Shore Coaches Invitational 2024 Preview
The starting line at Holmdel Park. | Robert Kellert for MileSplit
On Saturday, 247 schools — including 14 from Mercer County — will descend on Holmdel Park for the biggest meet of the regular season. The seven-hour Shore Coaches Invitational will feature 26 different varsity, JV, and freshman races. To help you sort through this massive meet, below is a Mercer-centric guide to each varsity race, including which teams are racing and what we’ll be watching for.
9:30 AM - Boys Varsity G
Lawrenceville is the lone Mercer County school in the Varsity G race, but they should represent the county well. Lawrenceville’s team average of 17:16 from the Jerry Hart Invitational is one of the best in the field, though most teams in this race haven’t used enough runners in big meets to give us a fuller sense of the competition.
9:45 AM - Girls Varsity F
The top four from last year’s Prep A State Championships are all in this race: Pingry, Lawrenceville, Peddie, and Mount St. Mary. Pingry swept that meet last year, but the next three were all pretty close, so this should be a good matchup on Saturday.
Pingry won’t sweep at state championships this year, if Peddie’s Courtney Cane has anything to say about it. Her 18:31 from the Jerry Hart Invitational is one of the fastest PRs in the field, and she’ll be pushed to another fast time on Saturday as she faces evenly matched girls from Pingry, Wallkill Valley, and Villa Walsh Academy.
10:15 AM - Girls Varsity E
Wilberforce is ranked #13 in the state, and this will be a chance to solidify their ranking. Although #1 Union Catholic is realistically out of reach – Princeton wasn’t close last week, either – Wilberforce will have a good head-to-head matchup against #10 Haddonfield. Key to Wilberforce’s success will be senior Gwen Mersereau, the team’s #5 runner who will be racing at Holmdel for the ninth time in her career.
None of Robbinsville’s Central Jersey Group 2 opponents are in this race, so they’ll have to check the merged results to see how they stack up. Robbinsville won sectionals last year but lost their top three to graduation. Seniors Kellianne White and Rithika Rodicherla are leading the team through this rebuilding year.
10:30 AM - Boys Varsity E
Wilberforce will meet fellow Non-Public B team Rutgers Prep, while Peddie will face another Prep A team in St. Benedict’s. Peddie’s top runner, Baker Pott, will look to improve on his 10th place finish in the Varsity G race last year.
12:25 PM - Girls Varsity C
The girls Varsity C race will be full of Mercer County runners, led by NJ #14 Hopewell Valley. The Bulldogs are coming off their win at the TCNJ Invitational, but they’ll face stiffer competition on Saturday. The key matchups for them, as far as state rankings go, will be against #8 Middletown South and #15 Ocean City.
All of Allentown’s top five ran at this meet last year, though Daria Wroblewski and Emma Ruchelman will be moving up from the two-mile freshman race to the full 5K. Ewing’s only girl to run at this meet last year was Teagan Walker, but the Ewing team is growing and developing, thanks in part to Walker’s leadership, so we’ll see how many girls come along this year.
Steinert’s top two consist of sophomore Ashley Foster and senior Keira Kildea; Kildea has run Holmdel twice before, but this is Foster’s first time. This will be just the second 5K invitational of the year for Lawrence, who took last weekend off. They’ll be led by sophomore Izzy Meth, who has consistently run well at Holmdel.
The Varsity C race will be an excellent preview of the Central Jersey Group 3 sectionals. The five Mercer County teams will be up against Middletown South (the defending champs), Red Bank Regional, Neptune, and Northern Burlington.
This will be a fun race from an individual perspective, where Hopewell Valley’s Claire Dumont and Ewing’s Teagan Walker will get a rematch from the TCNJ Invitational, where Dumont was victorious. Allentown’s Emilia Wroblewski and Lawrence’s Izzy Meth won’t be far behind. The four girls have some of the fastest PRs in the field, but they’ll be up against a few other fast girls from Ocean City and Middletown South.
12:40 PM - Boys Varsity D
Ewing and Nottingham are the only teams from Central Jersey Group 3 in this race. Ewing didn’t run a full team at this meet last year, but Jayden Studivant and Taylor Saunders were here and got the Holmdel experience, and they’ll lead a team that is trending upwards in both speed and participation numbers. Nottingham looks poised to significantly beat its team average time from last year, especially after it put four boys under 20:00 at Thompson Park last week.
