BY WAYNE WITKOWSKI
Staff Writer
MIGUEL JUAREZ staff Brick Township’s Erin Redden continued her solid season on Saturday with a 10th-place finish at the Ocean County Championships in Toms RIver. Erin Redden goes on runs at Brick Township girls cross country practices with Amber Hessenkemper. It helps push her to be even better as the team’s top runner, and helps Hessenkemper to improve as a freshman on the team.
Redden ran a typically solid race in the Ocean County championships on Saturday at Ocean County Park in Toms River, but Hessenkemper really showed the benefits of her workouts with a personal best 19:16 time for 10th place out of more than 85 runners. Her time was 1:04 better than her previous best time she set earlier last week in a dual meet against Southern Regional.
Redden was 20th in 20:12 as Brick Township finished fifth in the team standings, three points ahead of Toms River East and Toms River South, and qualified again this year for the Shore Conference championship meet next Saturday at Ocean County Park.
The top eight teams qualify for the Shore Conference meet. Brick Memorial, which was missing freshman standout Melanie Weissinger with an injury, just missed the cutoff with a ninth-place finish. Freshman Kristin Perine ran a personal best 20:37 for 27th place, just two spots out of the top 25 qualifiers for the Shore Conference meet.
“We were hoping to place in the top five and to do that with some personal bests, which we got from Amber,” said Brick Township coach Don Blair. “She started passing people after the [first] mile marker and got stronger as the race went along. Usually, she has gone out too hard and dies at the end.”
The Green Dragons needed strong efforts from Hessenkemper and Redden with Raven Bandejas, normally their fourth or fifth best runner, out with tendinitis in her Achilles. She probably will still be out of the lineup when Brick Township runs in the NJSIAA Central Jersey section championships on Saturday at Holmdel Park. Also out are Kery McQuilken with a stress fracture and Kelsey Godfrey with shin splints.
Holly Gimblett was 30th in 20:49, followed by Joanne McCabe in 39th place at 21:29 and Jenna Hay in 70th at 20:23.
“We all ran well. This was Amber’s breakout meet,” said Redden. “I could’ve been better. I got out fast and couldn’t hold it.”
Redden says that she needs to run another low 19-minute time in the state sectionals. She ran a personal best 19:33 early in the year and a 19:40 in the Walt Disney Cross Country Championships in Orlando, Fla. two weeks ago.
“It’s a lot easier having Amber to train with,” said Redden. “I have to mentally prepare better. I was nervous in the county meet because this is my senior year.”
And she feels her team can finish in the top five in the state sectionals, which would advance the Green Dragons into the NJSIAA Group IV championship meet in a few weeks. The top five teams advance.
“We’re really close and have to run well. We can do it,” said Redden, who credits her own improved running to harder training in the summer. She feels it will held her for the indoor and outdoor track and field seasons where she was third in the 3,200 and fourth in the 1,600 in the county outdoor meet last spring.
“I’m enjoying cross country but actually, I can’t wait until the winter season,” she said.
As for Brick Memorial, Michelle Esten was 40th and Jenelle Gobel was 46th in the county meet. Coach Jessica Jones said she expects Weissinger, whose brother, Matt, finished fourth in the county meet, to be back for the state sectionals this weekend.
“We ran well,” said Jones. “Michelle and Jenelle are plateauing at 21 minutes, but they’re freshmen and they’ll move ahead.”