Mercer County teams continue dominance at Central Jersey sectionals
While it may have been a tough weekend for Mercer football teams, it was just the opposite for the county’s cross country runners as they lived up to their legacy once again.
At Saturday’s Central Jersey sectionals in Jamesburg’s Thompson Park, the boys produced two team champions, two individual champions and advanced six teams to this Saturday’s Group State Meets.
Hopewell Valley claimed the CJ III title, beating West Windsor-Plainsboro North by eight points, while WW-P South overwhelmed CJ IV in beating second-place defendingchampion Princeton by a whopping 37 points. Also advancing with topfive team finishes were Robbinsville (4th, CJ II), Princeton (2nd, CJ IV) and WW-P North and Allentown (2nd & 4th, CJ III).
Princeton’s Acasio Pinheiro won CJ IV in 16:07, giving the Little Tigers an individual champion for the second straight year. Allentown’s Liam Murphy claimed CJ III in 16:09.
In girls competition, Allentown, WW-P North, Lawrence and WW-P South moved on to states.
Mercer’s brilliance came as no surprise to its championship coaches.
“This county has always been strong,” Hopewell coach John Zalot said. “The talent that has been developed over the years is impressive. We always show well at the postseason. I was not surprised that Mercer County is represented so broadly at the state meet.”
“The bar is the bar, and the bar is significantly higher in Mercer County over the past 10 years than ever before,” WW-PS coach Kurt Wayton said. “The county has attracted good coaches who understand what it takes to succeed.”
For Wayton’s Pirates, it marked a continued dominance in Group IV.
“Hopefully, we’ve been arguably the most consistent program in the state the past 12 years,” he said. “The amazing thing is that we lost much of our top seven from last year to graduation, injury and administrative reshuffling.”
And yet the Pirates jammed Adhwin Sridhar (5th, 16:34), Ben Fanta (8th, 16:48), Austin True (11th, 16:55) and Patrick Rancan (16th, 17:02) in the top 20, while Jake Williams was 27th (17:17).
“We are a very good, deep team,” Wayton said. “The question was really which runners of our top seven would end up in the top 16. We really rallied the last mile. At 2.25 miles we were in trouble. Our strength work really paid off.”
Next up is the Group IV meet at Holmdel Park. The top two finishers in each group, along with eight wildcard teams, will advance to the Nov. 17 Meet of Champions. Also advancing will be the top 10 individuals, and 10 wild cards not on a team that is advancing.
“I think if we run to our potential we will be up there with the best in the state,” Wayton said. “All we have to do is trust our training and execute our very simple race plan.”
Hopewell is also looking for big things after finishing third in last year’s Meet of Champions.
“States will be tough,” Zalot said. “It will be nice if we do it. These guys want it and that is half the battle. The new rule of only two teams automatically placing and eight wild cards for the Meet of Champs should help us.”
It will also help if Hopewell forms a pack like it did at sectionals, as Sean Dolan (16:51), Will Titus (16:59) and John O’Connor (17:05) finished 3-4-5 behind Murphy and WW-P North’s Vedang Lad (16:34).
“The top three have been running well all year,” Zalot said. “Their training has been good and their goals have been lofty. With the loss of four out of the top seven last year, they knew it was going to be a tough year for the team. They pulled through.”
HoVal’s Alex Dumont (17th, 17:57) and Elliot Bangarter (34th, 18:26) rounded out the Bulldogs top five.
“The team ran better than anticipated,” Zalot said. “They all were able to race well. Our four and five guys ran better than expected. Alex was coming back from an injury before counties and Elliot Bangarter ran very well on Saturday. Earlier in the week, I was cautiously optimistic. As long as everyone raced well, we had a shot.”
Other strong individual efforts came from Princeton’s Tucker Zullo (6th, 16:36) and Jackson McCarthy (12th, 16:58), WW-PN’s Ashrrith Rachakunta (8th, 17:18) and Robbinsville’s Dan White (5th, 17:00). No individuals from non-advancing teams moved on.
In the CJ IV girls race, WW-P South finished second behind top11 finishes from freshmen Jennifer Miller (6th, 19:47) and Carolina McCloskey (8th, 19:55), and senior Sam Miller (11th, 20:01).
Allentown took second in CJ III behind freshman Andie Murray (7th, 20:48) and sophomore Angelina Scotto (8th, 20:52). Isabella Walker, Valerie Kiel and Nicole Hanson all finished in the top 18.
WWPN finished fourth despite Callia Cordasco (9th, 20:52) being the only top-20 Northern Knight. Emma Faivre (21st, 21:41) was the second Knight in.
A once downtrodden Lawrence program advanced for the third straight year with a fifth-place finish as Madeline Weeks took sixth (20:43) and Valandra Riggins finished 17th (21:29).
Since the Non-Public schools do not have sectionals, Notre Dame’s boys and girls teams will be at the states.
Follow Rich Fisher on twitter @fish4scores