By Justin Feil, The Packet Sports
On Saturday, Nick McFarland will run in his final cross country Meet of Champions race to cap his high school career.
The Hillsborough High School senior’s only wish is that he could have the rest of the Raiders there to run as well.
”It feels good, but it wasn’t really the total goal to go by myself,” McFarland said. “We’ve been training all season to make it as a team. It’s nice I made it, but it would have been a lot better if we made it as a team.”
McFarland qualified as an individual wild card entry to the MOC by running 16:35 for 18th place. Hillsborough finished sixth in the Group IV state boys race last Saturday at Holmdel Park.
”You have good days and have bad days,” McFarland said. “Looking at how far apart we were from each other, most of us were around where we should be. We all did the best we could possibly that day. Sometimes there is no answer for what happened. All season, we were doing really good times. We all had low times. We just had an off day.”
Michael Digricoli was 28th in 16:53, Matt Nunn placed 35th in 16:58, Joe Spaniol took 63rd in 17:18 and Ryan Morgan rounded out the scoring runners in 82nd in 17:37. Jay Coleman wasn’t far behind in 87th and Liam Baron was 131st.
”They kind of went after it,” said Raiders boys coach Eric Rosenthal. “I think they lost a little wind in their sails with (Matt) Sateary, our No. 3 or 4, out. In order for them to advance they were going to have to run your PR on the same course, on the same day, at the same moment. It’s rare to have five guys do that at the same time. They were happy that they went for it. It was a slow meet overall.”
The Hillsborough girls also did not earn one of the top three spots to automatically advance to the MOC, nor one of the two wild card spots for teams with the next fastest average.
Hillsborough was eighth overall, led by Paige Novak in 23rd place in 19:45. Molly Doyle ran 20:10 for 37th, Courtney Skikus took 45th in 20:16, Olivia Delorenzo was 60th in 20:34 and Meredith Young was 83rd in 21:07. Kathleen Lynch was 103rd and Kelly Cianciola was 117th.
”We ran faster than we did at Shore (Coaches),” said Raiders girls coach Rich Refi. “It was a young team that works very hard and won four titles. The team was close and friendly, a true pleasure to coach.”
The girls competed for the second straight week without Stephanie Mauer, the sophomore who was their top runner all season.
McFarland has been the top runner all season for the boys team. He came off a spring in which he qualified for the outdoor track and field MOC, and now he can add another cross country MOC to his resume. The Raiders advanced as a team last year by wild card.
”I’m just approaching this pretty much as any race,” McFarland said. “What they’ve been saying, this is expected to be one of the fastest as a whole Meet of Champs ever. I think it’s cool if it happens to be a part of it.”
McFarland wasn’t sure that he had made it when he crossed the finish line at the group meet. His friends crunched the numbers to figure out that he was in the MOC.
”It’s kind of double-edged for him,” Rosenthal said. “He was excited to make it through. The team focus was what everyone was pushing for. He was a little happy, but didn’t want to show the happiness in front of the other guys.”
The Raiders will be pulling for McFarland to have a good race this Saturday as he represents them one more time in the state.
”His hope all season was to be in the top 20 this year,” Rosenthal said. “If he manages a good race plan and the weather holds up, I think he has a good shot at that.”
McFarland has been building through the year toward the MOC. His progress has been steady as he adjusted to the higher mileage of cross country. He has been able to run well each race as he moved toward the end of the season.
”With the way our training has been, I think it went pretty well,” McFarland said. “I didn’t hit a PR, but going in I knew we weren’t training for all those races. We knew we were going to train hard through those races. We were focusing on the end result — Meet of Champs.”
Along the way, the Raiders posted team bests for almost every course they ran. It’s something that the team can keep with them as a special memory.
”I think it’s great,” McFarland said. “We’ve set every course record average. We set every Hillsborough High School course record average this year.”
The senior-heavy Raiders team has plenty to be proud of from the year. That feeling was hard to reconcile after the group race, but in time they know they have a lot of fondly remember.
”They still had a really good season,” Rosenthal said. “They set the course record at Pleasant Valley. At conferences they also set the record at Natirar Park. At Pleasant Valley Park, there have been a lot of good teams to run there, and that’s what they’re hanging their hats on.”
Hillsborough’s seniors have been a part of every school record except at Thompson Park. They have raised their standards each year since McFarland has been there. He’s come back each season motivated to outdo the last, and he has seen the Raiders largely reach their goals.
”Looking back right now, it’s cool to see how my freshman year we barely made it out of sectionals and going to groups, we weren’t a factor to make it on,” McFarland said. “Seeing the team get better and better, it was awesome to be a part of.”McFarland is looking forward to being a part of the MOC. He wasn’t nervous before last year’s MOC because there weren’t any more state races after it. He expects to feel much the same this Saturday.”I’m trying not to think about it being the last race too much and trying to have fun with it,” McFarland said. “It’s been an awesome four years running for Hillsborough. What better way to end it than running at Meet of Champs for Hillsborough?”McFarland and the Raiders will have one more race together when they travel to Bowdoin Park in New York for the Northeast Regionals on Nov. 30. It’s one more time together, and one more chance to race as a team and one more chance to prove how good they have been.”That’s the beauty of having this race,” McFarland said. “After groups, we all were talking. We have one more chance to go redeem ourselves and have one more chance to beat the teams that beat us at groups.”The Raiders have returned to training excited for that chance. They want to leave with a better showing than groups, and the regionals are their chance.”They want to uncork one,” Rosenthal said. “That kind of race, there’s no pressure. That’s usually when teams run their best race.”
