Sean Moylan, Sports Writer
A very skilled math teacher, Robbinsville High girls’ varsity cross country coach Mike Walker made some quick calculations and then decided that freshman Meagan Lesniak had an excellent shot at advancing out of this past Saturday’s NJSIAA Group I championship tournament, held at Holmdel.
But over the years, many ninth graders “hit a wall” in the late stages of the season and, consequently, many have petered out by the time the state tourney rolls around. Meagan Lesniak, however, is nothing like those kids. She comes from a family with a rich tradition of producing great distance runners. So when she ran a sensational 20:41 time to place eighth overall in Group I it shocked no one, especially her head coach.
”I wasn’t surprised. I thought she was going to finish in the Top 10. It was a great race. She was in 10th place at the mile mark and then she moved her way up,” said Walker, who knew Lesniak was a stellar runner by the time she reached the middle school.
Still, Walker was proud that she was able to run such a smart race with no deviations from the original plan.
Robbinsville senior star Gina Norato almost set a personal record with her 21:48 time, which earned her 21st place overall. Always an awesome competitor, Gina Norato was looking for so much more because she had placed eighth in last year’s state tournament race with a 22:04 time.
”Today (Saturday) just wasn’t her day. I thought Gina (Norato) would be up there and moving on . . . she’s such a hard worker. But I wouldn’t call today a bad race,” said Walker, who was, nevertheless, very happy to see his longtime star better last year’s State time.
”I know how competitive she is and she could have easily gone to the Meet of Champions again. She’s had a great career. She started the program and the kids call her ‘Mother.’ We’re going to really miss her.”
Sophomore Megan Flynn was expected to qualify for the Meet of Champions, but a leg injury which has bothered her the entire season, kept her out of Saturday’s race.
”Flynn didn’t run. It was a tough decision. We tried to see how it (the bad leg) would hold up. She ran the last couple of days (last Thursday and Friday) and it wasn’t happening. So we made the decision for her and kept her out of the race. She would have probably tried to run on it,” said Walker, who is always amazed by Flynn’s remarkable courage as a runner.
Senior Angelika Janiga was the Ravens’ third best runner with a personal best 23:54 time, which placed her 72nd. Freshman Alicia Norato (a 24:44 time for 84th place), senior Erin Hayes (a 24:46 time for 86th place) and junior Holly Lovering (a 26:22 time for 105th place) also finished the race for Robbinsville, which placed ninth overall with 239 points. Haddon Township won the overall meet with 88 points.
”Even with Flynn being healthy we wouldn’t have placed in the Top 3,” added Walker. “And Erin Hayes was fighting bronchitis.”
Robbinsville went from having no “official” varsity girls team to placing second as a team at Sectionals and ninth as a team at States. That’s quite an accomplishment.
Last week Lesniak placed third at Sectionals with a time of 20:16.8 while “Mother” placed fourth with a 20:58.2 mark. Robbinsville will miss “Mother,” Hayes and Janiga, but it has a lot of talented girls coming back next season.
”I don’t know if there was anything we could have done to move on as team,” said Walker, who did get the satisfaction of seeing Lesniak advance to Saturday’s NJSIAA Meet of Champion at Holmdel. “It wasn’t in the stars.”
