Freehold Township High School’s Ciara Roche, left, is a top track standout for the Patriots. This year, Roche is looking to make her mark during the cross-country season. STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER ERIC SUCAR She was a national champion with Freehold Township High School’s indoor 4×800-meter relay team, an All-American on Freehold Township’s outdoor 4×800 team and a state champion at 1,600 meters. With all those achievements, most would ask what else there is for Freehold Township’s Ciara Roche to do.
Roche pointed out that some distance runners are better in track than cross-country, and vice versa. She doesn’t want to be one of them.
“I want to be good at both,” she said. “I do like cross-country. I always preferred it.”
That’s why this cross-country season means so much to the Patriots’ running standout. She had what she considered a poor cross-country season last fall, which turned out to be due to an iron deficiency not diagnosed until after the season. When the iron deficiency was treated and her levels went back up, she went on to have stunning indoor and outdoor season, constantly lowering her school records in the 1,600 to 4:48.99 and 3,200 to 10:47.18.
Now Roche is looking at the cross-country season with an eye toward continuing the success she enjoyed in track.
Being one of the state’s best milers and beating the likes of Holmdel High School’s Marin Warner, last year’s Monmouth County and Shore Conference cross-country champion, as well as the best from Red Bank Catholic High School and Rumson- Fair Haven High School during the track season was a huge breakthrough for Roche.
“It will help a lot,” she said. “I won’t be intimidated [by them]. I know I’m capable of beating them.”
Roche, it turns out, just might be the one doing the intimidating now.
In preparation for the 2014 cross-country season, Roche said she slowly built up her mileage over the summer. The month of September has been about building speed, she noted.
“[The workouts are] more like track workouts — [800-meter] repeats,” she said.
The 1,600 times she ran in track are proof she can sprint with anyone at the end of a 5K cross-country race. The key for Roche this fall will be “getting out faster” in the beginning of races.
As a freshman, Roche ran 18:12.01 for the 5K at Ocean County Park. She would like to improve on that time at Ocean County Park and be near or under 19:00 at Holmdel Park. She ran the Cherokee Challenge on Sept. 12 in Marlton and posted the fourth fastest time of the day (second among New Jersey runners), 11:26, for the 2-mile run.
The big goals for Roche come in November, when she wants to return to the Meet of Champions (MOC), where she qualified as a freshman, and then run at either the Foot Locker Northeast Qualifier at Van Cortlandt Park in Bronx, N.Y., or the Nike Cross Nationals Northeast Regional at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls, N.Y. Both races are on Nov. 29 and a top-10 finish there would send the harrier to the national championships. That’s a long ways off, and why Roche won’t be doing any serious racing this month.
Roche hails from a running family. Her father, Brian, a native of Ireland, ran well enough over there to earn a scholarship to Iona College, where he ran the 5K and 10K for the Gaels. Her mother, Nancy, was more of a sprinter/jumper who competed in the heptathlon. Ciara’s older sister, Brianne, runs for Fordham University. The sisters did get to team up for the Patriots when Brianne was a senior and Ciara was a freshman.
Ireland has a rich running tradition, led by onetime world champion Eamonn Coghlan, Olympic champion Ron Delaney, world champion Sonia O’Sullivan and world indoor champion Marcus O’Sullivan. This summer, Ciara Roche had the opportunity to get a taste of Irish running, as she and her family visited her father’s native country and his old running club. In Ireland, runners compete for their clubs and not their respective schools. Roche had the chance to run a workout with the Celtic Dublin City Harrier Club.
“Their workouts are longer than what I do,” she said, adding that they run their big meets over the summer in Ireland.
Freehold Township, which won the Shore Conference A North Division championship last fall, will be strong again despite the loss of Emily Bracher, who is nursing an injury she suffered during the track season.
Roche gives the Patriots a runner who will be in single digits, the first step toward success for any team. Veterans Caitlin Poss and Abbie Faith give the Patriots a solid nucleus.
