Yakobchuk brothers, Harodetsky lead way
by Rudy Brandl, Sports Editor
BERNARDS Eddie Yakobchuk called last Thursday’s Skyland Conference Championships at Pleasant Valley Park in Bernards an experience.
The Manville High junior cross country runner, in his first year out for the sport, had never raced against a field so fast or so big. Yakobchuk wasn’t intimidated, but running in a field of 150 boys on a difficult course was much more challenging than competing in a quad meet or jogging around the streets of Manville.
Yakobchuk and his younger brother Ernest, a sophomore, had not raced in two weeks and were getting over illnesses that kept them out of the previous week’s Somerset County Championships. They returned to lead the MHS boys in the Skyland meet.
Eddie Yakobchuk set a new personal record (18:21.94) and finished 73rd overall.
“I haven’t run in two weeks, so I didn’t expect this,” Eddie Yakobchuk said. “I just jogged a couple of miles. I didn’t know what was going to happen.”
Some of the state’s fastest runners were in the field. This race presented a much different challenge than the typical regular season tri-meets and quad-meets.
”It was hard running with all those runners,” Eddie Yakobchuk said. “This is my first year of cross country and I never experienced running that fast with so many fast guys. I just had to run fast.”
Ernest Yakobchuk broke the 21-minute mark for the first time ever, placing 113th in a time of 19:47.45. The younger Yakobchuk had heard all the talk about the difficulty of the course and its hills. He just went out and ran his best.
”I heard about the first hill but I got past it pretty good,” Ernest Yakobchuk said. “I didn’t even expect to run this good. I haven’t run in an actual race in two weeks.”
Manville head coach Jim O’Connor was pleased with his team’s performance in the conference meet. Although the MHS boys finished last, they made significant improvements over their county times. Having the Yakobchuk brothers back was a big help.
”I’m impressed with what they’ve done,” O’Connor said. “The goal was to knock about 20 seconds off last week’s time. Up in the front, most of them did what they were trying to do.”
The MHS boys lowered their team average time and the team’s top three finishers ran faster than last week’s leader. Matias Gualtieri took 32 seconds off his county time finishing three spots behind Ernest Yakobchuk in 20:36.62.
Other Manville boys who finished the Skyland race included freshman Nick Galaini (22:05.35) and sophomores Joey Veglatte (22:09.17) and Randy Gomez (22:34.01).
O’Connor was extremely impressed with the performance of senior Kate Harodetsky, who established another personal record and broke 23 minutes for the first time. Harodetsky finished 94th in 22:53.19, about 31 seconds faster than the previous week’s county race.
”It’s her best race ever,” O’Connor said. “It was her first time under 23 and she did it on a course that’s sloppy instead of firm. She ran the best race of her life.”
Harodetsky’s three healthy teammates also finished the race Arielle Mizov (27:23.86), Evanna Tchir (27.56.06) and freshman Jennifer Wangui (33:31.00).
Manville expects to field a full boys’ team and send four girls to the course for Saturday’s Central Jersey Group 1 Championships at Thompson Park in Jamesburg. The course isn’t as grueling and the competition won’t be nearly as fierce.
”We run against Group 1s on an easier course,” O’Connor said. “It should be a good day.”
The Yakobchuk boys, who will be two key figures on the MHS wrestling team this winter, aren’t ready to don their singlets just yet. Both boys want to attack the Thompson Park course, which is known to be easier than the Pleasant Valley Park terrain, and run new personal records. They’re coming off very good races and feeling confident.
”I’m really proud,” Ernest said. “I expect to run faster next week.”
”I still want to break into the 17s,” Eddie said. “I still have next week.”
The Mustangs weren’t expecting to finish in the top five in the team standings or place any individual runners in the top 10, so the Central Jersey Group 1 Championships likely will be their final race of the 2008 season.

