By: Sean Moylan Sports Writer
With an individual NJSIAA Central Jersey Group I title and a second-place finish in the Group I State meet already to his credit, Robbinsville High boys’ varsity cross country superstar Nick Lachman was already assured of having a fantastic 2008 cross country season.
While he was going up against one of the greatest fields of distance runners in the history of New Jersey cross country in the this past Saturday’s NJSIAA Meet of Champions, Lachman chose not to be intimidated or rest on his laurels in the race. Instead, the Ravens’ junior standout went on an all-out attack to take home a Top 20 medal. Unfortunately, he fell just two places short of his goal and ended up placing 22nd out of a field of 185 of New Jersey’s best runners.
Nevertheless, Lachman ran a 16:24 time, which was a full seven seconds better than the second-place mark he posted in the NJSIAA State Group 1 finals at Holmdel Park the previous week. While Toms River North’s Joe Kotran, Pingry’s Mattew LaForgia and Lachman all finished with a 16:24 time, it was Kotran who placed 20th to grab the last medal. Each one of those boys averaged a 5:17 mile.
“It came down to the final second. He (Lachman) was running in a group with the 19th to the 24th place finishers. He ran faster at our county meet, but that’s his best time at Holmdel. He was happy with the way he performed. He knew that for that day he did everything right to put himself in that position (22nd). He wasn’t disappointed. To be the 22nd fastest runner in the entire state. That’s a great way to finish off the season,” said Walker, who is very happy with all the hard work Lachman put into this season just to qualify for the Meet of Champions.
An amazing five runners finished the race in under 16 minutes, which is practically unheard of. The winner, Millburn’s Tyler Udland ran an uncanny time of 15:40. Local star Joe Rosa from West Windsor-
Plainsboro North placed second with a 15:47 mark. However, besides a few West Windsor-Plainsboro North runners, Lachman was the top finisher in the CVC. It’s been a wonderful season for the Ravens who won an NJSIAA Group I Sectional team championship even though they weren’t projected to win a team title until next year.
“As a team the Sectional meet was our best race. The guys are set up. If they’re ever going to do it (win a Group I state championship) they’re going to do it next year,” said Walker, whose team placed fourth in the Group 1 state meet and also ran well in the Mercer County Tournament. “We hope we have everyone back, but you never know what new guys will be coming in. This year we were just 11 points from making it to the Meet of Champions as a team.”
The Ravens are only graduating one senior, Mike Landolfi. In addition to Lachman’s outstanding accomplishments, many of Robbinsville’s juniors had breakthrough seasons as 11th graders Ryan Bottin, Tim Brazelton, Ryan Lee, Dan Orlak and Tyler Muir all stepped up to every challenge in the state tournament. And sophomore Brian O’Toole has been nothing short of spectacular over the past month or so.
There will be at least 15 other runners, including junior Chris Woidill and Matt Mahoney, several sophomores and freshman Constantine Moraitis vying for spots in the varsity rotation next year as well. Because of its current great junior class, with continued hard work, 2009 could be “The Year’ for Robbinsville boys’ varsity cross country. However, Walker sees some ways where even he can improve as a head coach, and he plans on training his team to be good for years to come.