12:55 PM - Girls Varsity B
Based on state rankings, the girls Varsity B race has one of the marquee matchups of the day: #3 Ridgewood vs. #4 Princeton. The two teams ran in different heats at last week’s Bowdoin Park Classic, but the merged results had Ridgewood edging Princeton by a mere 13 points. Will Princeton flip the script in the direct showdown on Saturday?
Those two are not the only state-ranked teams in this race. #16 West Windsor-Plainsboro North has yet to run its top girls – including Zui Chinchalkar and Allison Lee – at a major meet this year, but presumably they’ll be at full strength on Saturday. How close can they get to Ridgewood and Princeton? Can they hold off #20 Moorestown?
Hightstown is returning five girls who ran in this meet last year, so they’ll aim to take advantage of that experience. The team’s average 5K time should hopefully get a boost from star freshman Siena Rivera – if she runs the 5K. She ran (and dominated) the two-mile freshman race instead of the 5K at Six Flags last week. The Shore Coaches Invitational also offers a two-mile freshman race, but that course skips the infamous Bowl, which Rivera will want to get some experience on.
1:10 PM - Boys Varsity C
Allentown and Hopewell Valley are going head-to-head for the first time this year, and we’ll see how much the Redbirds have closed the gap on the Bulldogs. At last year’s sectionals, Allentown’s team average was 1:13 behind Hopewell Valley’s; based on season’s bests this year, that deficit is currently just :13.
We’ll also get our first good look at West Windsor-Plainsboro North, who haven’t run most of their potential top in an invitational 5K this year. It’ll be especially interesting to see what shape Luke Ferrer is in; he ran 16:50 on this course to get 21st at last year’s Group Championships.
Lawrence’s top three – Harrison Petrick, Alden Smith, and Jared Griggs – will be running at Holmdel for the first time.
1:25 PM - Girls Varsity A
At the Six Flag Wild Safari Invitational, West Windsor-Plainsboro South was led by sophomore Yana Chheda in her first ever XC invitational. How will she do on a hilly course? She may be getting some advice from experienced senior Mia Mankavil, the Pirates’ #3 runner, who will be running this course for at least the fifth time.
The Trenton girls have almost never run a complete team at this meet, so just getting a team score here would be a great achievement. They’ve run five girls this year at both the Cherokee Challenge and the Jerry Hart Invitational, so it’s looking promising!
As a sectionals preview, the West Windsor-Plainsboro South and Trenton girls will be going head-to-head against six opponents from the tough Central Jersey Group 4: Freehold Township, Hillsborough, Monroe, Montgomery, Rancocas Valley, and Sayreville.
1:40 PM - Boys Varsity B
For Princeton and Hightstown, this race will serve as an excellent preview of sectionals. Nine of the top fifteen teams from last year’s Central Jersey Group 4 sectional will be racing head-to head here. Of those nine teams, Princeton was 2nd best (behind Montgomery) and Hightstown was 9th. We’ll see how the order shakes out this year.
Steinert has fewer opponents from Group 3, but pay attention to how they compare with Middletown South, who edged out Steinert for 4th place at last year’s sectionals.
2:00 PM - Boys Varsity A
West Windsor-Plainsboro South is coming off a huge race at the Six Flag Wild Safari Invitational, where they led all NJ teams with a quick 16:37 average. Saturday is where they need to prove that their success will translate to the hilly courses they’ll see this postseason. Trenton’s runners will all be getting their first experience racing at Holmdel.
Other Central Jersey teams to watch include Monroe and South Brunswick. Last year, West Windsor-Plainsboro South finished behind those teams at sectionals and just missed out on qualifying for the group championships. We’ll see if they’ve closed the gap this year.
Shravan Pradeep’s 15:35 from last week should give him confidence to run towards the front, but he’ll be up against a lot of other great runners – including the entire CBA team, who just recently averaged an absurd 16:00 at Bowdoin Park. One battle to watch is Pradeep versus Monroe’s Stephen Barbera, who ran 15:37 a few weeks ago at Battle @ Ocean County Park (another fast course). Those two are currently among the favorites in Central Jersey Group 4.