Caseys and Barker win Parochial A state titles
Area runners set sights on tomorrow’s Meet of Champions
Red Bank Catholic rebounded strongly from its first loss of the cross country season to capture the Parochial A State Championship Saturday at Holmdel Park.
The Caseys put their loss at the Shore Conference Championships (Nov. 4) behind them by coming up with their best collective race of the year in easily outdistancing Monsignor Donovan, 36-75, for the parochial state crown.
RBC’s impressive win thrust the Caseys back into the state championship picture, which will be decided at Saturday’s Meet of Champions at Holmdel Park.
The Caseys put four runners in the Top 10 including individual winner Julia Barker.
Barker, a junior, developed into the team’s top-runner midway through the season. Her continued improvement has given the Caseys someone who can run up front with the leaders and guarantee a high placing.
At the Parochial A championship, Barker was out front as expected, only she didn’t have any company this time. She ran solo for the final two miles of the race and cruised to a 32-second win, 19:49.2-20:21.2 over Monsignor Donovan’s Rachel Watson. It was her best time on Holmdel Park’s 5K course.
Mary McCudden (20:36.3), Samantha Sabatos (20:42.5) and Shannon Gillespie (20:46.4) finished sixth through eighth for the Caseys, and senior Suraya Kornegay wrapped up the championship with her 14th place finish (21:25.2).
Lauren Carter (22:02.3) and Ali Jensen (22:31.7), both freshmen, were RBC’s sixth and seventh runners and they finished 25th and 32nd.
Everything fell into place nicely for Mary Banks’ Caseys this fall. They received senior leadership from Kornegay and Sabatos, improvement from junior McCudden, the emergence of Barker and help from talented freshmen Gillespie, Jensen and Carter.
Together, they equaled a very deep and talented team that was able to overcome the loss to injury of their top returning runner, Kelly Byrnes, and still win a state title.
RBC’s five-runner average of 20:39.9 was their best of the season, and they did it at just the right time with the MOC coming up Saturday.
The Caseys, ranked third in the state will be chasing Hunterdon Central, the top-ranked team and winner of the Group IV state title. Hunterdon Central’s five-runner average last Saturday was 20:27.5. The Red Devils are led by Shannon Hawrylo, who won the Group IV title (19:30.4).
Rumson-Fair Haven’s Christy Planer will be running for all-state honors on Saturday. The junior has put together a very steady and productive season, with solid finishes in the big race. A Top 10 finish on Saturday could push her to all-state heights.
Planer finished eighth in the Group II race, which featured defending state champion Erin Donohue of Haddonfield Memorial. She won her fourth-straight Group II title in 18:52.5. Planer ran a 19:56.1. Her time was the 17th best on the day but, more than 20 seconds off her best.
Rumson’s boys finished second to Haddonfield Memorial for the Group II title, 113-151.
Joe Clappy led RFH with his 10th place (17:06.8). He was followed by Jonathan Erwin (17:26.1) and Chris Rumpf (17:29.4), who were 19th and 20th overall and 15th and 16th in the team scoring.
Rounding out Rumson’s scoring were Adam Despo (18:16.9) and Ray Ednie (18:47.9), in team scoring they were 44th and 69th.
Two Red Bank Buccaneers are headed to the MOC. Greg Langley made it by finishing 10th in the Group III race (17:03.6). Teammate Israel Rodriguez, the Central Jersey Group III champion, was right behind Langley in 11th (17:04) and had to make the MOC via the ‘wild card’ and just barely at that.
In addition to the Top 10 individuals in all the group meets automatically qualifying for the MOC, the 10 fastest times among those finishing out of the Top 10 in the Group races also got to punch their tickets back to Holmdel. Rodriguez tied for the 10th fastest nonqualifying time to squeeze into the final.