HHS junior continues climb
By Justin Feil, The Packet Group
Olivia DeLorenzo has had a love-hate relationship with running.
It was only five years ago that Hillsborough High School junior had a strong dislike for running, and now she runs year-round.
”When I started running, I did not enjoy it at all,” said DeLorenzo, who used to play lacrosse. “I remember doing a warm-up lap and that would tire me out. I did cross country to get in shape for other sports. I fell in love with the whole concept that the work you put in is what you get out of it.”
DeLorenzo’s increased devotion to her new passion has paid off. Last year was her first year in the top seven for the Raider girls varsity team after slowly climbing to a varsity spot after years of work.
”It was definitely new for me,” DeLorenzo said. “In middle school, I was never even close. I was in the back usually. I was the second slowest on our team. Being in that competitive state and having all these competitive runners around me, it was a change. Running for the team, having someone else to run for, that was something new.”
DeLorenzo has continued her climb this year after establishing herself as a steady contributor last year. Like last year, she was the Raiders’ fourth finisher Saturday at the Shore Coaches Invitational at Holmdel Park, but her place and time improved. DeLorenzo was 27th overall last year at the Shore Coaches race in 21:13. This year, she took 22nd in 20:46 in muddy and wet running conditions.
”It wasn’t too bad when our race went off because some of it dried up by then,” DeLorenzo said. “It was definitely the sloppiest race I’ve been in.
”It felt pretty good. It was the first time racing at Holmdel this year. It was only our second time really racing, so it was good to shake the rust off.”
Stephanie Mauer led the Raiders in second place overall in the race in 19:28. Paige Novak was 11th in 20:15, Molly Doyle came in 16th in 20:35. DeLorenzo was just ahead of Kelly Cianciola, who placed 24th in 20:49 to round out the Hillsborough scoring. Courtney Skikus took 26th in 20:52 and Peri Bongiovanni was 27th in 20:53. The Raiders were second in the A Division with 73 points. Ridge won with 65 points.
”I thought compared to other teams, we ran fine,” said Hillsborough head coach Rich Refi. “It’s hard to say what’s going to happen when it’s really muddy.”
The Hillsborough boys team finished 10th in the A Division with 304 points. They averaged 17:51 per boys, led by Brandon Tubby, a junior in 18th in 17:05.
The Hillsborough girls’ 20:22 average was faster than Ridge’s 20:24. The Raiders had the fourth fastest average of any division that ran Saturday.
”Ridge got us today, but they’re a good team,” Refi said. “It was very close. Next time we race, it could be a different story.”
The Raiders can use the Shore Coaches meet as a starting point as they begin to gear up for the bigger races of the season. They are focused on building off Saturday’s race.
”We finished second in our race, but there was more competition this year,” DeLorenzo said. “Ridge beat us. They’ll be our main rival at counties. Ridge is really smart and their season has been more race oriented. We’re doing a lot of training now so we’re not ideal to race. Everyone is happy with how they did. Some said maybe they could have done better, but since it’s one of our first races, it’s hard to figure out how we could have done.”
The Raiders will get another test of their fitness and competitiveness at the Somerset County Championships next Wednesday. DeLorenzo is looking forward to that challenge.
”I definitely want to help the team and close the gap between our top three and me,” she said. “I want to help the team as much as I can and give it my all. It’s been a long journey to get to this point.”
Even though DeLorenzo started running cross country in middle school, she wasn’t sure how things would develop in the sport for her at the high school level. But after her freshman year, she found she enjoyed the sport even though she had a rough start.
”My freshman year, I was terrified to go to summer practice so I didn’t,” DeLorenzo said. “I got all these emails about workouts. I’d be terrified. I didn’t end up going for a while. I went halfway through (the summer) and I realized I can do this and I put in all the work. And Coach Refi is really good. If you have the work ethic, he can help you through.”
DeLorenzo was in the top 12 for the Raiders as a freshman, but never got into the top seven. She moved up last year, and she gave up lacrosse in the spring to do outdoor track and field after indoor track and field. Running year-round paved the way for bigger expectations for this fall.
”Cross country is definitely my favorite,” DeLorenzo said. “I look forward to it all season. I do track to stay in shape for cross country. I like the longer stuff. If they had a longer race, I’d love to run it.”
Refi was encouraged by what he saw from DeLorenzo and her teammates Saturday. The Raiders return five of their top seven from a year ago, and the experience showed in adverse conditions.
”Our pack is tight,” Refi said. “Now the whole pack has to move up. We came out of it healthy.”
The Raiders continue to train for their end-of-season goals of doing well at the state level. DeLorenzo feels more confident after a strong offseason.
”It was a good summer,” she said. “We started right after school and did a lot of base training. We’re doing the bulk of our training now.”
Her stronger fitness showed at the Shore Coaches, where she improved over last year even though race conditions didn’t translate into faster times overall. She was pleasantly surprised to be close to her teammates ahead of her, and she is hoping she can cut the gap more.
”From the race last year, I improved 30-40 seconds,” DeLorenzo said. “I feel good about that, but at the same time I feel like I have more in me, which is upsetting when you finish the race. It’s good too, it means you have to focus on strategy not fitness.”
DeLorenzo is keeping her focus well ahead of her. She is running better than she did a year ago, and she is aiming to continue that to the end of the season.
”We have a solid string of workouts that definitely are helping us for the long run,” she said. “Our coach told us afterwards he’d rather us win Meet of Champions than counties. He’s looking for late November instead of late October.
”We have a big training week this week,” she added. “We’re going to hammer it out and hope that come next Wednesday we’ll be nice and pumped up and ready for counties.”
The Raiders are hoping that conditions will be better, their times will be quicker, their pack even closer and they can finish even higher for the county and every ensuing meet.
”When you have a day like this, when it’s so muddy, it’s hard to make a strong judgment,” Refi said. “You make a judgment compared to everyone else. To me, it’s wide open in the state. Historically we’re slow starters. I don’t see any reason why we won’t get better.”