Weekend Recap for September 28: Six Flags Wild Safari, Thompson Park, and Bowdoin Classic

A little bit of rain didn’t stop many of Mercer County’s top runners from putting on a show this weekend. The major invitationals were the Six Flag Wild Safari Invitational, Thompson Park Class Meet, and Bowdoin XC Classic, and there were a few MAPL duel meets as well. Below are some highlights and performances worth noting.

Six Flags Wild Safari Invitational

With a fun venue (and discount park admission for competitors!), the Six Flags Wild Safari Invitational is a popular race that attracts over 100+ schools from several states. The schools were split into four different varsity races. See full results here.

Boys

Shravan Pradeep (West Windsor-Plainsboro South) flies towards the finish line at the 2024 Six Flags Wild Safari Invitational. | TSP Images for MileSplit

An outside observer might have been puzzled that Shravan Pradeep was MileSplit’s fan-voted Athlete of the Week but wasn’t ranked in NJ.com’s top 50 boys. Well, Pradeep proved the fans right on Saturday.

The West Windsor-Plainsboro South senior scorched the rainy 5K course at Six Flags Wild Safari Invitational in 15:34, placing second overall and first out of New Jersey runners. That’s not only a huge PR of over a minute, but also the 7th fastest 5K time among all New Jersey runners so far this year! That’s the kind of performance that will grab some deserved attention.

Actually, the whole training group at WW-P South showed that they’re on a new level this year. Aditya Deshpande (16:22) and Kevin Lang (16:30) finished 11th and 16th in the Varsity A race. Joseph Maddalon and Arjun Suresh made impressive season debuts, running 17:15 and 17:23. Together, the boys averaged 16:37 and finished 5th out of 101 teams in the merged results, first among New Jersey teams.

Yes, Six Flags Wild Safari is a flat, fast course, but their times are almost all huge PRs that cannot be attributed to the course alone. These five teammates are all seniors, and it looks like they plan on going out with a bang.

Hightstown was also in the Varsity A race, and they were led Mason Johnson, who also PR’d by over two minutes to finish 38th in 17:12. Hightstown’s next five runners were all separated by just eight seconds: Matthew DeAngelo (18:18), Javin Spearman (18:22), Mateo Abad-Delgado (18:24), Dhruva Sribuddharju (18:25), Gautam Joshi (18:26).

In the Varsity C race, the Allentown boys impressed and showed that they have one of the best trios in the area. Junior John O’Leary led the way with a 16:55 to join the sub-17 club. Right behind him was senior Landon Kent, who missed most of last XC season but just ran 16:57 in his first 5K invitational this year. Just a few seconds later came Armit Moehringer in 17:04. Allentown’s #4 and #5 runners Ethan Urig and Sarth Shah finishing together in 18:10 and 18:11,

The top Mercer County finisher in the Varsity C race was actually Notre Dame’s Max Whittle, who broke 17 for the second straight week and finished 23rd in 16:46. His teammate Deagan Hopkins ran 17:33 to cut 23 seconds off his time from last week’s Jerry Hart Invitational, and their #3 runner, Simeon Salins, ran 17:50 to break 18 for the first time.

Allentown came out ahead of Notre Dame in the Varsity C race, 211 to 248.

Girls

In the Varsity C race, Notre Dame freshman Alaina Sabo impressed with a 19:01 to finish 9th. That’s over a minute faster than she ran at the Jerry Hart Invitational last week.

Not far behind was Allentown senior Emilia Wroblewski, with a big PR for 12th place. Allentown’s top four consisted of Emilia Wroblewski (19:17), Madeline Ruchelman (20:29), Daria Wroblewski (20:50), and Emma Ruchelman (21:29). The two families led Allentown to a 7th place finish in the Varsity C race.

Mercer County’s top finisher in the girls Varsity A race was West Windsor-Plainsboro South’s Yana Chheda, a sophomore in her first season of XC, who placed 21st with a 20:25. Hightstown’s first finisher was Madalyne Ng in 22:12.

Perhaps the biggest performance came from the freshman races, which were 3200m instead of a full 5K. In the Freshman A race, Hightstown’s Siena Rivera crushed the field by 40+ seconds and won in 11:13. That’s over a minute faster than she ran for the same distance at the Cherokee Challenge three weeks ago.

Thompson Park Class Meet

The Thompson Park Class Meet, like many other early-season meets, ran each graduation class separately. The freshmen ran two miles, but everyone ran the full 5K. Full results are here, but MileSplit also merged the results. Merging isn’t a perfect substitute for racing head-to-head — for example, the course would’ve been more worn down and slick by the time the freshman races came around, especially on a rainy day — but it’s still fun to compare runners and teams across races.

Steinert’s Tyler Hurst led the way among Mercer County boys, placing 3rd in the junior race and 8th in the overall merged results. His time of 17:15 cut 1:20 off his Thompson Park PR, showing that he’s seriously rounding into form for this postseason. Steinert’s next finishers were senior Nihar Kolachalama and junior Adam Szpakowski, who both broke 19 and finished in the top 30 of their races. Steinert’s top five averaged 19:02 and finished 13th out of 32 teams in the merged results.

