By Mike Morsch, Regional Editor
There is a strategy to running a cross country course. The team members are taught to pay attention throughout the pre-race walk-through of the course and to develop a strategy to succeed.
Cranbury School’s cross country coach Jay Gilligan has schooled his runners well in that regard. But Gilligan’s team also had one other really big advantage going into this year’s annual Stuart Country Day School Invitational: He had all his horses coming back from a team that had won the boys race last year.
And they didn’t disappoint. Out of nine teams and more than 100 runners, the Cranbury School boys once against ran to the Stuart Invitational team title, placing individual runners in second, third, fourth, fifth and 10th in the race.
“We had a ton of depth. Any one of my top eight boys could win on any given day,” said Gilligan, who has been a health and physical education teacher at the school for 31 years and has coached high school and middle school cross country since 1986. “There was a healthy competition throughout the season. They often finished seconds apart from each other.
“Their pace throughout the race was exceptionally strong. They were determined and it paid off,” he said.
The team members include eighth-graders Luke Bornstein, Tyler DiNoia, Kyle Keegan, Saahil Lathi, Connor McDowell and Evan Kohut and seventh-graders Andrew Kenny and Akshay Patel.
That team is so good it hasn’t lost a single competition in three seasons.
“Last year’s team was strong, but with another year under its belt, the boys were even stronger this year,” said Gilligan. “This is one of the best-conditioned groups I’ve had in many years.”
According to Gilligan, Princeton High School will be getting an outstanding group of cross country runners for its program for several years when this year’s eighth-graders graduate and enter high school.
“Throughout the season, we train for starts and proper finishes along with maintaining speed and endurance throughout,” said Gilligan. “We look for challenges and overcome them. These are life lessons as well.”
