By Justin Feil, The Packet Group
Julia Borowski sees the same potential for success in the Robbinsville High School girls cross country team as it had in last year’s history-making season, even if the names surrounding her have changed.
The Ravens junior is used to running with a fast pack of teammates, and that is not different. But graduated are Julie Swift, Jackie Lazzaro and Lisa Leszcynski, seniors when they enjoyed the school’s first Mercer County Championship last fall. In their place around Borowski is a new fleet of Raven harriers.
”I feel like it’s very similar to last year,” Borowski said. “It’s a different group, of course. It’s really helpful. Without each other, I wouldn’t be able to do what I’m able to do with my teammates.”
Borowski led the Ravens to a surprise second-place finish in the Varsity E race at the Shore Coaches Invitational at Holmdel Park on Saturday. She was sixth as the Ravens averaged 21:38.00 and scored 67 points to trail only Bernards’ 55. Third-place Mountain Lakes had 87.
”We were really happy with the results because we did have a lot of new people in there,” said Ravens head coach Mike Walker. “We were missing two of our top five because of injuries. We thought that maybe the performance wouldn’t be that strong.
”Paris Hughes is out, and she’s been up there and varsity since her freshman year. Losing her and her ability, we didn’t know how the outcome would be. Our other, Lauren Piccione, was JV last year, but she’s been our fifth runner every major race we’ve run. We were just hoping for a good day. We wanted to go out and get ready for counties and sectionals. We were happy with the end result. It was one of those things you look at and say, who’s going to step up. The girls did a great job. It was good to see.”
Just behind Borowski, who ran 20:55, was Annalise Celano in eighth in 21:05, Erin Holzbaur was 12th in 21:41, Alex Stringfellow ran 22:10, Makenzie Bayless was 26th in 22:19 and Jamie Lazzaro was 60th in 24:08.
”I thought altogether our team ran really well,” Borowski said. “A lot of us ran in little groups, which is helpful. I think we all did well. We had a couple girls get injured and hope they get back into it so they can join in.”
The more, the merrier for Borowski and the Robbinsville pack which is a key to their chances to become the first team since 2005 to repeat at the Mercer County Championships in three weeks. They have spent the first month adjusting to the new dynamics of this year’s team that has several runners up from junior varsity last year as well as a transfer from soccer, Holzbaur, whose brother David was a strong runner for the Ravens for four years.
”It’s a little different because in past years, I always ran the races and ran with Julie and Jackie and Lisa who graduated last year,” Borowski said. “It’s me, Annalise, Erin and Paris this year. We try to run together. It’s not who comes in first, it’s working together to do our best in the race.”
Already the girls have won the small school division in Rhode Island’s Ocean State Cross Country Invitational to go with their short-handed runner-up finish at the Shore Coaches meet. Hughes competed in the Rhode Island race, but Stringfellow did not due to injury before she returned for Shore Coaches to show the Ravens’ depth.
”Alexis Stringfellow was fourth and she was battling injury at the beginning of season,” Walker said. “We lost a couple girls, and hopefully they’re not out long, and Alexis jumped right in and ran a terrific race. We don’t have a big team, but we’re pretty deep with our talent and ability.”
Walker’s boys team also has some talent, but is even younger than the girls group. The Robbinsville boys were sixth in Varsity E with an average time of 18:37.60. Leading the Ravens was the trio of Pat Buonamassa, Nick Brennan and Ryan Fischer, who were 40th, 41st and 42nd respectively. Buonamassa ran 18:27 while the other two ran 18:28. Due to SATs, the Ravens’ top runner, Michael Michon, missed the team’s race, though he did compete later as an individual.
”We have a couple seniors, but other than that, it’s all freshmen and sophomores and a couple juniors trying to get in there,” Walker said. “We’re pretty young compared to what I’ve had in past years. The varsity race, they ran all right. We had a tight pack with three guys that finished within a second of each other.
”The highlight was the boys won the freshman B race. Any guys that are varsity, if they’re freshmen, they run the Freshman race. I keep track of all the times we’ve had with all of our guys, and we had a guy finish second and fourth and they blew out all the times we’ve had. The freshmen this year, it’s really a good group we have. I think it’s the first time we’ve won. So that was the highlight.”
The Allentown High School boys finished 12th in Varsity B with an average of 18:39.20. Their top finisher was sophomore Conor Murphy, who placed 36th overall in the race.
The Allentown girls were 16th in Varsity B with an average of 22:53.60. Heather Murphy was 32nd and Alexandra Tendler was 33rd for the Redbirds.
Both the Robbinsville boys and girls teams figure to continue to develop as they gain experience running together at the varsity level. The Raven girls can build off a big showing at the Shore Coaches.
”I guess it’s a little surprising with Paris and Lauren out as such strong parts of our team,” Borowski said. “We’ve really worked hard this year. I guess we can surprise ourselves.”
Even though half the team is new, it wasn’t hard for them to find motivation in trying to join a team that won the school’s first Mercer crown last year. It even helped returning runners like Borowski to prepare to chase another championship.
”I think so because we got to see all the hard work that was required to do so,” she said. “It shows us how hard we have to work to have the same success this year that all those girls that graduated did.”
Borowski has upped her training this year. She can handle the higher mileage of a veteran runner now, and her experience pays off in big races like the Shore Coaches at the famed Holmdel course.
”Since I’m a junior now, I’ve seen it a couple times,” Borowski said. “I knew what I was getting myself into a little more, but it’s always difficult with those hills.”
She has used her experience to bring along some runners that are still adjusting to varsity competition. They have progressed well through the first month as they look to the biggest part of the season which begins in three weeks with counties.
”It’s still a pretty tight pack,” Walker said. “When we’re healthy, I have four runners that are as good as what I had for my top pack last year.
”I think we have three or four girls at the county meet that could finish in the top five. Any one of them could do it. It’s been interesting to see the back and forth.”
The Ravens were scheduled to face their toughest test of the dual meet season against West Windsor-Plainsboro South on Tuesday. They’ll close up the Colonial Valley Conference racing schedule in two weeks and then prepare for counties.
”I think we all felt really good about the results (Saturday),” Borowski said. “Coming in second with two of our top girls out, it was exciting and showed how much our work in the summer and into the fall has been paying off.”
The Ravens are trying not to get too excited about their race results with still more than a month of big races ahead of them. But there’s a sense of excitement in general about Robbinsville again after they have lived up to the pre-season hopes of reloading.
”I thought so because all the people coming up have really good efforts and put in the time they need to get faster,” Borowski said. “And of course, whenever you have success like we had last year, everyone wants to work hard to compete. I think we’re really capable of doing it.
”We still have that whole pack mentality last year that we talked about. It’s really been paying off.”

