Flynn tops field as individual
By: Sean Moylan Sports Writer
Most cross country squads would be ecstatically happy to win either a NJSIAA team state title or a NJSIAA individual state championship.
This past Sunday at Homdel Park, the deep and talented Robbinsville High girls’ varsity cross country team won them both. Ravens’ junior Megan Flynn captured the Group I individual title with a 19:39 time and the Robbinsville team blew away the rest of the field to win a team championship.
Over the past few years Flynn has won so many awards and trophies, including state gold medals in the 3,200 meter race and the 1,600, her family may have to consider opening a track and field and cross country museum in her honor. However, Sunday’s victories were Flynn’s and Robbinsville High’s first ever state titles in cross country. But it wasn’t entirely unexpected as Flynn had won a Sectional title the previous week at Thompson Park and many of the best Group I runners came out of Central Jersey. And just like at Sectionals, Point Pleasant Beach freshman Brianna Feerst gave Flynn her biggest challenge for the top prize.
“Flynn won by three seconds. The lead she opened up when she made her move was three or four seconds and it stayed that way until the end of the race,” said Robbinsville head varsity cross country coach Mike Walker, who asked Flynn to wait the customary mile and half before she put on the jets. “In a state race time is out the window. You don’t think about that. You just want to win.”
Flynn could have run a better time if she had to, but now she should be fresh and ready for this Saturday’s Meet of Champs.
According to Walker, Flynn looked like she wanted to make her move a bit sooner because so many runners had set a slow pace because of the weather conditions. But she stuck to the plan and it worked.
“It was very blustery and it was extremely windy,” said Walker. “It was the kind of wind that if you didn’t have someone to work with (and cut the wind) it was just whipping around you. And for a while it was hit and miss. It wasn’t a gimme day.”
In fact, midway through the race, North Warren had a slight lead over Robbinsville. Nonetheless, all of the Ravens stayed faithful to their coach’s strategy for the race and it the end it paid off as they clobbered North Warren 48 points to 82.
“We did have a strategy that after ‘The Bowl’ we’d make our moves, which was the same as we did at Counties. We didn’t go out hard like we did at Sectionals at Thompson Park. On Sunday, our girls knew it was time to race after a mile and a half,” said Walker.
Perhaps no Robbinsville runner stayed more true to that strategy than sophomore Meagan Lesniak, who had placed eighth at the state meet last year with a 20:41 time. This year, under terrible weather conditions, Lesniak placed seventh with a 20:54 time to qualify as an individual for the Meet of Champions for the second year in a row.
“Lesniak ended up in seventh place but when I saw her earlier in the race she was in 14th place,” said Walker, who is very proud of the way Lesniak has been running as of late after recovering from a serious injury.
Robbinsville’s Julie Swift placed 12th with a fine time of 21:23. She’s had an unbelievable freshman season. “She just keeps on getting better and better,” added Walker.
Robbinsville’s other top finishers were senior Rachel Balint (a 21:34 time for 16th place), senior Amber Rylak (a 21:37 time for 19th place), freshman Jackie Lazzaro (a 21:37 time for 21rst place) and freshman Lisa Leszcynski (a 22:03 time for 30th place).
“We had seven girls in the Top 30. We had six girls at around 21:30 (or better) at Holmdel. That’s amazing! Just to keep things in perspective, last year Gina Norato (Robbinsville’s first bona fide star athlete) ran a (21:48) time and she placed 17th,” said Walker, whose girls placed ninth as a team at States last year. “That’s as convincing a win as you’re ever going to see at this level.”
Recently, Walker looked up some statistics on the history of New Jersey cross country and discovered just how difficult it is to win a state championship. Many good schools have no state titles of any kind. As a former star runner at Rancocas Valley and the College of New Jersey, Walker appreciates the hard work which goes into being a great distance runner.
The competition may be a bit too strong for Robbinsville to win a team medal at Saturday’s Meet of Champions meet at Holmdel, but it will be a good race for the Ravens to set personal best times. Flynn, however, has a good shot at taking home a Top 25 medal if everything goes at planned.

