Mater Dei’s Non-Public B boys cross-country state championship was a year in the making.
Head coach Mike Tursi said his harriers began thinking about the state title last November after the Seraphs finished third at the State Group meet. A strong finish at the Meet of Champions the next week convinced them that it was within their reach.
“We knew we were capable of winning it,” said Tursi.
The Seraphs made it look easy on Nov. 16 when they beat runner-up Moorestown Friends, by 34 points, 36-70, to win their sixth State Group title (first since 1999)
But it wasn’t that easy. Tursi could recall some anxious times back in August.
“I remember thinking we could do what we wanted,” he said.
The Seraphs top runner Curtis Jensen had suffered a stress fracture at the end of the outdoor track season, and that slowed his summer training. Tom Daley suffered the same injury and was also undertrained.
The injury bug didn’t stop there; Jonathan Urena had back problems and No. 2 runner Patrick O’Boyle missed a week with a concussion from a skateboard accident.
No wonder Tursi had questions about his team’s ability to achieve its potential. But, August turned into September and things began to turn around.
First, the Seraphs picked up their first invitational title in 10 years winning their Division at the Stewart Memorial in Elizabeth convincingly. They would win their Shore Conference Division (B Central) crown for a third year in a row.
Outstanding finishes at Monmouth County (fifth) and the Shore Conference (seventh) boosted the Seraphs confidence even more.
Jensen and O’Boyle, in the meantime, were establishing themselves as the conference’s best one-two. They finished onetwo at the Stewart Memorial. At the SC, O’Boyle set a Holmdel Park school record (16:15) and Jensen was close by running (16:18) for the third fastest in school history. Together they were third and fifth.
The Seraphs had never had more than three runners under 18:00 at Holmdel Park in one race before and here, they had five and a school record team average of 17:16.20.
The stage was now set for a big Seraph Day at the NJSIAA Group Championships and Mater Die was ready.
Jensen (16:46) ran second to Gill St. Bernard’s Doug Smith (15:44), the MOC favorite.
O’Boyle gutted it out through a cramp to finish third (16:53) giving the team what it wanted up front, two-three, although maybe not the way they expected with O’Boyle needing a late spring to take third at the line.
Ryan Lundy (17:47) and Mike Woyak (17:47) both came up with Holmdel Park personal bests in 10th and 11th place. Fifth scorer Urena was near his personal best at 18:02. He finished 13th overall.
Sixth and seventh runners, Daly and Mike Amato, were 29th and 37th overall.
Mater Dei’s team average was 17:27. “They worked hard; they are a great bunch of kids,” said Tursi, who won his third state title as the Seraphs head coach.
During the season, the Seraph harriers got to break in the school’s new allweather track. The old cider track has been retired.
With the depth the team has shown in winning this state title, Tursi is looking forward to putting together 4×800 and Distance Medley Relay teams that can post qualifying times for the Penn Relays next spring.