Weekend Recap: Thompson 2 Miler and More
Thompson 2 Miler
Many of the fastest runners from across Central Jersey spent Saturday at Thompson Park for the Thompson 2 Miler. Like the Cherokee Challenge last week, this early-season race featured (1) a two-mile course instead of a 5K and (2) individual races for each graduation class instead of having teams run together. But Thompson 2 Miler is a popular meet also because it offers runners a chance to get familiar with Thompson Park, which will host the group sectionals for Central Jersey. That’s a major benefit: Thompson Park is considered the 8th toughest cross country course in New Jersey, thanks in large part to downhill then big uphill in the last mile, and knowing what that those hills feel like will be a big advantage when spots at the group championships are on the line in November.
Boys Results
Shravan Pradeep (West Windsor-Plainsboro South) opened up his season with a bang, running 9:53 to win the senior race by over 10 seconds. He’s the first runner to break 10 in the four-year history of this invitational. It’s just one race – and it’s just two miles – but he may have established himself as the early-season favorite in Mercer County. His teammate Aditya Deshpande wasn’t far behind, running 10:12 for 4th. Luke Ferrer (West Windsor-Plainsboro North) was 7th in the senior race with a 10:26.
Silas Allevik (Hopewell Valley) won the boys sophomore race in 10:29, over 3 minutes(!) faster than his time from last year. His time this year might have even beaten his official 3200 track PR. His classmate Finnegan Curley was 4th among sophomores with a 10:41.
Several very impressive freshman announced their arrival on the scene with big performances! The biggest by far was Agrim Jha (WWP North) who won the freshman race with a 10:40. In hindsight, his arrival shouldn’t have been too surprising – he ran a 4:35 mile as an 8th grader. He’ll definitely be one to watch going forward. Other freshmen on our radar include the WWP South duo of Sean Maina (4th in 11:14) and Aaron Zola (5th in 11:21), as well as Hopewell Valley’s Julian Hiraldo (6th in 11:23).
Officially, there were no team scores, because races were split up by graduation class… but you know we love to play “what if” and merge the results together. (See MileSplit’s merge here.) Here are the top 5 teams:
#1 West Windsor-Plainsboro North
#2 West Windsor-Plainsboro South
#3 St. Pleasant Boro
#4 Metuchen
#5 Hopewell Valley
At the top, it was a classic case of depth versus low sticks, and depth won this time. Despite putting three runners in the top 15 — Pradeep at 1st, Deshpande at 4th, and Kevin Lang at 14th — WWP South could not overcome the incredible depth of WWP North. WWP North put their whole top seven in front of WWP South’s 4th runner, and The split from their 1st man to their 6th man was an incredible 29 seconds. That kind of split, especially when keyed off of a strong frontrunner like Luke Ferrer, is what qualifies for championships.
But don’t count out their rivals yet. WWP South averaged a faster time than WWP North. Their 4th and 5th runners (Aradhya Vijay and the freshman Maina) were running at Thompson Park for their first time and will only get better, especially after another month of training with their speedy teammates. Also, although depth prevailed in this hypothetical merge of 40+ teams, low sticks may be more effective when it comes to real, smaller meets this postseason.
Speaking of depth, Hopewell Valley’s top 7 all finished within a 60 second span, and their 7th man was the second fastest 7th man of the day (close behind WWP North). That helped them to a 5th place finish in the merge.
Rapid fire highlights: Allentown had three runners at 11:02 or faster, contributing to their 10th place finish in the merged results. They were led by Landon Kent’s 15th place finish in the senior race. … Peddie and Hightstown were separated by just 1 point in the merge. … Peddie was led by Baker Pott but also got a strong performance by #2 runner James Hamnett, who ran 10:48, 45 seconds faster than last year. … Hightstown had the tightest split of any team, with all 5 runners finishing within 23 seconds of each other. Their top runner from the Cherokee Challenge, Burke Thompson, did not race this week. … Wilberforce’s top four consisted of three sophomores and a freshman. … Lawrence was led by Alden Smith, a junior in his first season of cross country.