Rounding out the Patriots are Ciara O’Donoghue, Sabrina Healy, Jackie Hall, Paige Clarke, Rebecca Leviton, Rose Barrett and Julia Stapleton.
The Patriots’ team goal, Roche said, is to make the MOC. They hope to all be running together that day on Nov. 22 at Holmdel Park.
Roche won’t have to look very far for competition. Howell High School sophomore Niamh Hayes is coming off a superb track season, during which she qualified for the MOC and ran 5:06.01 for the 1,600 and 10:50.62 for the 3,200. Hayes first made an impression on the running scene during her freshman cross-country season when she clocked 18:14 for the 5K at Ocean County Park and finished fourth at the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group IV championship meet.
The sophomore also started her season at the Cherokee meet, finishing in 12:11.19. She was 23rd overall in this class meet.
Hayes, Julia Wiemken (12:11.47) and Amanda Ferraro (12:36.71) give Howell an outstanding trio.
Colts Neck High School senior Samantha Hoagland had a big junior season, finishing seventh at the state sectional championships.
Manalapan High School’s Kiera Nealon had a nice freshman season and seems to be living up to that standard this fall. She clocked 12:16.04 in Marlton and was 34th overall.
The major meets on the cross-country calendar are the Manhattan Invitational on Oct. 11 at Van Cortlandt Park, the Monmouth Country Championships at Holmdel Park on Oct. 21, the Shore Conference Championships on Oct. 30 at Lakewood’s Ocean County Park, the NJSIAA Central Jersey State Sectional Championships on Nov. 8 at Jamesburg’s Thompson Park, the NJSIAA Group Championships on Nov. 15 at Holmdel Park, the NJSIAA Meet of Champions on Nov. 22 at Holmdel Park, the Foot Locker Northeast Regional on Nov. 29 at Van Cortlandt Park and the Nike Cross Nationals Northeast East Qualifier on Nov. 29 at Bowdoin Park.
Wild Safari Invitational
Host Colts Neck finished second in the Boys Varsity B race at the Six Flags Wild Safari Invitational in Jackson Township.
Zach Csipkay led the Cougars with a fourth place overall finish in 16:40 for the 5,000-meter race.
Jordan Brannen (16:51) and Brad D’Antuno (16:55) were eighth and ninth.
Alexander Megerle (17:28) and Andrew Imbesi (17:40) completed the scoring for Colts, finishing 18th and 23rd.
Colts Neck was second to Indian Hills High School, 41-59.
Freehold High School’s Anthony Colasanto was 17th overall in Varsity B (17:25).
Colts Neck’s girls also finished second in Varsity B with 82 points. Garden City High School was first with 65 points.
Samantha Hoagland led the way in fifth place (20:03). Stephanie O’Horo (20:14) also was top-10 in seventh place.
Kayleigh Hoagland (21:33), Allison Rodriguez (22:07) and Chloe Triolo (22:25) were the Cougars’ other scorers placing 15th, 24th and 31st.
Freehold’s Nicole Millers was 18th (21:35). The Colonials were sixth (157).
Samantha Fioto (22:01) and Jaclyn Loftus (22:24) helped the Colonials, finishing 22nd and 30th.
Manalapan High School sophomore Kiera Nealon had the best individual finish of the invitational, taking third in the Girls Varsity A race in 19:36. From among the more than 1,000 competitors in the girls races, Nealon’s time was the 18th fastest.
The Braves’ Michael Kennedy, a senior, was seventh in the Boys Varsity A race, posting a time of 16:37. That turned out to be the 12th fastest overall.
Manalapan’s boys were fifth (215). Jared Skalski (18:18), Spencer Volk (18:20) and Ethan Seltzer (18:31) went 43rd, 46th and 54th for Manalapan.
On Oct. 4, Holmdel Park will host the Shore Coaches Invitational. This is the first meet of the year where all the top teams and individuals will be running on the same day on the same course — the one that will host the state championships and NJSIAA Meet of Champions in November.