Woodstown boys place third as a team, Marino siblings post top 10 finishes in their respective races to qualify for Meet of Champions; further research indicates best finish ever
NJSIAA Group I XC Championship
| BOYS TEAM: Glassboro 70, Metuchen 109, Woodstown 140, Indian Hills 160, Dayton 195, Haddon Twp. 201, Manville 221, Shore 239, Mountain Lakes 264, McNair 280, New Milford 299, Secaucus 305, Park Ridge/Emerson 306, Bogota 323, Kinnelon 331, Audubon 357, Highland Park 382, Rutherford 413, Verona 415, Schalick 514. |
| GIRLS TEAM: Shore 45, Metuchen 76, Bogota 110, Audubon 116, Mountain Lakes 142, New Providence 179, Rutherford 253, Haddon Twp. 260, North Warren 270, Hanover Park 286, McNair 337, Hasbrouck Heights 342, Maple Shade 358, Newton 364, Pequannock 370, Dayton 392, Woodstown 393, Saddle Brook 402, South Hunterdon 480, Schalick 490. |
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
HOLMDEL – Steve New doesn’t mind digging deep when it comes to chasing cross country history. Some might find it painstaking and tedious, but he’s digging because he thinks he’s going to find treasure.
That’s the reason the Woodstown cross country coach will be happily diving into the history of the state cross country championship today looking to find the last time the Wolverines did as well as they showed Saturday at Holmel Park.
The Wolverines came in third at the Group I boys meet, and that’s as good as New can ever remember. They scored 140 points, pulling behind team champion Glassboro and runner-up Metuchen and solidly ahead of fourth-place Indian Hills. All five of their counters placed in the top 50 among runners competing on teams.
“In all honesty I would have loved to have gotten second; you can actually come home with a pretty cool trophy,” New said. “But I can’t complain. They got up on the podium, they got to get up on the stage, they got recognized for a third-place finish.
“I’ve never seen that in my years coaching here, and I’ve looked back a decent amount and I’ve never seen anything like that. I was pumped by it. I couldn’t have been more pleased with how they ran. Everyone ran tough. That made that two-hour school bus ride well worth it.”
(Upon a deep dive into the records Sunday morning, New discovered this was indeed the Wolverines’ best finish ever. He went all the way back to 1919 and they had never finished higher than 11th (last year) before.)
One of the keys to their high finish was the showing of Torsten Duva and Jackson Perry. Normally fifth and sixth finishers, they were the Wolverines’ fourth and fifth runners across the line on this day. Jake Marino, Karson Chew and David Farrell were their first three.
“Third place doesn’t move us on to MOC as a team but it’s a really good place for us and I’m happy with how everyone did,” Chew said. “We all finished close to each other and all around did everything we needed to do to have a great states.”
The Wolverines grabbed another piece of history that was even harder to find. Siblings Jake and Abby Marino both scored top 10 finishes in their respective races to qualify for the Meet of Champions. Jake was ninth in the boys race (17:15.87) and Abby was tenth in the girls race (20:45.22). The top 10 go.
With the help of AI, Jake learned they are only the second brother-sister combination since 1986 to qualify for MOC in the same year. Chris and Cate DeSousa, running for Christian Brothers and Red Bank Catholic, respectively, in 2019 are the only others to do. There have been seven sets of siblings since 1986 making it in the same year, but they’ve all been sisters or brothers.
“It’s crazy to think about,” Jake said. “To be able to have the opportunity to be able to compete at states together, but to not only capitalize on that and cement ourselves as one of two brother-sister duos going to the Meet of Champions the same year – and the only ones to go to the same school – is phenomenal. It’s something I will never forget.”
| BOYS TOP 10 | GIRLS TOP 10 | ||
| Jayran Rodriguez, Manville | 16:35.39 | Alexandra Klein, Shore | 18:54.88 |
| Joseph Saicic, Glassboro | 16:50.42 | Ella Andersen, Metuchen | 19:13.97 |
| Frank Coppa, Indian Hills | 16:51.42 | Riley Fayer, Audubon | 19:16.47 |
| Michaelangelo Lepore, Mt. Lakes | 17:00.82 | Violet Page, Mt. Lakes | 19:46.66 |
| Zacchaeus Harrigan, Glassboro | 17:04.27 | Grace Montanari, Shore | 20:27.61 |
| Elliott Reines, Dayton | 17:07.15 | Micah Dalello, Sussex Tech | 20:34.58 |
| Jaeden Wesley, Glassboro | 17:11.57 | Erin Dushinka, DelVal | 20:37.59 |
| Maddox Paulin, Shore | 17:37.27 | Taylor Zaneto, Metuchen | 20:39.79 |
| Jacob Marino, Woodstown | 17:15.87 | Milla Scalise, Shore | 20:42.63 |
| Kai Englert, Metuchen | 17:20.90 | Abby Marino, Woodstown | 20:45.22 |
LOCAL BOYS COUNTERS
(Number in parentheses is overall place)
WOODSTOWN: 9. Jacob Marino (9) 17:15.87, 18. Karson Chew (18) 17:46.75, 27. David Farrell (30) 18:13.11, 28. Torsten Duva (43) 18:30.15, 39. Jackson Perry (53) 18:42.55.
SCHALICK: 76. Collin Bittle (84) 19:28.66, 82. Salvatore Longo (90) 19:39.22, 112. Joshua Weiner (120) 20:59.41, 119. Mason Cain (127) 21:43.83, 125. Chase Riley (133) 22:12.31.
LOCAL GIRLS COUNTERS
(Number in parenthesis is overall place)
WOODSTOWN: 8. Abby Marino (10) 20:45.22, 50. Anabel Schaal (60) 23:37.64, 99. Arianna Mott (115) 26:19.04, 113. Lucianna Mannella (129) 27:13.15, 123. Alice Bowser (139) 29:37.37.
SCHALICK: 42. Helen Lillia (50) 23:10.65, 97. Emma Cain (113) 26:17.01, 115. Emma Wilbur (131) 27:33.37, 117. Sarah Torpey (133) 27:47.21, 119. Ava Melnick (135) 28:48.01.
PENNSVILLE: IND. Sawyer Slad (68) 24:04.77.
Riverview Sports News 