Girls Results
West Windsor-Plainsboro North runners swept the senior and junior races with incredibly impressive performances from Zui Chinchalkar and Allison Lee. Lee ran 11:24 to crush the meet record, outdueling the former meet record holder Ivy Slavinski (Pt. Pleasant Boro) to win by 13 seconds. Zui Chinchalkar faced less competition but still soloed a fast 12:01 to win the senior race. It’ll be exciting to watch those teammates run together at the front of the pack in meets later this season.
Laura Sallade (Wilberforce) took 3rd in that fast junior race behind Lee and Slavinski. Her time of 12:04 was almost 30 seconds faster than last year. Her teammate Adeline Edwards placed 4th in the senior race with a 12:33, the 8th fastest time out of all racers.
A new star to keep an eye on is Hightstown’s Siena Rivera. In her debut XC invitational, Rivera placed 2nd in the freshman race in 12:55, the 12th fastest time of the day.
As with the boys, even though each graduation class ran separately, it’s easy to merge the results together and hypothesize what would’ve happened in a normal XC race. There are limits to this hypothetical merged race, of course. For example, Chinchalkar won her senior race by almost 20 seconds — could she have gone faster if she was in Lee’s junior race? But it’s still a fun thought exercise to compare runners across races. (See MileSplit’s merge here.)
With that caveat, here are the top 5 teams in the merged results:
#1 Wilberforce
#2 New Providence
#3 West Windsor-Plainsboro North
#4 Bridgewater-Raritan
#5 Colts Neck
Wilberforce took the win thanks to big performances from not just Sallade and Edwards but also Eze Szeliga (13:11), who finished 8th in the junior race and was the fastest third runner on any team. Stella Blanchard (who ran over 1:30 faster than last year) and Gwen Mersereau rounded out a top 5 that all ran 13:45 or faster.
WWP North was not too far behind Wilberforce. WWP North actually averaged a faster time than Wilberforce, 12:56 to 13:02, thanks to Lee’s and Chinchalkar’s standout performances. Behind those two girls was a tight pack of strong runners: their split from 3-6 was only 15 seconds, which shows that WWP North has (1) a good group of girls who can work together and (2) room for error if someone has a bad day.
Allentown was led by the senior duo of Emilia Wroblewski (12:56 for 10th and Madeline Ruchelman (13:18 for 12th). The Allentown girls have a very solid top 4; if they can get their 5th runner to close the gap a little bit, they will be a serious postseason contender.
Rapid fire highlights: West Windsor-Plainsboro South got 10th in the merged results, led by Risha Rao’s 12:59. Their top 5 includes a high jumper (Sophie Tsai) and a triple jumper (Lisandi de Silva). … Rivera’s low score led Hightstown to top-half team finish in the merged results. … Peddie’s top two, Sophie Winn and Carolina Lopez-Watt, finished two seconds apart while in different races. … Stuart Country Day participated in this meet for the first time ever.
Battle @ Ocean County Park
In other action last weekend, Robbinsville and Ewing headed to the shore to race on a fast 5K course in the Battle @ Ocean County Park.
The star performance of the day goes to Ewing’s Teagan Walker, who took 4th place in the girls’ senior race. Walker pushed hard over the latter stages — she put 30 seconds on 5th place over the second half of the course alone — and was rewarded with a big PR of 19:11. That’s likely a school record for Walker, or at least the fastest 5K ever recorded in MileSplit. Robbinsville’s top finisher was senior Kellianne White, who ran 21:00 to finish 25th in her race.
On the boys side, Robbinsville was led by Wyatt Bassman (17:36 for 33rd in the senior race) and Ryan Decker (18:49 for 30th in the sophomore race). Ewing was led by a trio of sophomores Landyn Loesch (18:56), Jayden Studivant (19:40), and Shazed Singh (19:49).
George School Invitational
Across the river in Pennsylvania, Lawrenceville was the lone New Jersey school at the George School Invitational. The girls finished 5th out of 14 schools and were led by freshman Gigi Aitken-Davies (20:30). The boys finished 6th, and their top finisher was Taksh Gupta, who missed last fall with an injury but ran 16:48 in his first race back this fall. Freshman Naren Maharana, who got 4th in the 3200m Cherokee Challenge freshman race last week, showed that he can handle a full 5K just fine, running an impressive 17:12 debut over the distance.