BY: Sean Moylan Sports Writer
Following a strong showing at the Shore Coaches Cross Country Invitational at Holmdel on Saturday, the Northern Burlington County Regional High boys’ varsity cross country team capped off one its best regular seasons ever by beating three out of the four teams it faced in Tuesday’s home batch race.
NBC defeated Rancocas Valley (24-31), Burlington City (15-50) and Palmyra (15-50). Unfortunately, Moorestown won a 26-32 decision over Northern Burlington in spite of the fact that the Greyhounds had the top two overall finishers in the race.
Mike Bowden’s 16:01 time put him well ahead of the rest of the competition in Tuesday’s race.
“Mike (Bowden) won which was good and he ran a (personal record) which is great,” said NBC head varsity cross country coach Steve Alustiza.
According to Alustiza, Bowden’s only regret about the race was that his time wasn’t two seconds faster, which would have put him under 16 minutes. Nonetheless, he did better his school record time by roughly two seconds.
Bowden’s strongest push came from teammate Ryan Ramirez, who posted a personal record 16:19 time to capture second place. Northern’s Dylan Kurowsky rounded out the Top 10 with a 17:13 time. This past Saturday, Andre Dupuis fell hard twice at Holmdel and, consequently, Alustiza wondered if he could even compete in Tuesday’s batch race. But Dupuis not only competed—he took 14th place overall. He’s a tough kid, but so are all of the current Greyhounds.
“It was a miracle he was able to run a 17:27 (personal record),” added Alustiza of Dupuis.
Huntley Nolan (17:33 for 17th place), Jordan Andrade (17:46), Jon Grossman (18:36) and Todd Hoisington (18:45) were the Greyhounds’ other top finishers. Usually Hoisington will run a little faster but there was a good reason for his slightly below average time on Tuesday.
“We found out why his time was a little off today (Tuesday). After running a 5K at Holmdel on Saturday he ran a 5K road race at Great Adventure on Sunday,” said Alustiza.
On the girls’ side, NBC shut down Palmyra 15-50. However, Rancocas Valley beat NBC 18-37 and Moorestown posted a 16-39 win over the home team on Tuesday. Nonetheless, it was a very productive race for the Lady Greyhounds, who ran their best overall race of the regular season.
“We rest them over the weekend and they didn’t compete at Holmdel and it paid off,” noted Alustiza.
Northern’s Tanya Doschyk ran a personal best 20:21 time. Emma Rosenwinkel (22:43) and Lydia Nolan (23:02) ran very well. Sara Morris, Selena Senachia and Brittany Michaels all ran strong races too.
“Even though they lost to two tough teams our girls performed well,” added Alustiza, whose Lady Greyhounds finished the regular batch race season with a 6-5 record.
The NBC boys finished with a sparkling 13-2 record.
“We’re 13-2 and I’ll take it. We lost just to Cinnaminson, which beat Moorestown,” noted Alustiza. “Our boys ran great on Saturday and great today (Tuesday).”
This past Saturday while the majority of senior cross country runners in the state chose to either take the SATs or compete in the Shore Coaches Invitational, Bowden decided to do both. And yet he still ran a 17:07 time to place 12th overall in the Boys’ Varsity C Race.
“He took the SAT’s on Saturday morning and then he met us later in the day,” said Alustiza, who was impressed that Bowden could compete at all after four hours of mental testing. “But he (Bowden) knows he could have ran better (at Holmdel) and he proved it today (Tuesday). He was able to shake it off and come back today and run an excellent race.”
Ramirez posted an excellent 17:21 time at Holmdel to capture 15th place. Kurowsky recorded a 17:49 mark, which was good enough for 29th place medal. Andrade placed 71st while Nolan (96th place), Dupuis (105th place despite falling twice) and Hoisington (108th place) also ran well for the Greyhounds in a race with 187 runners in it. Northern Burlington placed seventh overall as a team. And the average time for the Greyhound runners was just under 18 minutes, which is very good for that course.
This Saturday NBC is scheduled to compete in the South Jersey Open at Delsea.

