Hopewell Valley cross country
By: Shawn Mecchi
With a pair of second-place finishes at the Central Jersey sectional meet this weekend, both the Hopewell Valley Central High School boys and girls cross country teams secured positions in the upcoming Group III championship meet on Saturday, Nov. 15 at Holmdel Park in Monmouth County.
Going into sectionals, both teams expected a tough race with their distant rival to the east, Colts Neck. On this particular day, victory was not to be for Hopewell, which placed second.
"They’re strong all across the board," said Mike Batanian, the Hopewell boys’ No. 1 runner. "There’s certainly no shame in finishing second to them."
Batanian finished fifth overall out of over 100 runners with a time of 17:04 on the hilly Holmdel course. His teammates finished in equally impressive fashion, many recording personal bests for the course.
Particularly exciting was a race between Hopewell’s Patrick Jablonski and Nick Jourjine and Colts Neck’s No. 4 runner, Brenden Krewer. Jablonski and Jourjine identified the Colts Neck uniform and managed to overcome Krewer in the closing 50 yards of the 3.1-mile race.
For the girls it was once again Emily Sherrard taking top honors with a second-place finish in 19:42.
Lady Bulldogs coach Aaron Oldfield was pleased with the efforts of all of his runners.
"All seven have a roll and play it well," he said. "(Megan Fitzpatrick, Marissa Greco and Kelsey Smith) ran particularly well this weekend."
Sherrard felt the inexperience of her team the top five are all first-year runners made running the new course more difficult.
"We’re not used to that environment, a meet of that caliber," she said. "It was a bit of a shock."
With the experience of sectionals under their belts, Sherrard and her teammates are excited for the upcoming group meet.
"The competition will be even better, so there will be more runners to pace off of," she said.
Both teams will have another shot at Colts Neck at the group meet, but for now, their concentration has shifted.
"Right now we’re just focusing on (the Mercer County meet)," Hopewell boys coach John Zalot said. "We’re shooting for first, and we won’t be happy with anything less."
The boys, who finished undefeated this season against county opponents, and the girls, who lost only to West Windsor-Plainsboro South, are intent on proving one last time their strong standing among county rivals.
Both teams are expecting tough competition.
"We’ve had a lot of tough dual races," Batanian said. "The county is looking a lot stronger this year."
Hopewell is still the favorite in the boys event and have every intention of capturing another county title.
The girls know that overcoming WW-P South will be difficult, but welcome the challenge and are excited to prove once more how far they’ve been able to come in just one season.
The Mercer County meet will take place at Veterans Park in Hamilton. For the girls, the gun will go off at 2:15 p.m., while the boys race will start at 3 p.m.