ROBBINSVILLE: Raven girls add Shore win to XC resume

By Justin Feil, The Packet Group
   Erin Holzbaur is hoping that the Robbinsville High School girls cross country team can do something special in her final year with the program.
   The senior helped the Ravens get off to a good start as their second finisher to aid their win of the E Division race at the Shore Coaches Invitational at Holmdel Park on Saturday.
   ”I definitely think it does help us, especially because this year we want to go to the Meet of Champs and have a great season,” Holzbaur said. “Winning that is setting us up for a great season.”
   The Ravens have piled up accolades as their program has emerged over the last six years. They won three straight Central Jersey Group I team titles and took the 2008 Group I state championship before moving up to Group II. They have are four-time defending Colonial Valley Conference Patriot Division champions, and won their first Mercer County Championship in 2011. Missing from their resume until Saturday had been a division crown at Shore Coaches.
   ”Out of all the years, I was surprised that was our first time winning the team race there,” said Robbinsville head coach Mike Walker. “Even years when we were the state champs, county champs, section champs, we never won that. Part of the reason we did (Saturday) was we had a great run up front.”
   Lauren Kroepfl gave the Ravens a terrific starting point when she ran 19:59 for fourth place in the race.
   ”It was probably the third fastest time for the county runners on the girls side,” Walker said. “That kind of race helped pull the girls along.”
   Kroepfl, a sophomore, is just the second Robbinsville girl after Megan Flynn to break 20:00 on the famed Holmdel course, and conditions for Saturday were awful with torrential rain.
   ”I’ve never seen it like that,” Holzbaur said. “For track, I’ve run in some pretty bad conditions. For cross country, that was the worst I’ve seen Holmdel. It was interesting. That’s part of the sport.”
   Holzbaur came in 10th in 20:41, Enlin Carow took 19th in 21:40, Gabby Manto was 24th in 21:54 and Delaney Potter ran to 30th in 22:34 to round out the Ravens scoring. Caitlyn Krueger was 38th in 22:51 and Casey Hopkins finished 49th in 23:20. The Ravens won the E Division with 84 points. Shore Regional was second with 105 points and New Providence had 11 points.
   ”Coach Walker told us before we went out that New Providence and Shore were good teams,” Holzbaur said. “He thought it would be a good race, but he thought we could win.”
   Walker’s Robbinsville boys also won earlier. They took the boys E Division with 63 points. Delbarton was second with 110 points. Zach Michon was second in 16:49, less than four seconds behind the winner, Rich Kasper was fourth in 16:57, Pat Buonamassa took 14th in 17:37, Bobby Hastie came in 16th in 17:41 and Anton Alekseyev was 27th in 18:07. Matt Cohen ran to 43rd in 18:35 and Ryan Gross was 60th in 18:51. Robbinsville ran without one of their top three, Christian Roberts, who was out with an illness, and Hastie ran though he wasn’t healthy.
   ”Given the conditions when the guys were racing, I could barely see the starting gun and front line from a quarter-mile away, it was raining so heavily,” Walker said. “The way the guys ran and the way they stuck to the game plan, trying to keep everyone within sight, that’s what we were working on. Anton Alekseyev ended up as our fifth runner and he’s slowly closing the gap down to help out our normal top five. It’s one more step in the progression of the season that we hope we’ll be ready for the championship races.”
   It’s a season of progress for the Raven girls as well. They have some runners like Holzbaur back from a year ago, but they’re trying to integrate some new varsity runners.
   ”We still have some inexperience,” Walker said. “Annalise Celano, she didn’t race on Saturday, and she missed all of last year with an injury, so it’s going to take some people a while to get used to the style of racing.
   ”We’re a little ahead of where we were last year. We’re behind the two goliaths in the county — Princeton and (West Windsor-Plainsboro) South. We’re still pretty good and hope to have a good showing come sectionals and states.”
   Holzbaur has progressed steadily for the Ravens. She played soccer her freshman year before moving over to cross county as a sophomore. She has run for the varsity for three years now.
   ”Coming out sophomore year, I didn’t know what to expect,” she said. “It turned out I liked it. Each year, I progressed with my training and my results came with it. Each year, we’ve gotten better as a team, which is good too. Last year, I saw the most improvement. This year, I’m looking for that again.”
   This year, she expects to be the best for her and the team. She foresees the Ravens surpassing their times of a year ago, and that should make them a contender in any race.
   ”The returners, we’re getting better and we gained two new people to varsity,” Holzbaur said. “So I think we could be better.”
   Holzbaur holds herself to high standards. She had hoped to run better Saturday, and will be looking for a stronger finish later in the year.
   ”I was expecting more,” she said. “We had workouts and a lot of hard work put in and the conditions were not the best, so I guess that affected me.
   ”I know I can race better. It wasn’t too bad, especially with the conditions. I’m not scared for groups or Meet of Champs. It was enough to support my positive thinking for next time I go into it.”
   Holzbaur remains a strong influence on the team. She has three years of experience and has been a runner that the Ravens have come to count on in top meets. She also brings a good outlook to the team.
   ”She’s one of our captains,” Walker said. “She knows what the tradition is and how to carry through and how to prepare yourself for a meet like that. Warming up in heavy, heavy rain, she was good at going through it and not worrying about it. She also has a good sense it’s not life or death. She has fun. She’s good at keeping it light when people get really uptight. She keeps it loose, which is nice to have.
   ”To have the different captains, their personalities are different. She’s one of our fastest runners but not taking it as seriously as some others, but when the gun goes off, she’s just as serious as anyone I’ve had.”
   Holzbaur knows that the mental side of racing is just as big as the physical side. She and her teammates were singing, “It’s Raining Men,” to embrace the conditions outside and keep tension low. Holzbaur is more capable of handling the pressures of championship meets now.
   ”I was always scared to go into the races, especially the big races,” she said. “I’m better when I’m calm and relaxed.”
   Kroepfl’s strong race will spur on Holzbaur. Holzbaur was able to keep pace with her last year, and she is motivated to stay with Kroepfl as they head into the bigger races.
   ”She had an amazing race,” Holzbaur said. “We needed that to win. At Brown, she wasn’t racing because she felt sick. I felt lost a little without her.
   ”We usually come in within seconds of each other. (Saturday), she had a lot more in her, so maybe she’s faster than me now. I train with her, so I think, if she can do this, why can’t I?”
   Holzbaur believes doing so will put her in position for her goals of top-10 finishes at the county and state sectional meets. It would go a long way toward keeping the Ravens on track for a special year.
   ”Winning Shore Coaches and in our CVC conference we’re beating all the teams that we need to, so I would say we’re happy,” Holzbaur said. “But we won’t really be able to tell until the county and sectional meet.”