EDISON – The J.P. Stevens High School girls and boys cross country teams both finished among the top 10 at the St. Dominic Invitational at Lincoln Park in Jersey City over the weekend.
Fresh off their 18-44 win over Perth Amboy to open the season, the Stevens girls team ran to a seventh-place finish. The team performance was remarkable considering the team is currently running without one of its top runners in junior Maggie Fry. Out with shin splints, Fry is expected back in the lineup this week.
“We didn’t want to push her this early in the season,” Stevens head coach David Allen said. “This year it’s about gearing up for the big meets and taking the early ones to get moving in the right direction. The key is to keep progressing from the previous meet.”
After finishing the 2006 dual meet season 7-0 with the school’s first-ever Red Division title, the Stevens team of 2007 will need all of its runners in top form at the end of the season. The team lost five of its top seven from last year’s championship squad.
With Fry and Sarah Zhang back, two of last year’s top three runners, a shot at another Red Division title is possible. Much will depend on how quickly sophomore Casey Bauman and juniors Jenna Cuzzo, Suneri Shah and Nikita Vriani can replace the missing parts from last year’s lineup. Bauman was impressive at the St. Dominic Invitational with an 18th-place finish in 22:03 over 3.3 miles. Zhang was the first Stevens runner to finish in 21:51, placing her 15th.
On the boys’ side, the Hawks ran to a fifth-place finish at Lincoln Park after opening the season with an impressive 28-31 win over St. Joseph High School.
While the girls team opened the season with five losses from last year’s top seven, the boys were faced with the daunting task of replacing all seven of its top runners from 2006.
With Matt Kass and Kaivalya Deshpande running atop the lineup, the Stevens team looks ready to improve upon its 2-5 dual meet record from a year ago. Last year’s team finished a respectable seventh place in the Greater Middlesex County finals and in the state sectionals.
To beat St. Joe’s, Stevens had impressive times from Kass and Deshpande as the two crossed the finish line in 17:39 and 17:41, respectively. At the St. Dominic Invitational, Deshpande was the first Hawk across the finish line in 18:35 over the 3.3-mile course. His time was good enough for 15th place.
Kyle Wysoczynski, Ron Radu, Neel Patel and Andrew Gulya all put forth noteworthy times to help defeat St. Joe’s.
After opening this week with a dual meet against division rival East Brunswick, the Stevens teams will run in the Bernie Magee Invitational Class Meet at Warinanco Park in Roselle on Sept. 22.