For the Steinert girls, Ashley Foster ran 22:44 to snag a top-10 finish in the sophomore race. Her teammate Keira Kildea ran almost the exact same time to get 17th in the senior race.

West Windsor-Plainsboro North rested many of its top runners, both boys and girls, but others got a chance to shine. Madhav Hadagali staked his claim to a spot in the varsity lineup by running 18:10 to finish 17th in the senior race. WW-P North also got solid results from Jordan Andrade (18:25) and Subomi Allison (18:33). In the freshman race, West Windsor-Plainsboro North displayed its strong pipeline of talent, putting four boys under 12 minutes: Sushanth Karri (4th in 11:34), Martin Kirchberg (9th in 11:49), Rohan Varma (10th in 11:49), and Abijeth Kari (13th in 11:53).

The West Windsor-Plainsboro girls were led by sophomore Evelyn Yang, who took 9th in her race with a PR of 22:07 – a faster pace than she ran at the Thompson 2 Miler two weeks ago. No far behind her were juniors Fatima Arastu and Hasini Sankar. Arastu set a new Thompson Park PR, while Sankar matched her previous best.

This was Nottingham’s first invitational of the year, so we got our first good look at their lineup. The biggest revelation was that senior Mohamed Toure is doing XC this season. Toure is one of Mercer County’s top 400m/800m runners, boasting a 1:56 800m PR. In what may have been his first XC invitational — and maybe first race over 800m — he shined with a 17:49 on a tough course to finish 12th in the senior race (21st in the merge). He might have his sights set on big performances in May, but don’t count out big performances in October, too! Behind him, Nottingham had three boys who PR’d with almost identical times despite being in separate races: junior Liam Cox (19:50), senior Ethan Wiebesiek (19:51), and sophomore Christian Morolda (19:52).

Nottingham’s boys were 22nd in the merged standings. Their girls team ran two sophomores who, despite not having their best days, deserve credit for never giving up and getting to the finish line.

The Hamilton West boys were led three juniors. Franklin Pineda-Ramirez and Jonathan Gadie both cut over 1:45 off their Thompson Park PRs, and Caleb Cadlett ran his first ever reported race of any distance. Hamilton West didn’t run any girls.  

Bowdoin XC Classic

Princeton's Kajol Karra (left) and Grace Hegedus (right) run together at about the two-mile mark of the 2024 Bowdoin XC Classic. | Todd McDonough for MileSplit

The Princeton girls, ranked No. 5 in the state, sought out the toughest competition at the Bowdoin XC Classic, and then they rose to the challenge. They finished 3rd in the Varsity II race, just three points behind the New York powerhouse Saratoga Springs. After merging results with the Varsity I race, Princeton was still 5th with 192 pts. Although the No. 1 Union Catholic girls team was far out ahead with 87 points, Princeton finished close behind No. 3 Ridgewood (179 pts) and well ahead of both No. 4 Manalapan (263 pts) and No. 10 Haddonfield (294 pts). See results here.

Grace Hegedus and Kajol Karra led the way with very impressive performances on the tough course. Hegedus used a big last mile to finish 9th in the Varsity II race with a 19:41, and Karra finished right after her in 10th with a 19:52. To put those times in perspective for New Jersey runners, Bowdoin Park is considered to be 20-25 seconds slower than Holmdel Park. These two girls are poised for big things in November!

As good as Hegedus and Karra were, Princeton strength might have been its depth. Rounding out its top five were Eowyn Deess (20:37), Rosemary Warren (20:39), and Phoenix Roth (20:55), and not far behind them were displacers Sevanne Knoch (21:02) and Florica Eleches-Lipsitz (21:16). Out of the New Jersey teams, Princeton had the second-fastest #4 and #5 runners, and the fastest #6 and #7 runners.

Last year, in the group championships at Holmdel, Princeton impressed with a team average of 20:23. Yesterday, on a harder course, Princeton averaged 20:21. And it’s just September!

On the boys side, Princeton finished 17th out of 32 teams. Their top finisher was senior Felix Farrugia, who, in his first invitational of the season, ran a 17:51 – faster than he’s ever run at Holmdel Park or Thompson Park. Their next three boys of Braedyn Capone (18:07), Evan Raphael (18:20), and Felix Yu (18:28) also showed signs of big improvements and gained great experience for the hard courses they’ll see this postseason.

Peddie vs. Hill

Peddie kicked off the weekend with a Mid-Atlantic Prep League duel meet against the Hill School.  The Peddie girls won 24-31 and were led by Matilda Kardhashi, who ran a very solid almost-PR of 19:46 despite the hills and the rain. The Peddie boys took the top two places with great runs from James Hamnett (17:36, potentially a PR) and Baker Pott (17:54), but the team narrowly lost to the Hill boys, 26-29. At last year’s MAPL boys championship, Hill edged Peddie by two points; Peddie will hopefully be on the other side of these close finishes soon enough! See more results here.