Boys Sectionals Recap: WWP North wins Central Group 3, Princeton 2nd in Central Group 4

Mercer County schools had themselves a day at sectionals! In race after race, teams and individuals rose to the occasion and punched above their weight. There were so many inspiring team efforts and breakthrough performances — and not just from the ten teams and three other individuals that Mercer County will be sending to groups next week. Many other runners ended their seasons on a high note.

Below are some highlights and photos from the boys races. Click below to see an album with more photos from every race.

Also, a special congratulations to all the seniors who ran their last XC race on Saturday. They may not be on the course next fall, but their leadership efforts and contributions to their team’s culture will be reflected in the steps of their younger teammates.

Group 4 Boys 

Princeton’s Saboor Qureshi charges up the last of the hills en route to 4th place in the Central Group 4 race. | Track Mercer

Princeton (2nd place). After earning a big win at CVCs, the Princeton boys outdid themselves once again with an absolutely phenomenal race to take 2nd place in the Group 4 race. 

In the fastest race of the day, the Tigers earned three individual medals and averaged 16:36, which was 14 seconds faster than last week. Senior Saboor Qureshi earned the 4th-place medal with a blistering time of 16:13, the fastest of the day by any Mercer County runner and the 7th-fastest on Princeton’s all-time Thompson Park list. Surprisingly close behind Qureshi the whole way were Finn Wedmid and Bradeyn Capone, who worked together to attack the course and push each other to new heights. Wedmid used a big kick to grab 6th place in 16:25, which was a course PR by 11 seconds and made him the top junior in the race. Capone also finished strong to secure the last medal by just a half-second, taking 10th place in a 19-second course PR of 16:30. Lachlan Arnold just about matched his own course PR with a solid 16:51 for 25th place, and Aleric Deess gave Princeton five boys under 17:00 with a big course PR of 16:59 for 34th place. 

Freshman Francisco Vozone (73rd in 17:44) held his own with a course PR in his first varsity race, and senior Ziyang Ling (120th in 19:50) rounded out a Princeton squad that also placed 2nd in the merged team standings across all four races. 

WWP South (4th place). Last year, the Pirates ran a great race at sectionals to place 3rd with a team average of 16:58 — and then their top five runners all graduated. But if you thought this would be a “rebuilding” year for WWP South, you’d be wrong. One year later, the names were all different but the result was almost identical: 4th place with a team average of 16:57.

The rapid rebuild was led by sophomore Aron Zola, who went from barely breaking 18:00 on this course last year to being a super sophomore that would’ve qualified for groups individually this year, running a big PR of 16:39 for 14th place. But the goal was to go to groups as a team, not individually, and that’s where the whole squad stepped up. Fellow sophomore Sean Maina, who’s spent the past two years racing right at Zola’s level but missed some time last month due to injury, showed that he’s already back and strong as ever with a 16:47 for 17th place. Yet another sophomore, Harsh Sharma, ran a big PR to go sub-17:00 on this course for the first time and take 28th in 16:55.

Dhruv Kumar likewise cut 14 seconds off his time from CVCs with a 17:06 for 38th place. Jascha Margolis was the biggest difference-maker for the Pirates — he finished in 46th with a time of 17:16, which was not just a 29-second Thompson Park PR but also the fastest 5K he’s run on any course. Freshman Aidan Fan (59th in 17:31) and junior Robert Luan (75th in 17:45) rounded a team full of underclassmen ready for some groups experience.

Hightstown (10th place). Hightstown took 10th place in a very competitive Central Group 4 race — for context, with 244 points, they were only 30 points away from the 5th and final qualifying spot. They all ran very well, dropping their team average almost 30 seconds from CVCs on this course last week. Senior Mason Johnson went out with a bang in his last race at Thompson Park, running a huge, 36-second PR of 16:49 to finish in 24th place. That was the 11th fastest time out of all Mercer County runners, and it would have easily qualified him for states in any other group but put him just 5 seconds away in Group 4. Dhurva Sribuddharju (37th in 17:06), Javin Spearman (52nd in 17:24), and Matt DeAngelo (61st in 17:31) all ran so well that they not only crushed their Thompson Park PRs also broke their 5K PRs from any course.

