MHS harriers set for championship meets

Young runners head for Holmdel Park

By: Rudy Brandl
   The Manville High cross country team entered November with three big events remaining in the 2005 season.
   Some recent MHS campaigns haven’t gone past October, but the rainy weather in the past few weeks has extended the team’s season well into November. The Mustangs will be quite busy in the first eight days of November, when they’ll face different competition on different courses.
   "It’s three more races, each on a course that’s significant to us," Manville head coach Jim O’Connor said. "We run one at our home course, then on the state championship course and then on our conference and county course."
   Manville was hoping to crack the win column in Tuesday’s regular season finale, a tri-meet that welcomed South Hunterdon and Belvidere to town. The Mustangs were supposed to face South back in October but the meet was postponed due to rain. Manville also missed a chance to run at Middlesex last week and that meet will not be rescheduled.
   Tuesday’s race served as the final tune-up for Manville’s trip to Holmdel Park for Saturday’s Central Jersey Group 1 Championships. Manville had a little bit of individual excitement in that last two sectional meets when Mike Andreyko finished 11th, just one spot shy of qualifying for the State Group 1 Championships.
   O’Connor isn’t expecting any of his guys to run that close to the front this year, but he’s confident that the Mustangs will continue the progress they’ve shown in recent weeks. With a team this young that’s still working its way into shape, a more difficult course may not create longer times. The Mustangs are much better than they were a month ago. The key is not being intimidated by the course.
   "A few kids have run it before and they know what it’s like," O’Connor said. "I hope they don’t scare the other ones away."
   O’Connor certainly respects the Holmdel Park course but doesn’t feel it’s any more difficult than the Pleasant Valley Park layout where his team competed in the Somerset County Championships a few weeks ago.
   "I’d say they’re about even," O’Connor said. "The Pleasant Valley times are pretty comparable to Holmdel."
   Adam Wolcott, Erik Lubas and Ron Skirkanish ran at Holmdel last year, so they’ll have times to lower. Sasa Todorovic, David Le, Nick Pillsbury and freshman girls Casey Shields and Kate Harodetsky will run their first race at the state championship course.
   Todorovic has emerged as the Manville boys’ pack leader. He ran well in the county meet and O’Connor is looking forward to seeing how Todorovic will compete at Holmdel.
   The Mustangs will end the season Nov. 8 at their final Mountain Valley Conference meet. Manville will be competing in the Skyland Conference next year. The Skyland holds its conference meet at Deer Path Park in Readington, but the Mustangs will still run Pleasant Valley in the county meet.
   O’Connor expects all of his athletes to post better times at the conference meet. Last year, the MHS harriers ran faster in their second trip to Pleasant Valley.
   "There was significant improvement when we went back there last year," O’Connor said. "I’m hoping we can do the same thing this year. We’re still racing our way into shape."