Cross Country
By: Mike Molaro
The Lawrence High School boys and girls cross country squads each raised their record to 6-2 with a pair of convincing wins on Tuesday.
With senior Aaron Beaber placing seventh overall with a time of 17 minutes, 32 seconds, the Cardinals defeated Colonial Valley Conference foes Ewing, 24-37, and Princeton, 15-50, at Mercer County Park.
Senior Colleen Goodwin was ninth overall in 21:57 as the Cardinal girls downed Ewing, 15-50, and Princeton, 21-40.
Senior Chris Carroll was 13th (17:50), senior Bryan Ovalle was 14th with a personal-best time of 17:51, senior Richard Duke was 17th and turned in his best time of the year (18:14), senior Brian Sturm was 23rd (18:48), freshmen Greg DiTullio (19:15) and Will Brehm (19:17) were 26th and 27th, respectively, freshman Josh Green was 37th with a personal-best clocking of 20:19, and sophomore Mike Jones was 40th with a personal best time of 20:57.
"Things are starting to happen," said boys head coach Bob Chandler. "The improvement we are looking for is beginning to surface. There are four weeks until the county championships. If we keep on going the way we have been, we could be right up there.
"The freshmen are running well. Greg (DiTullio) and Will (Brehm) both had great times in this race. They each took almost a minute off their best times. The freshman running well gets everyone in a positive frame of mind. It makes a coach happy when guys work hard and get results like this. We still have a lot of improvement ahead of us, but we will keep working hard"
Senior Emily Senerth was 11th (22:190), freshman Katharina Zeschky was 13th (22:25), senior Beth Anne Steube was 14th (22:43), senior O’Dea Parson was 16th (23:27) in her first meet of the season, senior Patty Reccoppa was 17th (23:31), senior Jackie Chew was 18th (23:34), sophomore Katie Tenaglia was 21st (23:46), junior Carolyn Pearson was 22nd (23:47), and sophomore Miriam Kochman was 24th (24:31).
"Everyone did really well," said girls head coach Gary Dura. "Considering the elements, it was a good race. Running in weather like this had to tough on the girls mentally.
"Katharina (Zeschky), Emily (Senerth), and Colleen (Goodwin) are really running well and Beth Anne (Steube) has been a solid fourth runner for us. We need our fifth runner to step up. O’Dea (Parson), Jackie (Chew), and Patty (Reccoppa) give us a great chance to have that solid fifth runner. Out of this pack, I’d like for our top three to be as close as possible and our other runners to fill in so there aren’t too many gaps between our girls. That way we can displace a lot of teams."
The Cardinal girls last Saturday fell to powerful Lawrenceville Prep, 15-40, as Zeschky (21:45), Senerth (21:46), Goodwin (22:00), Steube (22:29), and Chew (22:49) were 6-10, respectively. Tenaglia clocked in at 23:39 and Kochman finished in 23:49.
"Lawrenceville showed me a lot," Dura added. "They are a very good team. They’ll give Hopewell Valley a great race for the county title. We ran good times and we ran well. I can’t be upset. They were very impressive in beating us. Our times were good enough to probably win just about any meet. We just happened to be going against Lawrenceville. Katharina (Zeschky) was very impressive."