Fun fact, did you know that WWP South, Hightstown, Princeton, and WWP North all have roughly the same enrollment numbers? WWP South (1,208), Hightstown (1,202), and Princeton (1,170) are the smallest schools in Central Group 4, while WWP North (1,116) is the largest school in Central Group 3.

Trenton (incomplete). The Tornadoes’ Briyon Ellerbe took 109th in 19:12, faster than he’s ever gone on any course before. Malik Kiawu used a big kick to finish just behind Ellerbe in a Thompson Park PR of 19:14 for 111th.

Group 3 Boys

With just over a mile to go, the Central Group 3 race is all bunched up in a pack that includes, from left to right, Ashvin Avineni (WWP North), Agrim Jha (WWP North), Finnegan Curley (Hopewell Valley), Tyler Hurst (Steinert), and Paul Wittenberg (WWP North). | Track Mercer

Individuals. The Group 3 boys race went out very tactically. Approaching the two-mile mark, the front pack still included seventeen boys — including all seven WWP North boys! The leaders shifted gears going down the hill and, by the time they reemerged from the woods, the lead pack was whittled down to five: two Colts Neck boys, WWP North’s Agrim Jha and Paul Wittenberg, and Hopewell Valley’s Finnegan Curley.

In a fierce final stretch, Colts Neck senior Jay Adimala — the defending Group 3 champion — just barely held off WWP North sophomore Jha for the sectionals win, 16:18.2 to 16:19.4. The junior Wittenberg was just a tick behind them in 16:21.43 for 3rd place. A few seconds back, the junior Curley came just 0.6 seconds short of catching Colts Neck’s Rowan O’Connor but still claimed 5th in the section with a 16:29.7. 

Given how conservative the first two miles were, it’s incredible how close Jha, Wittenberg, and Curley each got to their times from CVCs last week. They unleashed incredible kicks to put 20-30 seconds on the rest of the field in the final mile alone.

Another pair of boys who were flying the last mile were Hopewell Valley’s Silas Allevik and Julian Hiraldo. They were both a few seconds behind the massive lead pack with a mile to go, but the teammates worked together to overtake almost everyone on the hills. The junior Allevik finished 6th in 16:49.7, with the sophomore Hiraldo just a split second behind him in 16:51.0 for 7th place. Both boys set Thompson Park PRs with those big races.

A trio of CVC boys crossed in a blanket finish at 16:58. WWP North sophomore Rohan Varma had a big breakout race to take 11th in 16:58.1. Steinert senior Tyler Hurst earned a return trip to groups with a 12th-place finish in 16:58.91, just hundredths ahead of WWP North sophomore Soham Shah in 16:58.96 for 13th place. Another Knight, Ashvin Avineni, rounded out the top 15 in 17:03.7, which was the fastest freshmen time out of all races on the day.

WWP North (1st place). After finishing 2nd to Colts Neck for three straight years, WWP North finally flipped the script this year and won the Central Group 3 championship! It was a super tight race, and the Knights’ margin of victory was just five points, 44 to 49. But they earned the win after a superb showing by all seven runners. Not only did they put five in the top 15 — Jha, Wittenberg, Varma, Shah, and Avineni — but seniors Andy Chi (20th in 17:14) and Veejhay Roy (21st in 17:22) also tacked two important points onto Colts Neck’s score. 

WWP North averaged the same time as they did at CVCs last week (16:44), but superb results by their #3-#7 runners made this the superior performance. In particular, the sophomore duo of Varma and Shah had big breakthroughs and went sub-17 for the first time at Thompson Park. The Knights are looking good ahead of the Group 3 Championships.

Hopewell Valley (3rd place). Hopewell Valley took 3rd place in Central Group 3 for the third year in a row, though their 75 points was the fewest they’ve scored in that stretch. As good as Colts Neck and WWP North were, it was actually Hopewell Valley who got three boys over the line first, with Curley, Allevik, and Hiraldo going 5-6-7. The Bulldogs will be excited about that trio’s results — Curley just keeps getting better and better, Allevik proved that he’s back after an injury-delayed start to the year, and the sophomore Hiraldo chopped 30 seconds off his time from CVCs.

Also helping the Bulldogs to such a low score was sophomore Patrick Broker, who finished in 28th with a time of 17:55 — in his first ever varsity race! He was helped all the way by senior Mason O’Connor, who finished right with Broker in a Thompson Park PR of 17:55 for 29th.

