Sapone completes sweep of county and conference meets

By TIM MORRIS
Staff Writer

Lauren Sapone proved she is a complete runner when she won the Shore Conference Cross-Country Championship Oct. 29 at Lakewood’s Ocean County Park.

The Red Bank Regional High School senior added the conference title at Ocean County Park to her Monmouth County championship won at Holmdel Park.

“They’re very difference courses,” Sapone said, noting that Holmdel is a strength course with its hills, while Ocean County Park is a speed course.

The county-conference double, Sapone noted, proved she has speed and strength.”

The speed part got Sapone in a little bit of trouble, as a sizzling opening mile in 5:15 left the chasers well behind.

“I wanted to get a good head start. I didn’t know I was going that fast,” said Sapone, who chalked the faster than planned first mile to an adrenalin rush.

Freehold Township High School’s Ciara Roche had planned on keeping Sapone in her sights. But, that plan went astray early.

“She went out too hard,” Roche said.

While Roche let Sapone get away, she hung onto the hope that Sapone’s pace was too quick for the Red Bank Regional harrier and that she would get back to her. Roche, a state champion on the track, has a great finishing kick that she wanted to be able to use.

Sapone did pay for her ambitious start, tiring over the last half of the 5K race. But her gutsy move of running the race from the front would have its reward. She didn’t come back far enough for Roche to catch her.

“I hung on pretty well,” Sapone said. “[Roche] was pushing pretty hard. She’s a great competitor.

“But, I was not going to let her beat me after leading the whole race.”

Sapone summoned up all her will and the speed she had left to hold Roche off and win the race in 17:38, two seconds ahead of Roche (17:40).

“I’m very proud of my race. It’s really exciting to me [to win both the conference and county titles],” she said.

Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School gained a small measure of revenge on its rivals from Red Bank Catholic High School by finishing runner-up to Southern Regional High School, 61-108. The Caseys placed third (142).

Emily Hellman led the Bulldogs in 10th place overall (18:45) and ninth in scoring.

Completing the scoring for Rumson-Fair Haven were Sarah Nelson (19:07), Morgan Steinhacker (19:31) Cameron Irvine (19:35) and Becca Ley (19:41), who went 17th, 25th, 27th and 30th. Emily Dunn (19:17) and Caitlin O’Hare (19:19) paced Red Bank Catholic in 20th and 21st.

Red Bank Regional, with Heather O’Donnell placing 26th (19:32), finished eighth (222).

Shore Regional High School was 13th, with Sarah George taking 29th (19:40).

Ocean Township High School’s Michela Cholak was finished 23rd (19:20).

Monmouth Regional High School’s Gabby DeVito (19:30) and Kristen Molloy (19:34) qualified individually through the county championships and were 27th and 30th overall.

For the boys, Christian Brothers Academy (CBA) was its dominant self, repeating as conference champion with a low team score of just 37 points.

A fast closing Brian Dengler led the champions with his second-place finish (15:26).

Brian Hill (15:42) and Nick Trigani (15:43) went sixth and seventh, and Noah Yuro (15:49) was 10th. Completing the scoring was Genaro Anzalone in 13th (15:59).

All the Colts ran under 16:00.

Newly crowned Monmouth County champion Elliot Gindi got the fast time he was looking for, 15:28, in fifth place. John Flavin of Toms River High School North ran the opening mile in 4:47 and went unchallenged the second half of the race, winning in 15:15.

Long Branch High School’s Danny Mullan, an individual qualifier, was 27th overall (16:23). Ocean Township’s Matt D’Auria took 32nd (16:30), and Shore Regional’s Sean Murphy was 38th.

Ocean Township was ninth (306).