Teams set for county, conference meets
by Rudy Brandl, Sports Editor
The Manville High boys’ cross country team played its own game of Survivor in last week’s final regular season meet at Watchung Hills.
Fourth-year head coach Jim O’Connor hasn’t enjoyed the luxury of promoting competition within the team but needed to use the meet to determine which boys would represent the team in the varsity races at the upcoming Somerset County and Skyland Conference championship meets.
The county and conference meets allow seven athletes per team to compete in the varsity race. With 10 MHS boys on the roster, O’Connor needed to come up with a fair solution.
”All 10 ran and they knew what was at stake,” O’Connor said. “They really got into it. The course was a little bit tougher than last week but the kids were up for it.”
The top seven MHS boys to finish last week’s race will run in the varsity division of this week’s county meet and next week’s conference event, both at Pleasant Valley Park in Bernards. The remaining Mustangs will compete in a sub-varsity race and if their times are faster than one of the varsity runners for two straight weeks, they can claim a spot among the elite seven for the Central Jersey Group 1 Championships. That meet is set for Nov. 1 at Thompson Park in Jamesburg.
O’Connor motivated the MHS boys, who didn’t beat Watchung Hills (19-44) or Dunellen (24-32) but ran very well as a team. Junior Eddie Yakobchuk continued to be the team leader, finishing fourth in a field of 72 runners in a time of 18:47.
Sophomores Ernest Yakobchuk and Matias Gualtieri are forming a nice 2-3 punch for the Mustangs. Last week, they both got into the top 20. Yakobchuk was 16th in 20:34 and Gualtieri placed 19th in 21:02.
Freshman Nick Galaini ran well again, taking 31st place in 21:59. Joe Veglatte made a big surge from eighth on his team to fifth in the last quarter-mile to wind up 37th overall in 22:38. Senior Dan Kirkaldy (38th, 22:41) and sophomore Randy Gomez (40th, 22:45) rounded out Manville’s top seven.
The remaining runners Paul Gruszka (22:46), Charlie Burkoski (23:40) and Andrew Franko (25:47) will compete in the jayvee race at the county and conference level to see if they can break into the top seven for the sectionals. Franko went out hard in last week’s race and was Manville’s fifth man after the first mile.
Although the top seven are set for the next two races, O’Connor wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a change, especially near the back of his team’s pack. Many different runners have changed places behind the Yakobchuk brothers.
”It seems to zigzag a little bit, but everybody is running pretty well,” he said. “Joey came from not being in it to getting back in it. For Matias and Joey, it’s tough. They play football on Sundays and they’re banged up. I was hoping for two more days before the county race (run Wednesday, originally scheduled for Friday). It’s tough when they get tackled often on Sunday and have to come back and run.”
The Mustangs couldn’t match Watchung’s depth but came fairly close to a dual meet victory over Dunellen.
”They had three of the first four in and they had a little bit more,” O’Connor said. “Last year, they were much better than us and we lost our top three. They graduated a bunch, but we were more competitive. We had eight guys under 23 (minutes). We’re deeper and stronger in the back than we’ve been before.”
The Manville girls sent four runners out in the regular season finale. With Amanda Velez out for the season with an injury, the MHS girls won’t make the five-runner minimum to compete as a team in the post-season events.
Senior Kate Harodetsky continued to be the team’s steady leader, placing fourth overall in a field of 26 in a time of 23:36. Fellow senior Arielle Mizov returned to action after missing two meets and placed 18th in 27:39. Freshman Jen Wangui (22nd, 29:40) and senior Evanna Tchir (23rd, 29:59) also ran for Manville. Tchir raced for the first time since the season opener.
While the MHS girls will run the county, conference and sectional races for times, O’Connor would like to see the boys finish in front of somebody in the team standings. If they run to keep their spots like they did to get them, it could happen.
”I’m looking for the guys to run their fastest times and I’d really like to break our Pleasant Valley record (21:17 for five-man average),” O’Connor said. “For the kids, it’s got to be about individual time and then coming back the next week and taking it down as much as we can. We want to beat somebody.”

