MHS harriers seek improvement in conference meet

Young runners perform well in county

by Rudy Brandl, Sports Editor
   The Manville High boys had high hopes of finishing in front of a team or two in last week’s Somerset County Cross Country Championships at Pleasant Valley Park. The team had been coming on strong in recent weeks and was primed to beat somebody.
   Unfortunately, the Mustangs did not go into the race at full strength. The injury and illness bug kept a few varsity runners out of action and Manville wound up finishing last in the team standings.
   Junior Eddie Yakobchuk and sophomore Ernest Yakobchuk, the team’s top two runners all season, did not compete. Both had missed school due to illness, which left the Manville boys with a much different squad.
   MHS head coach Jim O’Connor expected to have a full team of seven boys run and finish the course. Things certainly didn’t work out that way.
   ”I don’t know what happened, I guess it was illness,” O’Connor said afterward. “I had hopes we could beat Rutgers Prep. We were doing OK until we disappeared into the woods. We got in a comfort zone and didn’t beat anybody.”
   With the Yakobchuk brothers in the lineup, the Mustangs likely would have finished in front of Rutgers Prep in the team standings. Even without them and the last place finish, O’Connor saw some positives.
   ”The times were fairly good on a very challenging course,” he said. “Everyone except for Randy Gomez was running the course for the first time. We had a bunch of young kids out there running the course for the first time. A lot of the times were close to personal bests.”
   Sophomore Matias Gualtieri led Manville’s pack of six runners, finishing 81st in the 100-boy race in a time of 21:08. Gualtieri didn’t even race until October and has made major strides in a short time.
   Freshman Nick Galaini, another youngster who has shown considerable promise this autumn, ranked second on the Mustangs at the county meet. Galaini placed 87th overall in a time of 21:33.
   Gomez and Joe Veglatte, a pair of sophs, finished 93rd and 94th in 22:30 and 22:36, respectively. Charlie Burkowski (96th, 22:41) and Paul Gruszka (98th, 22:44) rounded out Manville’s team.
   ”Considering the best two kids weren’t there, we didn’t do too badly,” O’Connor said. “The hills are tough. Our meets get us a little bit ready, but we run on more flat courses. Del Val’s course gave us a little bit of a challenge.”
   Senior Kate Harodetsky was the only MHS female to run in the county meet. Harodetsky ran her lifetime best at the Pleasant Valley Park course, finishing 71st in 23:24.
   ”I thought it was her best performance at Pleasant Valley,” O’Connor said. “I told her to go out and run as well as she can. She’s a senior and she’s run there for four years. I wanted her to look back on her cross country career knowing she ran the race the best she could.”
   With most of Harodetsky’s teammates on injured reserve, the MHS girls could not compete as a team like O’Connor had hoped earlier in the season. The long season of racing has taken its toll on the Mustangs, who have just two more opportunities to race in 2008.
   Manville will return to Pleasant Valley for Thursday’s Skyland Conference Championships and spend another week preparing for the Central Jersey Group 1 Championships at Thompson Park in Jamesburg on Nov. 8.
   ”We want to do better in the conference,” O’Connor said. “I’m hoping for 15-20 seconds faster per man next week. Maybe we’ll get a few more people healthy.”