By: Redd E. Patrick
For a couple of hours at least, the South Brunswick High School boys and girls cross country teams were able to distract themselves from the tragedy that hit the nation on Sept. 11.
On Saturday, the Vikings competed at the Cherokee Invitational, a Class meet which was held on a 3200-meter course in South Jersey. Team scores were not kept, but as a program, there were many positive results as the Vikings prepare for the 2001 season.
Since their opening-day dual-meet with powerful Old Bridge was postponed, Saturday marked the first live competition for the Vikings this year. The first dual meet is scheduled for today (Thursday) at home with Piscataway.
"I think kids are more resilient than adults,” said South Brunswick coach Brian Jost. "We talked about it (the terrorist attacks) as a group, but it was time for the kids to gather themselves and move on. They’ve been training for a month without a race, so it was good for them to get a competition under their belt.
"On the bus ride back to school, the kids were laughing and joking, which was good to see. It was a beautiful day, the kids had performed well and it was important for them to feel good about themselves. When I was driving home from the school in my car, I has to ask myself, ‘Did this really happen to our country?’ It seemed like a dream after spending the day with the kids.”
The South Brunswick boys will be led this season by its talented senior class. In the Senior Division, which attracted 139 runners, Matt Randal led the way by placing seventh with a time of 10:10. Cherokee’s Marc Pelerin, the favorite to win this year’s Meet of Champions, won with a time of 9:38. Following Randal were Dan McDonald (15th, 10:30), Scott Yeager (18th, 10:33), Tom Poorten (44th, 11:09) and Dan Klag (55th, 11:22). Also, Brian Quigley finished 61st (11:31) and Raphael Chejade-Bloom was 93rd (12:13).
In the boys Junior Division (164 runners), Ankush Patel led the Vikings with a 52nd-place finish in a time of 11:26. In the Sophomore race (144 runners), Mark Branche led South Brunswick by taking 54th in 12:04. In the Freshman race (137 kids), Dustin Biri took 44th, Greg Spinner 56th, Chris Kubick 62nd, Chris Adams 77th and Brandon Lee 94th. No times were available.
In the girls Senior Division (65 runners), Sejal Patel led the Vikings with a 29th-place finish (14:03), followed by Megan Conover (36th, 15:00), Natalya Johnson (38th, 15:08) and Caitlin Matolka (46th, 15:58).
In the Sophomore race (73 runners), Allison Rossi placed 30th, while Sari Kaufman was 40th. Since there was a problem with the automatic timer, times were not available.
In the Freshman Division, Amy Rhein and Lauren White showed why they have been highly-touted as they finished 9th and 14th out of a field of 81. Rhein ran 13;11, while White ran 13:33.
The Vikings did not have runners in the girls Junior Division.
"I thought we ran pretty well,” said Jost. "We’ve never run this meet before and we never competed at this distance before, so it was very different. I think the freshmen got some good experience and the older kids had some fun. It was good to finally get out and compete.”
And get away from the country’s problems. For a few hours at least.
