By: Sean Moylan Sports Writer
“After we won at states it was a great high for them and then it was like ‘what will we do next?’ I was nervous because there could have had a major letdown at the Meet of Champions. That didn’t happen. They were all pretty close to last week’s times (at states),” said Mike Walker, after his Robbinsville High girls’ varsity cross country squad placed 14th as a team at Saturday’s NJSIAA Meet of Champions at Holmdel Park.
A total of 20 teams competed in the event and Robbinsville, one of the smallest schools there, even placed four points ahead of Shawnee, which is a huge South Jersey powerhouse. The average time of the Robbinsville runners was 21:06.
“I’m pleased that they were 14th in the state. We know where we are,” said Walker, whose team, by racing against the best runners in New Jersey in the Shore Coaches Invitational, the Mercer County Championships (Robbinsville took third in that tourney) and other big meets, knew what it was up against on Saturday.
Walker trained his girls’ team to be at their best by the time the Sectionals and the Group I State race rolled around. And, consequently, the Ravens won both of those team titles quite easily this season.
However, because Robbinsville’s Megan Flynn has firmly held the position of Group I’s best cross country runner, every meet puts added pressure and strain on her to stay on top. After easily winning an individual State and Sectional title, Flynn had to run a much different race this past Saturday because she was going against some of the fastest runners in the country, including Voorhees’ Melanie Thompson, who won the race with a remarkable 17:47 time.
Flynn didn’t have her “A” race on Saturday. Yet, she is so tough, she ran a 19:29 time to place 31st overall (11th as a team runner) out of 179 runners in the competition. That time was a full 10 seconds better than the one she posted last week to win the State title at Holmdel. But heavy winds were a factor in that Group I final race.
“She was off a little bit and she still finished 31st in the entire state. That says a lot about her,” said Walker, who, in some of ways, was prouder of Flynn performance in Saturday’s Meet of Champions, than he was in some of her countless wins over the last three years. Because, like a veteran pitcher who doesn’t have his best stuff, Flynn made the most out her situation on Saturday.
“She was injured last year so she never ran in a cross country Meet of Champions before. This will be a learning experience to help her out in the future,” added Walker of Flynn.
Robbinsville’s next best finisher was sophomore Meagan Lesniak, who placed 100th overall ( 62nd in the team competition) with a fine time of 20:50. Last year Lesniak qualified as an individual for the Meet of Champions and ran a 21 minute time.
“Lesniak had a great race. To place 100th in that race — there’s no shame in that. She improved by (20 places) from last year,” said Walker. “She’s been nursing an injury for a couple of weeks. It’s not a big thing, but we had skip a workout and give her a day off (every once in a while).”
Senior Amber Rylak (a 21:36 time for the 129th best overall time and 90th best team time), freshman Jackie Lazzaro (134th place with a 21:47 time), senior Rachel Balint (135th place with a 21:48 time), freshman Julie Swift (142nd place with a 21:57 time) and Lisa Leszcynski (149th place with a time of 22:06) all ran solid races for the Ravens to help them do as well as they did as a team.
“Flynn and Lesniak have been through races like that. But the other five girls have never been in anything like this with all the hoopla that surrounds it . . . it’s quite a sight for them. But they were actually a little less nervous than I thought they’d be,” said Walker, who really enjoyed the experience of watching one of his entire teams competing in the Meet of Champion. “Next year is going to be different. There is no more surprising people. We have a bull’s eye on us now! But we have five of our seven runners coming back from a team that dominated Group I.”
While Robbinsville will miss Balint and Rylak and its other two seniors (Amber “The Great” Scott and Holly Lovering), it will have its best two runners back next season, in Flynn and Lesniak.
Sophomore Alicia Norato had a great season this year and she’s ready to step into the regular varsity rotation full time. The seventh varsity runner will most likely come out of the current group of freshmen or it may be an incoming freshman.
With this great championship team there’s always a good-natured competition for spots in the lineup. Robbinsville girls won two state team titles this Fall. That’s more Fall titles than the rest of the CVC had combined.
