Teams look ahead to lighter terrain
By: Rudy Brandl
Manville High’s cross country runners received their first tough test on some rigorous terrain in last week’s quad-meet at North Warren.
Running on a hilly and challenging layout that some have described as three times as difficult as the state championship course at Holmdel Park, the Mustangs survived. All 13 runners, including seven boys and six girls, completed the course, but most of the times were significantly slower than the opening meet at Belvidere.
The MHS boys (0-5) and girls (0-4) lost meets to Somerville and North Warren by 15-50 scores. Belvidere also participated in the meet, but the Mustangs competed against that school in the opener.
"The course is very tough," Manville head coach Jim O’Connor said. "Our boys averaged over a minute slower per person than the week before. We don’t run on hills and it was very hilly."
Junior Sasa Todorovic, the school’s best runner, ran a respectable 19:41 to finish 17th overall. No other MHS boys came within 20 places or three minutes of the pack leader.
Erik Lubas was the next Mustang to cross the finish line, running 23:25 to place 38th. Andrew Franko wasn’t far behind in 40th in a time of 23:47.
David Le (44th, 24:40), Jason Pfoutz (46th, 25:27), Nick Pillsbury (48th, 30:01) and Emils Stopins (49th, 30:02) rounded out the MHS effort. Pillsbury and Stopins were competing in their first race of the season, while the other five Mustangs had run the previous week at Belvidere.
A handful of MHS girls ran faster than the opening meet. Arielle Mizov, the young lady who was the fifth finisher to complete the school’s first official girls’ team race at Belvidere, made a huge improvement in her time. Mizov shaved 2:18 off her opening effort by running 27:38 to finish 27th overall. Katie Harodetsky also made strides by finishing 21st in a personal-best 25:42.
O’Connor was excited that two of his top five girls ran faster on a more difficult course.
"The girls ran better than the boys," he said. "Arielle and Katie ran significantly faster on a much tougher course. That’s a good sign."
Casey Shields, the leader for the MHS girls, ran 35 seconds slower but still was nearly a minute faster than any of her teammates. Shields placed 20th in a time of 24:52.
Three more MHS girls ran and completed the Warren County course. Dominika Lastovickova (31st, 29:44), Alissa Teodorczy (33rd, 32:52) and Jennifer Gomez (35th, 33:46) rounded out the Manville roster.
O’Connor expected a few more athletes to hit the course for this week’s meet at Warren Municipal Field when Manville was set to take on South Hunterdon, Delaware Valley and Mount St. Mary Academy.
The Mustangs will host their only meet of the season Oct. 4 vs. Bernards, but it will not be held at Manville. O’Connor hopes to get the meet scheduled for Pleasant Valley Park, the site of the Somerset County and Skyland Conference championship meets later in October.