Ewing (5th place). Perhaps the most surprising result of the day came from the last team to qualify out of the Central Group 3 race: the Ewing boys are heading to groups for the first time since 1979!  Using some gutsy efforts and inspiring teamwork, the Blue Devils packed all their scorers within just a 29-second span and scored 184 points, only 17 points ahead 6th-place Brick Memorial. Their super squad included Shazad Singh (32nd in 18:07), Landyn Loesch (33rd in 18:07), Ibrahim Songu (36th in 18:14), Iain Walker (37th in 18:14), Jayden Studivant (46th in 18:37), James Kammer (68th in 19:25) and Jason Zhu (75th in 19:48). Stay tuned for a separate Spotlight Performance article all about these boys’ historic performance.

Lawrence (8th place). The Cardinals edged Freehold Boro for 8th place on a tiebreaker. That’s a massive improvement from last year, where they finished 15th and scores almost twice as many points. This year, Lawrence put two boys in the top 25, with senior Alden Smith (22nd in 17:28) and sophomore Harrison Petrick (24th in 17:42) both setting course PRs and moving into the top 10 on Lawrence’s all-time Thompson Park list. Another sophomore, James Robison, continued his late-season surge with an 18:31 for 44th place. The Cardinals’ #2-#6 runners are all sophomores or freshmen — so don’t be surprised if Lawrence keeps moving up the sectional standings over the next few years.

Steinert (11th place). Behind Hurst’s 12th-place finish up front, sophomore Billy Conway also cracked the top 30 in 17:56. That was a solid improvement from CVCs, and it just about equalled his course PR. Senior Adam Szpakowski wasn’t far behind with an 18:15 for 39th place.

Nottingham (12th place). Sophomore Michael Juliano capped off his first XC season with an incredible race, running 18:09 for 34th place. Not only is that a Thompson Park PR by 50 seconds, but it even beats his old overall 5K PR from the much faster Robbinsville course. Freshman Gabriel Toure also bounced back nicely from CVCs to run 18:41 for 48th place.

Hamilton West (13th place). Sophomore Michael Dentini continued his rise through the Hornets’ history books. This week, he chopped another 25 seconds off his course PR to place 43rd in 18:22, which is #4 on Hamilton West’s all-time Thompson Park list. Senior Jonathan Gadie (78th in 19:49) capped off his XC career with a sub-20 performance on this course, and freshman Nathaniel Caraballo (79th in 19:56) also broke the 20-minute barrier.

Group 2 Boys

John O’Leary (Allentown) battles with Nathan Vroom (Somerville) with less than a half-mile to go in the Central Group 2 race. | Track Mercer

Allentown (2nd place). After just missing out on groups last year, the Redbirds emphatically punched their ticket this year by taking 2nd place in Central Group 2. With 70 points, they actually finished much closer to first-place Cinnaminson (43 points) than third-place Somerville (121 points).

John O’Leary, Ryan Heissler, Sarth Shah, and Reed Huggins all stuck with the front pack for the first mile. The pace picked up from that point, and O’Leary battled with the leaders the longest. He ultimately picked up the 4th-place medal and earned a new course PR of 16:27. As usual, Heissler closely trailed O’Leary the whole way, and he likewise toughed out a strong last mile to earn the 5th-place medal and trim a few seconds off his Thompson Park PR. The freshman Huggins held on for 11th place in 17:04, and Shah wasn’t too far behind in 17:17 for 16th place. Liam Pecci (34th in 18:03) and Matthew Brueggemeier (36th in 18:06) worked together the whole race and pulled each other to nice course PRs.

Robbinsville (11th place). The Redbirds were led by senior Nish Seshadri, who capped off his high school XC career with his best race ever, taking 17th place in 17:18. He came just 8 seconds away from qualifying for groups, but he has to hold his head high after an admirable effort that saw him demolish his course PR by 40 seconds and come within 20 seconds of his overall PR from his flat home course. Junior Ryan Decker also set a massive course PR, running 45 seconds faster than last week, to take 37th place in 18:10.

Group 1 Boys

Thrive Charter, now in its second year of existence, was a late addition to this year’s sectionals lineup. Sophomore Juan Caraballo became the first cross country runner to ever compete in a Thrive uniform, taking 41st place in the Group 1 Boys race with a time of 19:45.