Hopewell Valley boys cross country
By: Jim Green
Through years of sustained excellence, the Hopewell Valley Central High School boys cross country team has developed a high standard of expectations for itself. So it’s no surprise that the Bulldogs were less than satisfied with their second-place finish in the Central Jersey Group III sectional meet Saturday at Holmdel.
Led by Nick Jourjine, who came in seventh individually at 17:15, Hopewell finished with 108 team points, just two behind champion Ocean Township. It was the second straight second-place finish for the Bulldogs, who placed 11 points behind winner Colts Neck at the 2004 sectional championships.
"We were looking for first," Hopewell boys coach John Zalot said. "We would like to have first. But the kids ran really well. A lot of them had personal bests."
The good news is that Hopewell’s season does not end there. With their top-five finish, the Bulldogs advance to Saturday’s Group III Championships in Holmdel. From there, the top three teams in each group, as well as two at-large teams, will advance to the Meet of Champions on Nov. 19. The top 10 individual runners, as well as 10 wild card runners, also advance automatically.
"We’d like to come in the top three, so we can go to the Meet of Champions," Zalot said.
The Bulldogs might receive a huge lift from Christian Baumbach, who is hoping to return from a stress fracture. Baumbach, who is one of Hopewell’s top three runners, has missed four weeks.
"If he races, our hopes are a little higher," Zalot said. "If he ran at sectionals, we would have won."
Despite Baumbach’s absence, the Bulldogs still made a run at the championship on the strength of their depth. Behind Jourjine, they received strong runs from Matt Hilderbrandt, who was eighth at 17:19, Patrick Jablonski (17:46), David Siuta (17:59), Jared Nespoli (18:20), Evan Kita (18:22) and Richard Yu (18:52).
Hopewell had high hopes for the sectional meet after placing third at the Mercer County Championships and ahead of a strong Princeton squad the week before.
"After we beat Princeton at counties, it gave us more confidence going into sectionals," Zalot said. "I knew Ocean had a really good team, and it seemed like it could go either way depending on the day."
Although it went against Hopewell on this day, Zalot was pleased with his team’s effort.
"I was glad it was as close as it was," he said. "They were the favored team. We were sort of the underdog. They have a really good program, and they were on that day."

