Viking girls do it again

Take five of top eight spots to win GMC title

By John Beisser, Sports Writer
   Last Saturday, when the South Brunswick High girls cross country team set out to defend its Greater Middlesex Conference Championship at Thompson Park, head coach Will Rivera thought placing five girls in the top 15 would represent a fine effort.
   Well, the Vikings accomplished that goal and more, placing five runners in the top eight of the competition in breezing to the title with a score of 29, easily out-distancing second place Old Bridge (126) and third place J.P. Stevens (126)
   Freshman sensation Cayla Delpiano placed third overall with a time of 19:17.4, a mark bettered only by Angelica Brinkofski of Bishop Ahr (18:57.2) and Old Bridge’s Chelsea Lodato (19:08.2). Fifth-through-eighth places was a pack of Vikings.
   Sophia Ginez, the defending GMC individual champion, returned after a month off due to a knee injury to gut out a fifth place finish (20:02.0), followed by Lyndsey Sample (6th, 20:23.0), Ashley Edwards (7th, 20:24.6), and Jennifer Smilgis (8th, 20:26.2). Amanda Smilgis became the seventh Viking to earn a medal by placing in the top 30, coming in with a 26th-place finish with a time of 21:25.3.
   ”It was a pretty dominant effort,” said Rivera. “I was pretty confident we’d do well going in but five girls in the top eight? No, I can’t say I expected that.
   ”Cayla has definitely had a great season and to finish third is a great accomplishment. I knew she had the ability coming into the season, but with freshmen you never know how they’re going to respond to the work load and demands but she’s been great.”
   Rivera was proud of his other runners, particularly Ginez who was only cleared to train a week prior to the event following her long layoff.
   ”I thought Sophia’s race was a testament to how tough she is,” he said. “I didn’t know what to expect. The hope was that she would come out of it pain free, which she did. That first mile was very fast and that took a lot out of her. To miss a month and finish in fifth was really amazing.”
   Ginez said that her knee held up fine throughout the race, but another part of her body was a concern.
   ”My knee wasn’t bothering me at all but I could feel it in my lungs,” she said. “Not running for a month, I could feel it. I did a lot of bike work, worked out in the pool, in addition to my physical therapy. But it’ not the same as running.”
   Rounding out the Viking finishers were Kim McGrath (24th, 21:16) and Amanda Smilgis (26th, 21:26).
   On the boy’s side, Matt Boley earned a medal after turning in a fine seventh-place performance with a time of 16:43.8 in leading the Vikings to a seventh-place finish. Old Bridge took the team title followed by East Brunswick and South Plainfield. Maanek Kumar of Piscataway was the individual champion with a time of 16:22.2. Also earning a medal for South Brunswick was Jonathan Bellizio who ran a personal best 17:13.9.
   ”Matt ran a really fine race,” said Rivera. “His season best would have placed him maybe in the top three but seventh was a fine effort and an improvement over his ninth-place finish last year.
   ”With Matt, you know he’s going to run hard the whole way and give you everything he’s got. I thought he ran a great race. And I felt really good for Jon that he could come up with a medal in his senior season.”
   Other SBHS finishers were Sean Monaghan (34th, 17:35), Brian Dixon (47th, 17:56), Connor Scharff (75th, 18:31), Kevin O’Laughlin (84th, 18:43) and James Brennan (86th, 18:45).
   This Saturday, the Vikings will send seven girls and seven boys to the Central Jersey Group IV Meet, which will also take place at Thompson Park. On Nov. 15, the State Group IV Meet will take place at Holmdel Park followed by the Meet of Champions, on Nov. 22, which will also be held at Holmdel Park.
   The Vikings Emilie Transue won the JV girls race while Afshan Ahmed was sixth and Rebecca Giampolo ninth.
   In the boys JV race, consisting of 202 runners, SBHS had 13 finishers in the top 100 as it took third place in the team standings. Nicholas Denuzzo was 10th, Daniel Boyle 15th, Dan Medell 17th, Andrew Sudran 222nd, William Pan 23rd, Sean Hudgins 29th, Rajeev Shah 30th, Ryan Polny 38th, Stephen Ragany 47th, Patrick Landy 53rd, Jithin Jacob 58th, Brian Park 64th, Chris Campagnola 99th and Utsarga Sikder 152nd.
   Giving the Vikes a second champion on the day, Melanie Huen won the freshman race while teammates Kayla Noll was second, Kelly Prince ninth and Amanda Walters 24th.
   The Viking freshman boys provided the school a second team title by outdistancing J.P. Stevens by a whopping 37 points. Brendan Dempsey was third, following by Tilak Balavijayan (6th,), Sean Rogers (7th), Dan Boley (9th), Justin Sonatore (11th), Jason Jeon (13th), Matthew Paradowski (17th), Ashwin Kommajesula (21st) and Kuhan Umakanthan (80th).