounding out the top 10 was James Hamnett (Peddie) in 17:10, Braedyn Capone (Princeton) in 17:12, Grayson McLaughlin (Princeton Day) in 17:19, and Hejyule Bae-Robinson (Lawrenceville) in 17:24.
Boys Teams
The boys team race was tight, with Lawrenceville winning over Princeton 50-56. Princeton narrowed the gap on Lawrenceville in the last mile but couldn’t quite catch the Big Red. In addition to Gupta and Sarkar up front and Bae-Robinson in 10th, Lawrenceville got a 14th place finish from Nico Montenecourt (17:33), a junior in his first season of XC who is also listed as a member of Lawrenceville’s football team.
Princeton was led by a solid pack of four — Wedmid, Capone, Evan Raphael, and Felix Yu — who ran together for two miles and ended up 6-8-11-12, with each finishing at 17:30 or faster. Two more Princeton boys, Harrison Knoch and Emilio Gonzalez Toro, ran together the whole way and finished in 17:59, both breaking 18:00 for the first time. That’s teamwork!
Rapid-fire highlights: Notre Dame got a boost from sophomore transfer student Deagan Hopkins, who was their #3 runner in 17:51. … Hightstown’s top runner, Mason Johnson, moved from 18th to 13th in the last mile to finish in 17:30. His previous 5K PR according to Milesplit was 19:13. … Princeton Day was led by two top-15 finishes, from McLaughlin and Edward Letko (17:36). … Trenton’s Patrick McCray ran boldly with the primary chase pack through two miles. Although he faded a bit in the last mile, he was rewarded with a big PR of 17:41. … Hun’s Justin Bibeau had his first XC race at the Cherokee Challenge two weeks ago, where he ran 11:19 for 3200m. Today, he went through 3200m in that same time and then accelerated, finishing 17th in 17:50. … In their first invitational against New Jersey competition, Pennington was led by top-30 finishes from Andrew Hofacker and Alex Burton. … Hamilton West’s Franklin Pineda-Ramirez opened his season by running over 2 minutes faster than he had at any invitational last year.
Girls Individuals
Kajol Karra (Princeton), Grace Hegedus (Princeton), and Courtney Cane (Peddie) charge to the line, just a few seconds apart.
The girls race also started very quick. According to the timing mats, the first three girls — Princeton’s Kajol Karra and Grace Hegedus, with Peddie’s Courtney Cane a few steps back — went through the mile marker at sub-17 pace! If they then slowed down, it wasn’t by all that much. Karra and Hegedus pushed each other and ran side by side in the lead for the first 2+ miles. Karra pulled away in the final stages to win in 18:25, with Hegedus just behind in 18:28. Cane closely tracked just a few seconds behind the two Princeton girls all the way; she never caught them, but she got towed to an 18:31.
Those were huge times by Karra, Hegedus, and Cane. Not only were they PRs by over a minute, but they rank in the top 15 across New Jersey so far this year!
In 4th place was Laura Sallade (Wilberforce), who finished in 19:08 despite running in no-man’s land for the entire race. Her teammate, Adeline Edwards, broke 20:00 for the first time with a 19:53 for 6th place.
Princeton loaded the top ten with three more girls: Phoenix Roth in 19:47 for 5th, Eowyn Deess in 19:59.1 for 7th, and Rosemary Warren in 19:59.3 for 8th. Deess and Warren worked together the whole way to each break 20:00 for the first time. Just like Knoch and Gonzalez Toro on their boys team!
A quartet of freshmen finished 8-9-10-11 with impressive times: Warren, Alaina Sabo (Notre Dame) in 20:14, Siena Rivera (Hightstown) in 20:20, and Gigi Aitken-Davies (Lawrenceville) in 20:25. The last three freshman were each her team’s first runner.
Girls Teams
The Princeton girls opened their season at this meet, and they showed why they’re ranked 6th in the state. Princeton put their whole top five under 20 minutes, averaging 19:20 and scoring 20 points. A very impressive and dominant performance!
Behind Princeton was Wilberforce (2nd with 61 points) and Lawrenceville (3rd with 78 points). The three teams accounted for 16 of the top 20 finishers.
Wilberforce was helped to 2nd place by top-10 finishes from Sallade and Edwards along with top-20 finishes from Eve Szeliga (16th) and Stella Blanchard (19th).
Lawrenceville’s top runners are all new faces: Aitken-Davies (11th), Yasmin Willie (14th), and Andie Sparano (22nd) are freshmen, while Emily Zhang (20th) is a sophomore transfer. Senior Antonia Comaniciu (23rd) rounded out their top five.
Notre Dame finished 4th, sparked by Sabo’s 9th place finish and a tight pack of girls that finished 33-34-35-38. Just 3 points behind was Hightstown in 5th place, who was led by Rivera in 10th and Madalyne Ng in 21st.
Rapid fire highlights: The Pennington girls matched their boys team with two top-30 finishes, from Lilia Phillips and Jacqueline Zhang. … Hun was led by freshman Lulu Cattaneo, who finished 21st in her first XC invitational. … Although Peddie’s team was incomplete today, the hosts showed that they’ll be right in the mix in later meets thanks to their two low sticks of Cane and Matilda Kardhashi (12th). … Princeton Day was led by sophomore Olivia Lumba (26th).