By: Sean Moylan Sports Writer
Had it been a little kids race, they would have probably just ruled it a tie.
However the officials running the show at Holmdel Park for Sunday’s NJSIAA Group I State Championship Meet used all of the sophisticated timing equipment at their disposal to determine that Verona’s Dave Oster just barely outleaned Robbinsville High’s Nick Lachman to win the Group I individual title.
“Nick (Lachman) came in second by one-tenth of a second. Pepole were confused as to who won the race. It was a photo finish. It was just him and the other kid (Oster) battling it out,” said Robbinsville High varsity cross country head coach Mike Walker, who is happy to see Lachman advance as an individual to this coming Saturday’s Meet of Champions at Holmdel Park. “It was a gutsy race on Sunday.”
Oster was credited with a time of 16:30 while Lachman had an official second place time of 16:31. Both boys average a 5:19 mile for the race. No one else was even close to Oster and Lachman as the Bogota’s Pat Rochford placed a distant third with a 16:48 time. Last year at States, Lachman placed 13th overall with a 17:16 time so he has really improved. Lachman won a Central Jersey Group I Sectional title last week.
Robbinsville experienced a bit of heartbreaker as a team, too. Robbinsville placed fourth as a team, 11 points behind the third place finisher Metuchen. Since only the Top 3 teams move on the Meet of Champions, this is the end of the line for all of the Ravens except for Lachman. Ironically, Robbinsville won a Group I Sectional team title last week at Thompson Park and one of the teams it beat (by four points) was Metuchen. However, Holmdel is a much different course which was more conducive to the style of many of Metuchen’s runners. Haddon Township won Saturday’s overall team title.
“They all ran a strong race they just fell a little short,” added Walker, who is very happy with the way his boys have stepped up this season, a year before he expected they would.
One of the major reasons for Robbinsville’s phenomenal success has been the brilliant running of sophomore Brian O’Toole, who placed 14th overall with a 17:32 time.
“Brian O’Toole’s success is good for our guys’ team in the future. That gives us someone to carry the torch after these junior guys that we have now are seniors next year.”
In addition to Lachman, five other Robbinsville juniors placed in the Top 76 and there were 149 runners competing in Sunday’s race. Those Robbinsville 11th grade runners were as follows: Ryan Bottin (an 18:24 time for 35th place), Ryan Lee (an 18:40 time for 43rd place), Dan Orlak (an 18:53 time for 56th place), Tim Brazelton (a 19:02 time for 67th place) and Tyler Muir (a 19:18 time for 76th place).
“Our guys team did better than we expected (going into the season). But we knew they’d eventually be a Top 5 Group I team. The guys did a great job,” said Walker, who’d like to see Lachman come home with a Top 25 medal in this Saturday’s Meet of Champions event at Holmdel Park.

