By Justin Feil, Contributor
Jennifer and Natalie Tavares can be competitive with each other, but the sisters were celebrating together when they helped the Hillsborough High School girls cross country team win a sectional championship.
“It was so big because we’re basically the underdogs this entire season,” said Natalie, a senior. “We knew we could do it. And we knew our top competition was South Brunswick and West Windsor South. It was amazing.”
The Raiders needed every member of their team to pull out a narrow 93-95 win over upstart Princeton High for the Central Jersey Group IV title at Thompson Park.
West Windsor-Plainsboro South was third with 99 points and South Brunswick was fourth with 100 points.
“I think we were ranked eighth before we won,” said Jennifer, a sophomore. “I didn’t think we’d win. My coach thought it. I thought we were going to get second to West Windsor. We had a good race.”
Chloe Wong was third in 18:54, Jennifer Tavares took 10th in 19:29, Peri Bongiovanni was 13th in 19:45, Natalie Tavares was 25th in 20:01 and Kathryn Van Pelt was 42nd in 20:48 to round out the Raiders’ scoring.
Diana Voronin was 44th in 21:01 and Brianna De la Cruz was 54th in 21:19.
“It’s one of the most significant achievements our program has ever had,” said Hillsborough head coach Rich Refi. “No one expected anything out of us. The fact that we’re in the mix is incredible. We were on no one’s radar. To be a top team in New Jersey is pretty remarkable.”
Hillsborough returned only Chloe Wong, a junior, and Peri Bongiovanni, a senior, from last year’s top seven.
Kathryn Van Pelt is a freshman who has jumped into the top seven. Diana Voronin, a junior, and Brianna De la Cruz, a senior, both ran at sectionals.
Both of the Tavares sisters were outside last year’s top seven, but made significant improvements to become contributors.
“It’s honestly incredible,” Natalie said. “My entire high school career, I’ve been No. 8 or No. 9. I was varsity, but I would never compete in the big races. We graduated such a big class and I’ve been behind them since middle school. It’s so much fun to be able to compete and run and know I made a difference. It’s been fun watching them make the difference, but now to be a part of it, it’s a whole new level.”
Natalie had been to the sectionals in each of the past three years, but never had the chance to compete in them. Jennifer was just adjusting to the sport last year. This year, she and her sister were able to run together for a sport that has made them closer.
“We butt heads less,” Jennifer said. “We know what we’re going through so it’s basically the same thing.”
Natalie was running in middle school when she convinced Jennifer to give it a try. Their middle school experience was enough to get them to continue in high school and they are making the most of their final cross country season together.
“Coming into the season, it was weird,” Natalie said. “I didn’t know how it was going to play out. Last year, it was different too because she was a freshman and she didn’t run with us as much and I was faster than her. It definitely brought us closer. We share a lot more laughs now. At the same time, it helps us as competitors. No one wants the other to be faster so we’re always pushing each other.”
They have helped push each other to bests. Natalie has a new outlook thanks to this year’s improvements. She is planning to give up her usual winter sport — basketball — to focus on winter track for the first time. She also plays goalie for the HHS girls lacrosse team, but she now foresees running in college, not lacrosse.
“After this season, a lot has changed,” Natalie said. “There are a lot more opportunities.”
Natalie has steadily dropped her times this season. Her 20:01 clocking was 1:06 faster than her best time a year ago.
“I just run faster and faster every day,” Natalie said. “It’s crazy. Every time I race I don’t know what to expect. I just keep running. It’s exciting to PR every single race. I’ve never run this fast my entire high school career. It’s a whole new ballgame.”
Jennifer has made an even more meteoric rise, something she attributes to year-round dedication to running. She followed up her freshman year of cross country by running winter and spring track for HHS. It challenged her in a way she never had been before, but it helped her prepare for this year.
“In track, I started running with the seniors,” Jennifer said. “On easy runs I would just have to keep up with them because I had no one else my pace level. I had to get used to going through the pain that I would go through on easy runs. And now it’s like second nature.”
Jennifer’s 19:29 personal record Saturday was a remarkable 2:10 improvement over last year’s best time.
“I thought I was still going to be at 21:00 by now,” Jennifer said. “I didn’t think I’d get that far. It doesn’t seem that fast when you’re running. This is kind of big.”
Their improvements are part of the overall development of the Raiders, who have gotten faster and faster all year. The sectionals race was the first time that they climbed under 20 minutes as an average time for their top five finishers.
“We’ve been making steady improvement,” Coach Refi said. “We made a big move to get to 19:48.”
Their steady progress this year helped their confidence going into the race. They were encouraged that their trend would continue in sectionals.
“I think we just believed in ourselves,” Natalie said. “We went in with the belief we could do it. We had planned that the race would go out really fast so we prepared for that. It didn’t even feel like it went out that fast, but it wasn’t as fast as if we were going against Ridge or North Hunterdon.”
The CJ IV race was tight wire to wire and Hillsborough did not know if it had won at the end. Jennifer established her position near the front pack early. At the end of the race, she broke up a pack of three Princeton runners and edged two of them.
“They were neck and neck with me,” Jennifer said. “I had to surge at the top of the hill to beat them. I looked at the results and thought, if I hadn’t passed them, we wouldn’t have won.”
It was like that throughout the Raiders lineup. Wong edged her nearest finisher by four seconds. Bongiovanni had two runners less than three seconds behind her. Tavares had a South Brunswick finisher one second behind her but she was worried about a pair of WW-P South finishers ahead of her.
“I don’t think any of us knew (Hillsborough won),” she said. “A lot of the girls were really out of breath. I was crying. I thought I gave up the race and I was mad I didn’t break 20. It was a new personal record, but I thought I gave up the race.”
Natalie was crying again — tears of joy this time — when she found out that the Raiders won. It was reassurance that the efforts Hillsborough had put in training had paid dividends to overcome their lack of experience.
“I think we just push each other,” Natalie said. “We don’t really think about our inexperience. We just concentrate on running fast — it sounds cliché. At practice we don’t talk about it either. We just focus on the workout.”
That attitude has carried the Raiders through a season of development and positioned them to a sectional win that few would have expected at the start of the year. It’s a tribute to their work ethic and determination, and it gives them confidence as they head into Saturday’s Group IV state meet at Holmdel Park. The top three teams automatically advance plus the next two fastest teams from all groups advance to the Meet of Champions.
“I think we have to approach it with the same mindset we went into sectionals with,” Jennifer said. “Do your best, run fast and run for your teammates and not yourself.”
