Valley Division Boys: O’Leary leads Allentown to impressive win
Allentown’s John O’Leary (#519), Sarth Shah (#522), and Reed Hastings (#513) lead in the early stages of the boys Valley Division race at the CVC Divisional Championships 2025. | Track Mercer
The Allentown boys put on a show in the Valley Division of the CVC Divisional Championships on Thursday afternoon. With the team title almost a lock before the gun even went off — their closest competition, Hopewell Valley, rested two of their top runners — the Redbirds still let it rip, dropping fast times and sending a strong message to their Colonial Division competitors ahead of next week’s CVC Championship.
John O’Leary, Ryan Heissler, Reed Huggins, and Sarth Shah executed on their game plan to run as a tight pack, and together they built a 9-second lead on the rest of the field by the time they hit the 1-mile mark. At that point, O’Leary picked it up and powered away to the win in a very quick 16:01. Heissler similarly closed very hard and finished 2nd in 16:13. Huggins and Shah worked together the whole way and pulled each other to 3rd and 4th places in matching times of 16:24.
Besides being PRs all around, that’s the tightest 1-4 compression that the Redbirds have had all year. And considering that their frontrunner O’Leary still ran one of his best races yet, it goes to show how much Heissler, Huggins, and Shah have been improving.
Allentown’s 5th man Matthew Brueggemeier made the team title official when he crossed in 13th place, earning his own new PR of 17:29. Their 6th and 7th runners weren’t far behind, with Liam Pecci finishing 15th in 17:35 and Christopher Argilan taking 18th in 17:49.
O’Leary’s win on Thursday was just the latest in a string of great results for the senior, who’s been running at a whole new level this year. He credits much of his recent improvement to significantly increasing his mileage this summer and fall, at least compared to what he was running last year. “That’s helping me with a lot more strength during the races. I just have a lot more base to pull from.”
His own focus on mileage has given his teammates a lot more base to pull from, too. Coach Vincent Buccigrossi had always considered himself a “quality over quantity” kind of coach, but when O’Leary started asking if he and his teammates could do longer runs at slower paces on easy days, Coach Buccigrossi trusted his senior captain. “John was very adamant that if we up our intensity and our mileage, we can unlock something new. And he’s 100% right. These guys have stepped up to the challenge and really accepted it.”
O’Leary will graduate this spring, but it’s safe to say that his positive influence on the Redbirds’ program will stick around for years. “It’s really nice to see his growth rubbing off on me a little bit, and now his roots are spreading through our freshmen, our sophomores, and our juniors. It’s just a wonderful thing to see. If I can learn something from him, it helps future generations past him. That’s a real leader.”
Other Highlights
Ewing’s Landyn Loesch finishes 10th to lead his team to 2nd place in the Valley Division of the CVC Divisional Championships 2025. | Track Mercer
Ewing was the surprise 2nd place team after putting four boys in the top 20 finishers. The Blue Devils staged an awesome in-race comeback: they were in 5th place at the one-mile mark and still just 4th place at the two-mile mark, but their boys turned on the jets over the final 1.1 miles to edge Hopewell Valley by 2 points.
Ewing was led by Landyn Loesch (10th in 17:22) and Shazad Singh (11th place in 17:26), as the two juniors both broke 17:30 for the first time. Iain Walker (16th in 17:38) and Ibrahim Song (17th in 17:41) weren’t far behind and helped each other over the final mile to a strong finish. Jayden Studivant finished 25th in 18:16 to secure the 2nd-place comeback for Ewing.
Hopewell Valley rested two top runners but still got very promising results from the rest of their guys. Sophomore Julian Hiraldo went out towards the front and paced himself well in pursuit of the Allentown boys, and he came away with a great 5th-place finish in 16:38. Mason O’Connor showed that he’s back and ready to help the Bulldogs push for postseason success, as the senior set a nice PR of 16:56 for 7th place in just his second race of the season. Freshman Declan Curley stepped up and proved that he’ll also be a key scorer for Hopewell Valley, taking 14th place in 17:34. Aidan Chow also broke into the top 20 with a big PR of 17:51 for 19th place.
Robbinsville finished 4th as a team, 12 points behind Hopewell Valley and just 3 ahead of Lawrence. Senior Nish Seshadri ran a bold race and stuck to Allentown’s front pack longer than anyone else. Even as the fatigue wore in, he dug deep and gutted out the last mile to dip under 17:00 and place 8th in 16:59, a massive PR. Junior Ryan Decker also ran very well and placed 12th overall in 17:27, a new 5K PR on his home course. Seniors Alex You (22nd in 18:05) and Aarush Arun (23rd in 18:06) finished strong together just outside the top 20.
Lawrence has its best 1-2 duo since 2019, with Alden Smith and Harrison Petrick working together to run two of the Cardinals’ fastest 5Ks in years. Smith is having a stellar senior year — he followed up a great race at Shore Coaches with a well-deserved 6th place finish here in 16:54, breaking the 17:00 barrier for the first time. And his sophomore teammate Petrick was right with him, taking 9th place in a big PR of 17:03. Lawrence almost got three boys in the top 20 with sophomore Wade Bullard running a very strong race to finish 21st in 18:03. James Robison absolutely crushed the last mile, passing ten boys and finishing 27th in 18:18.
Hamilton West edged Nottingham for 6th place by just four points. They were led by sophomore Michael Dentini, who had himself a standout performance. He moved up well throughout the race and unleashed a big last mile to place 20th in 17:53, which is the fastest 5K time by a Hamilton West runner in over 10 years. Seniors Jonathan Gadie (35th in 18:33) and Franklin Pineda-Ramirez (42nd in 18:56) also went sub-19 on a great day for the team.
Nottingham’s young team delivered some great results today. Freshman Gabriel Toure, running in just his second major 5K after stepping up from the two-mile races, closed well over the final mile to take 24th in 18:08. Sophomore Michael Juliano stuck close behind Toure the whole way and kicked to 26th place in a nice PR of 18:17.
Full results available here.