Groups Boys Recap: WWP North qualifies for MOCs, Princeton 5th in Group 4, Allentown 3rd in Group 2
Mercer County runners delivered yet another epic group championships. With at least local one team competing in every division (except for Group 1), this meet featured race after race of gutsy performances and inspiring efforts — especially on a Saturday that unseasonably warm and sunny.
Congratulations also to everyone who extended their season by advancing to the Meet of Champions!
Boys qualifiers:
WWP North boys (4th in Group 3)
Finnegan Curley (Hopewell Valley, 11th in Group 3)
Saboor Qureshi (Princeton, 13th in Group 4)
Ryan Heissler (Allentown, 11th in Group 2)
John O’Leary (Allentown, 13th in Group 2)
Lachlan Arnold (Princeton, 25th in Group 4)
Finn Wedmid (Princeton, 28th in Group 4)
Elias Edwards (Wilberforce, 4th in Non-Public B)
Caed Wilson (Wilberforce, 7th in Non-Public B)
Alexander Chia (Princeton Day, 9th in Non-Public B)
Boys Group 4
Princeton’s Lachlan Arnold sprints to the finish in the Group 4 race at the Group Championships 2025. | Tom Smith for MileSplit
Princeton earned a 5th-place finish in Group 4 after putting three boys in the Top 30. Senior Saboor Qureshi led the Tigers by taking 13th place in 16:45, earning a wild card invitation to the Meet of Champions. Sophomore Lachlan Arnold (25th in 17:06) and junior Finn Wedmid (28th in 17:07) set course PRs to provide excellent depth. Sophomore Aleric Deess (61st in 17:36) and freshman Francisco Vozone (87th in 18:10) both crushed their previous bests at Holmdel Park to close out Princeton’s scoring.
The Tigers barely missed making it to the Meet of Champions — they were the second team out — but Qureshi, Arnold, and Wedmid all qualified individually based on their fast times, and they’ll represent Princeton very well.
WWP South had a very strong showing at groups, taking 11th place in Group 4. Sophomore Aron Zola beat his old course PR by almost 40 seconds even in the hot afternoon sun, and he came just 4 seconds away from qualifying for MOCs individually as a wild card. Fellow sophomores Sean Maina (63rd in 17:37) and Harsh Sharma (66th in 17:38) pushed each other to nice results, and junior Dhruv Kumar wasn’t far behind in 18:00 for 79th.
Boys Group 3
WWP North’s Agrim Jha finishes 4th in the Group 3 race at the Group Championships 2025. | Tom Smith for MileSplit
After just missing out on a Meet of Champions wild card last fall, WWP North sophomore Agrim Jha left no doubt this year by racing for the win in Group 3 and coming away with a 4th-place in 16:11. That was 15th-fastest time out of all groups combined.
Joining Jha at the Meet of Champions will be juniors Finnegan Curley from Hopewell Valley and Paul Wittenberg from WWP North. Curley finished 11th in 16:37, with Wittenberg just 3 seconds behind in 12th place. Curley was the fastest of all the wild card advancers.
WWP North finished 4th in a very competitive Group 3 race. With 119 points, they ended up 9 points behind North Hunterdon and just 2 points ahead of Morris Knolls. Those 2 points ended being crucial — Morris Knolls wound up ahead of WWP North in the wild card merge and would have gotten the 8th and final MOC wild card, but because WWP North had beaten Morris Knolls head-to-head, the Knights were awarded a spot at the Meet of Champions, too!
Jha and Wittenberg were valuable low sticks as usual, and the Knights got excellent teamwork and depth from sophomore Rohan Varma (39th in 17:35), sophomore Rohan Varma (42nd in 17:37), and freshman Ashvin Avineni (47th in 17:40), who all ran course PRs and finished in a 5-second span. Sophomore Sushanth Karri (55th in 17:52) and senior Andy Chi (59th in 18:01) finished close behind.
Hopewell Valley finished 6th at a team in Group 3. Junior Silas Allevik finished 49th in 17:44, with sophomore Julian Hiraldo close behind in 17:50 for 53rd place. Sophomore Patrick Broker had a big race to take 61st in 18:03, which was 80 seconds faster than his course PR and just 8 seconds off his time from last week at Thompson Park’s faster course.
Ewing finished 19th in their first trip to groups in nearly a half-century. Junior Shazad Singh (76th in 18:25) led the Blue Devils, and senior Ibrahim Songu (89th in 18:36) followed close behind with a big course PR. Freshman Iain Walker (111th in 18:57) did well in his first 5K at Holmdel, and Landyn Loesch (116th in 19:01) finished right behind him.
Steinert’s Tyler Hurst represented the Spartans at his third straight Group 3 meet, finishing 120th in 19:09.
Boys Group 2
Allentown teammates John O’Leary (left) and Ryan Heissler (right) work together in the middle of the Group 2 race at the Group Championships 2025. | Tom Harkins for MileSplit
Allentown took 3rd place in the Group 2 championship! Sophomore Ryan Heissler (11th in 16:55) and senior John O’Leary (13th in 17:00) ran the whole way together and pulled each other to nice new Holmdel PRs. Although they just missed the Top 10, their times comfortably earned them wild card invitations to the Meet of Champions. Heissler’s result was particularly impressive — not only was he the top sophomore in the race, but he was the only non-senior among the entire top 14 finishers from Group 2.
Juniors Sarth Shah (33rd in 17:34) and Matthew Brueggemeier (56th in 18:21) ran well to give the Redbirds some depth, while Luke Alessi (84th in 19:03) and Liam Pecci (86th in 19:04) both ran almost a minute faster than they did on this course last month to round out Allentown’s finishers.
Boys Non-Public A
Juniors Simeon Salins (78th in 18:35) and Markus McParland (99th in 19:33) led the Notre Dame boys to a 20th-place finish in Non-Public A.
Boys Non-Public B
Wilberforce’s Elias Edwards kicks it in for 4th place in the Non-Public B race at the Group Championships 2025. | Tom Smith for MileSplit
Mercer County will be sending three boys to Meet of Champions from the Non-Public B group. Wilberforce junior Elias Edwards dipped under 18:00 for the first time at Holmdel to take 4th place in 17:58. He was just 3 seconds off 2nd place in a tight three-way finish. His sophomore teammate Cade Wilson chopped almost 30 seconds off his course PR to secure 7th place in 18:22. Princeton Day senior Alexander Chia held on to 9th place in 18:29, qualifying for MOCs by just 4 seconds.
Princeton Day (84 points) finished 3rd in the team battle, not far behind Montclair Kimberley (60 points) and Rutgers Prep (79 points). Behind Chia, the Panthers packed all their other boys in a 34-second span. That included freshman Russell Moniak (18th in 19:15), senior Grayson McLaughlin (20th in 19:21), senior Charles West (21st in 19:22), junior Jasper Mackey (25th in 19:26), sophomore Michael Zhou (31st in 19:43), and junior Cy Cooper (33rd in 19:49).
Wilberforce finished just one spot behind Princeton Day, in 4th place with 138 points. In addition to Edwards and Wilson, junior Henry Jepson (19th in 19:18) gave the Wolverines three boys in the Top 20.