Galaini makes impressive debut
by Rudy Brandl, Sports Editor
Youth continues to be served when the Manville High cross country teams take the course.
Last week’s quad-meet at Belvidere provided another opportunity for the young Mustangs to gain experience and improve their times. Only three of the nine MHS athletes who competed were seniors. Manville sent two freshmen, three sophomores and a junior into battle and the youngsters ran very well.
Manville head coach Jim O’Connor was particularly pleased with the performance of his two freshmen Nick Galaini and Jennifer Wangui.
Galaini made his scholastic cross country debut with a time of 21:16 that ranked third on his team and 44th in a field of 61 runners from schools including Somerville, North Warren and Belvidere. MHS did not compete for scoring purposes vs. Belvidere because it had already raced the Warren County school in the season opener but lost to Somerville and North Warren to fall to 1-6 on the season.
But that wasn’t the big story on this day. Galaini had never raced before and he posted an impressive time. He beat a handful of runners with much more experience and reached the finish line in good shape.
”That’s his first race,” O’Connor said. “He went out nice and slow just like I tell a lot of the younger kids and a bunch of them came in together.”
Galaini stayed with sophomore teammate Joey Veglatte, who had made a sparkling debut in the previous week’s race at Green Brook Park in North Plainfield. Veglatte had a little better kick at the end and finished 41st in 21:14.
Wangui continued to improve her times by an average of about two minutes per meet with a career-best 24:36 that ranked 23rd out of 31 runners. Wangui started in the 28-minute range two weeks ago and keeps getting faster. O’Connor knows eventually all runners hit a wall, but he’s been encouraged with Wangui’s early results.
Senior Kate Harodetsky was the only other MHS female to compete in the meet. Amanda Velez and Evanna Tchir sat out with injuries and Arielle Mizov also missed the race.
”I’m still hoping to put five girls out there in one of the championship meets,” said O’Connor, referring to the Somerset County (Oct. 24), Skyland Conference (Oct. 30) and Central Jersey Group 1 (Nov. 8) events.
The MHS boys are also dealing with some injuries, including one to their top runner. Junior Eddie Yakobchuk missed his second straight meet with a hip injury but was hoping to return for this week’s race at Delaware Valley. He should definitely be ready by the Oct. 15 meet at Watchung Hills.
Younger brother Ernest Yakobchuk, a sophomore, led the Mustangs for the second straight week with an impressive time of 18:57. Yakobchuk finished 25th, but it was more noteworthy that he finished a race in under 20 minutes for the first time. That’s a big barrier for many harriers to break.
”He ran nice and smooth,” O’Connor said. “He’s really very economical in the way he runs. He’s easy on his body.”
Other MHS boys who ran at Belvidere included Randy Gomez (47th, 21:52), Dan Kirkaldy (55th, 22:32), Charlie Burkoski (56th, 22:32) and Andrew Franko (59th, 23:34). Gomez hit a personal milestone by breaking 22 minutes for the first time.
”The kids ran well,” O’Connor said. “Belvidere has a short course but we only had a few kids who had run it before. There are lots of turns so the course doesn’t time as short as it is. The kids had a good race.”