By: Redd E. Patrick
When Monroe Township High School girls cross country coach Jim Cox woke up Tuesday morning, he tried to envision how his team would fare when it opened the season with a tri-meet vs. Colonia and South Plainfield later in the day.
He knew his team had some talent, but with several of his youngsters running in a varsity meet for the first time, he didn’t know if the intimidation factor would end up in two defeats and a back-to-the-drawing board situation.
As he headed down the New Jersey Turnpike en route to Merrill Park in the Iselin section of Woodbridge, he just didn’t know.
But when his young team left the park, a few hours later, it turned out to be a sweet ride home as the Falcons posted a pair of 19-50 victories. Counting a forfeit victory last week, Monroe is now 3-0.
"The kids exceed my expectations, they surprised me very much," said Cox, a former Monroe assistant who is in his first year as the head man. "It wasn’t so much that we beat both teams, but the scores were surprising. I didn’t think it would be that easy.
"We lost four seniors who were not only good runners, but kids who provided leadership. So we’re asking kids to step up as leaders and as runners. Some of the these kids had never run a varsity race before, so I really didn’t know what to expect."
Junior Damaris Segarra won the race with a time of 21:28. She ran neck-and-neck with South Plainfield’s Nicole Miglis, a proven runner, but broke free with half a mile left on Merrill’s 3.1-mile layout. Damaris Segarra is the younger sister of Ely Segarra, the GMC champion who graduated from Monroe in June.
"Damaris is starting to gain more confidence," Cox said. "With her sister not here anymore, she knew it was time to step up."
Senior Marie Nemeth was second for Monroe and fourth overall in the tri-meet, running 22:37. She was followed by sophomore Erika Korsak, who was fifth overall in 22;56; freshman Valine Bogue, who placed sixth overall in 22:56 and senior Jackie Barclay, who was seventh overall in 23:22.
Rounding out the eight-runner rotation were sophomore Dina Mangarella (24:16), junior Allyson Karas (24:33) and sophomore Illeana Olivarria (27:28).
"It was good to see the kids step up," Cox said. "I compared the girls’ times from this race from a year ago on this same course. If you matched everything up, this team would have lost to last year’s team by only point, so this is really a great start. All the kids back ran faster on this course than they did a year ago."
The Falcons will be off this weekend before hitting the road for a date at Sayreville on Tuesday.
"I don’t know if we have enough firepower to beat Sayreville," Cox said. "But we’ll give them a run for their money."
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After having their collective hearts broken on opening day last week with a narrow loss to Bishop Ahr, which was more than likely for the GMC’s White Division title, the Monroe Township boys team rebounded with a 26-29 win over a quality South Plainfield team on Tuesday at Merrill Park. The Falcons improved to 2-1 by also beating Colonia in the tri-meet.
Ryan Brown led the Falcons by taking second overall with a time of 17:43. He finished behind South Plainfield’s Joe Lacerda, who ran 17:21.
After Alan Kasmer of South Plainfield finished third, the Falcons went 4-5-6 with Adam Modzelewski (18:03), Nate Smith (18:16) and Joe Ruopoli (18:20) leading the way.
Nick Garibaldi came up big for Monroe as he took ninth overall in a time of 18:45.
"The kids responded well," head coach Frank Bonich said. "After Bishop Ahr, it’s tough facing South Plainfield because they’re a very tough team too. Bishop Ahr, South Plainfield and us, we always have tough meets."
The boys team will be off this weekend before returning to dual-meet activity on Tuesday at Sayreville in another competitive White Division tussle.
"I like this team we have here," Bonich said. "They could have taken a step backward after a real tough loss with Bishop Ahr, but they continued to work hard and came back to beat a good South Plainfield team, so I’m proud."

