Seeing as well as his girls’ cross country team has done this season, everything still surprises Hightstown High coach Ray Britton.
By:Kyle Moylan
This past Saturday, for the first time in the history of the school, Hightstown finished in the top five in the Central Jersey Group III meet. Hightstown now advances to compete in the state Group III finals next Saturday.
"If someone had told me last year that we would do the things we have this season, I would have just laughed," Britton said. "If someone had said we would be 11-2 and make the state finals, I would have been like, ‘Yeah. Right.’ This has just been a really nice season."
In fact, it’s probably safe now to call it the best ever in the history of the girls’ cross country program, one that had all but faded into oblivion before being revived three year ago.
"What we’ve been able to accomplish after three years of basically being a new program is saying something," Britton said. "It’s a big deal. It’s nice to say you made it this far."
The top five teams in last Saturday’s Central Jersey Group III meet at Holmdel Park advance to the Nov. 11 Group III finals. Much as Amy Bircsak predicted, Hightstown placed fifth.
"It could be (that Amy could make a living predicting)," Britton noted. "She’s a sharp kid. She’s one of our leaders. She saves everything – old clippings and race results. She does what I use to do, plotting everything. She was looking over the results of the Shore Coaches Meet. She figured out which teams were in Group III and what their times were. She came to me and let me know we should make top five. A couple of girls on our team didn’t even run their best times. If they had, we could have been third."
North Hunterdon (28) and Middletown South (38) dominated the race. Ocean (109) was third, followed by Lawrence (121) and Hightstown (138). Allentown was in sixth, but 57 points back. Hightstown might have grabbed the last qualifying spot, but it did it with a large margin of error.
"Nobody was close to us," Britton noted. "It was a comfortable fifth. The girls were screaming, yelling and jumping up and down. They were even happier when they found out they each got a medal. It was a nice way to end the season. Not that the season is over, but we’ll have a hard time doing anything at the next meet."
Regardless what happens next Saturday, Hightstown has already done enough.
In the Central Jersey Group III race this past Saturday, Haley Reimbold was Hightstown’s top finisher, placing 16th in a time of 22:07. Lisa Span was 22nd (22:40), followed by Katie Lawler in 29th (23:12), Danielle Kochie in 38th (22:46) and Amy Bircsak in 46th (24:33). These were the five Hightstown girls who ended up scoring for the team. Michelle Glaser (27:39) and Laura Novak (28:39) also took part in the race.
"It’s been a really nice season," Britton said. "I haven’t felt this good about a bunch of kids in a long time. It’s nice to work with a group of talented kids who are nice and willing to work hard."
And the fact they made a little Hightstown High history along the way also has to be looked upon as a positive.
"We’re all just really happy," Britton said. "It’s nice to set some school landmarks – best record and being the first team to make it to the next round in the states. The boys usually get all the glory. It’s nice that the girls were able to get some."