Spinazzi 14th at Meet of Champs
By: Justin Feil
HOLMDEL Montgomery High’s Eleonora Spinazzi and West Windsor-Plainsboro High South’s Joe Ennis gave the gutsy performances of seniors in their last Meet of Champions on Saturday.
WW-P South’s Katie Kellner and Brian Leung gave promising performances for the future in their first Meet of Champions.
Spinazzi, who last ran in the MOC as a freshman at Princeton High, made a big return as a Cougar senior. She closed a banner season as the top area finisher by medaling Saturday with a 14th-place finish in a personal best of 18 minutes, 59 seconds for the 5k course.
"I believed I could do it," said Spinazzi, who had previously run 19:16 at the Group III meet last week. "I’m a really nervous person and I wasn’t quite sure. People who trained me, people near me like my family, they believed it. Once I was on the course, I believed it.
"At Groups, I was most nervous. I wanted to make it here. Today was my last high school cross country race. I went for it. I have no regrets. I want to say my dad and my whole family have been my biggest motivation. My dad trained me during the summer and my coach did during the season. They all believed in me."
Barely a half-minute back was Kellner, the Pirates freshman in her first MOC. She handled the new experience well.
"It was good," said Kellner, who ran 19:33. "I’m happy. The whole team is here cheering me on. It’s a little different. My whole team wasn’t there on the starting line. It was a little harder starting all the way over on the left by myself.
"I hoped to do a little better. I was still recovering from a cold. I felt it during the race. But I ran the second half of the race a lot faster than the first half. I’m very happy. I didn’t think I’d make it this far when I started out."
Ennis was impressive in his second-half battle to finish 34th in the boys’ championship Saturday. The WW-P South senior ran 16:33 to finish just three seconds ahead of Leung, who was 39thEnnis also placed ahead of Hightstown’s Simon Gordonev to claim the top finish by a Mercer County runner in Saturday’s MOC.
"I like that Joe caught Brian at the end and passed him," said WW-P South head coach Chris Bond. "And he beat Gordonev. That’s good for Joe to be at the top of the county."
Said Ennis, "With Brian and Simon getting so good, I had to defend my title. That was pretty much my only goal."
For Leung, just reaching the MOC was a big deal. He wasn’t among the Pirates’ Top 7 last year, but burst onto the scene this year. He capped his first year of varsity with a MOC berth.
"This is definitely different," said the Pirates sophomore. "It was my first time. I loved the race. I didn’t do good, but I love the race. Last year, I didn’t even think of coming here.
"I didn’t have the right mindset today. I got off to a pretty good start. I was in the race. But then I started letting guys pass me. I got in a comfort zone. When I race my best, my races hurt so much. I guess I was afraid of doing that today."
Leung had finished ahead of Ennis at sectionals and in last week’s Group IV state meet, but this time Ennis had a special resolve, the sort of extra kick that comes from being in your last high school race.
"In the beginning, we were kind of together," Ennis noted. "A little before the mile, I started struggling but I knew I had to be in better position. Brian passed me going up ‘The Bowl.’ Someone else tried to pass me and I felt like dropping out then, but I picked someone to stay with. That kept me in the race.
"I saw Brian ahead toward the end. I saw a video of my finish at sectionals and I remembered I felt like I had been going fast but the video made it look like I was going really slow. I just said, if I felt bad to go that fast, make it feel like I’m going to die. I passed Brian and then right after him I saw Anthony LaMastro from Pope John and I knew I was better than him in middle school and I out-kicked him."
Ennis was happy to finish strong, particularly after feeling so much worse early in the race.
"There’s a lot of points where I felt like stopping and walking or slowing down," Ennis said. "If I didn’t keep thinking, this is my last big race I’m not sure I would have finished. It wasn’t my best time, but it certainly was one of my best efforts I put in."
Spinazzi also found a deep reserve to draw from for her final scholastic cross country race. The MHS senior was impressive start to finish.
"It was really fast," Spinazzi said. "Everyone was going fast, and I was among the group so I had to go. I was really scared. It’s my last race. I was 19th in the beginning. I picked up some spots, but I was so afraid of losing it. There are so many good girls running. I’m happy I came in 14th and medaled and ran under 19."
Said MHS coach Jim Goodfriend: "She was unbelievable. I was hoping she would do 19:03 and be in the Top 16. She did awesome. It’s a great way to go out. She just got better and better and better and better. She stayed healthy this year. It was incredible."
Kellner has started her career as quickly as Spinazzi did in making the MOC as a freshman. Kellner also had plenty of believers that she made proud Saturday.
"I think she did great," said South girls’ coach Melinda Neff. "It was her first Meet of Champions and she hung in there. One thing we’ve been working on is picking up her pace in the middle of the race. She was able to pick it up and pick off some people, which was a huge step in what she was able to do training wise.
"We’re looking to adapt her training program each year. As every coach does, we hope to be notching her time down a little bit each year. She’s such a natural athlete. We want to keep her healthy and strong. Today was a little unique. She was really nervous before the race. It’s the first race she felt like that. It’s good. This one is under her belt and there are more to come."
Just as there are more to come for Leung. He bounced back from a mid-season injury to finish third at the Mercer County Championships and then ran well at each level of the state championships.
"He’s smiling right now and he said he feels like he could race again," Bond said. "On one hand, as a coach you’re saying, then you didn’t race hard enough. But it’s nice to know he’s ending up saying that after racing here three times in a row, not saying I hate it. We doubled the number of runners we had here last year and hopefully next year, we’ll more than double it and bring the team."
It might be the only way to top the accomplishments of four area runners at the Meet of Champions on Saturday. The seniors left everything out on the course with their efforts, while the first-time performers gave plenty of reason to expect that they’ll do even better when they come back.

