Meet of Champions Recap: Lee breaks CVC Holmdel record, Princeton girls 6th and WWP North boys 10th
The New Jersey XC Meet of Champions is one of the most exciting — and stacked — high school meets in the country, and Mercer County runners were a big part of it this year! Check out some highlights from a beautiful, fast day at Holmdel Park on Saturday.
Girls Recap
Allison Lee (WWP North) runs in the front pack in the early stages of the girls race at the 2025 Meet of Champions. | John Nepolitan for RunnerSpace
In one of the fastest and most competitive races in meet history, WWP North’s Allison Lee gave it everything in her final race in a North uniform and was rewarded with the fastest Holmdel Park time in CVC history.
After initially going out at the torrid pace set by Ocean Township’s Leah Starkey and Union Catholic’s Paige Sheppard — who would go on to run jaw-dropping times of 17:15 and 17:17 — Lee backed off into a slightly more sustainable pace alongside Union Catholic’s Cayleigh Kaiser. The two raced side by side until the two-mile mark, when Lee fell off Kaiser’s shoulder and was quickly caught by the four-girl chase pack a few seconds back. Impressively, Lee was able to regroup and battle with those girls the rest of the way, gutting out an excellent 7th-place finish in 18:00. (Her time was 17:59.05 before being rounded up in the posted results).
While Lee may have hoped to place higher, it’s still a phenomenal result against a historically fast field. For context, her time of 18:00 puts her among the Top 35 all-time at Holmdel, and it’s the fastest ever by a CVC girl, surpassing the 18:09 set by WWP South’s Caroline Kellner in 2010.
Mercer County’s next finishers were three junior girls who had never previously had the opportunity to run full-strength at an XC Meet of Champions. With the novel experience of being in championship shape while surrounded by large packs of similarly fast girls, they unlocked whole new levels of fitness!
Sydney Young (Hopewell Valley) climbs the Bowl in the girls race at the 2025 Meet of Champions. | Tom Harkins for MileSplit
Hopewell Valley’s Sydney Young competed at last year’s Meet of Champions, but she had just barely started racing again after an injury sidelined her for most of the season. This year, she was in excellent shape and she knew it, so she went out aggressively and battled for a Top 20 medal. While she ended up barely missing that target, she still achieved an amazing result with a 22nd-place finish in 18:55. That was a 19-second Holmdel PR and makes her just the 12th girl in Mercer County history to go sub-19:00.
(Young’s time of 18:55 would have medaled any other year in meet history. For that matter, the 26th-place time of 18:58 probably would have, too. Again, this race was extraordinarily deep and fast!)
Izzy Meth (Lawrence) catches one more runner just before the line at the 2025 Meet of Champions. | John Nepolitan for RunnerSpace
Last year, Lawrence’s Izzy Meth just missed qualifying for MOCs after battling with an injury through sectionals and groups. This year, although a summer injury delayed the start of her training, she’s firing on all cylinders now, and she showed it on Saturday. After going out somewhat conservatively — she was sitting in 52nd place at the one-mile mark — she moved up over the second mile and held the charge over the last mile to finish in 37th place with a time of 19:11. That was 31 seconds faster than her course PR from last week, and it also broke Lawrence’s 41-year-old school record of 19:27 held by Beth Starr.
Wilberforce’s Stella Blanchard technically may have been at full strength when she ran at last year’s Meet of Champions, but that was before she transformed herself into a state-caliber star, and she ran like one at this year’s meet. With a strong, evenly paced effort, she finished in 46th place with a time of 19:19, a new school record at Holmdel. That result was amazingly almost 100 places higher and over 2.5 minutes faster than in this same race last year.
Eowyn Deess (Princeton) kicks to the finish at the 2025 Meet of Champions. | John Nepolitan for RunnerSpace
For the third straight year, the Princeton girls represented Mercer County at MOCs from a team perspective. They finished 6th in this edition, led by junior Grace Hegedus, who tied her Holmdel PR with a 19:25 for 52nd place. Her classmate Eowyn Deess followed with a 13-second course PR of 19:36 for 61st, and senior Kajol Karra finished right behind her in 19:39 for 64th. Sophomore Rosemary Warren also delivered a strong run and went sub-20 for the first time at Holmdel with a 19:50 for 76th. She was followed by Phoenix Roth (112th in 20:17), Sevanne Knoch (129th in 20:42), and Isabella Franceschi (141st in 21:14) to round out the Tigers’ squad.
Also earning the right to competing among the best of the best were Wilberforce senior Laura Sallade, who took 99th in 20:06 in her third XC Meet of Champions, and Princeton Day freshman Kayla Peckens, who closed out an excellent debut season with a 22:06 for 154th in her first Meet of Champions.
Boys Recap
Agrim Jha (WWP North) kicks for 14th place at the 2025 Meet of Champions. | John Nepolitan for RunnerSpace
WWP North was one of the last teams into the Meet of Champions, but the Knights left no doubt that they belonged at the big dance after finishing in 10th place! That’s the best finish by a Mercer County boys team since 2021.
What’s also impressive is how WWP North ran this race, starting out slow and then picking off competitors left and right. At the one-mile mark, Agrim Jha and Paul Wittenberg were sitting between 25th-30th place while the other five boys were in a loose pack between 130th-150th place (in a race with just over 160 boys). But that all changed over the next two miles.
Jha had the most extraordinary individual performance of the day, moving all the way up to 14th place and crossing the line in 15:58. Not only did that 13-second PR earn him a medal, but it also made him just the 17th boy in Mercer County history to go sub-16 at Holmdel. Wittenberg also ran exceptionally well and finished just outside the medals in 23rd place with a time 16:14, which was a 26-second course PR.
Incredibly, the sophomore Jha and the junior Wittenberg were two of only five non-senior boys in the entire Top 25. Bodes well for next year!
Rohan Varma (WWP North) finishes strong to help carry the Knights to 10th place at the 2025 Meet of Champions. | Tom Smith for MileSplit
A little further back, sophomore Rohan Varma, who’s become a reliable and crucial #3 runner for WWP North in recent weeks, moved way up after the first mile and finished 96th in 17:14, which was 21 seconds faster than his course PR from last week. Freshman Ashvin Avineni (116th in 17:32) and sophomore Soham Shah (128th in 17:46) rounded out a very strong top five that averaged 16:56, 12 seconds faster than last week.
The Knights’ two displacers, Sushanth Karri (143rd in 18:10) and senior Veejhay Roy (146th in 18:10), both beat Morris Knolls’ sixth man to tip the 10th-place tiebreaker in WWP North’s favor.
Finnegan Curley (Hopewell Valley) sprints to the finish at the 2025 Meet of Champions. | Tom Smith for MileSplit
Hopewell Valley junior Finnegan Curley used a similar tactic of staying relaxed through the roller coasters in the first mile before then taking off. He passed at least 30 boys over the last two miles to finish 41st in his first Meet of Champions with a time of 16:32.
Ryan Heissler (Allentown) finishes near the front of a massive pack at the 2025 Meet of Champions. | Tom Smith for MileSplit
Allentown sophomore Ryan Heissler delivered an outstanding performance to finish as Mercer County’s 4th-fastest boy. He placed 53rd in 16:41, running 14 seconds faster than last week. Princeton senior Saboor Qureshi used a nice finish to cross the line just a second later in his own course PR of 16:42 for 58th place.
Two more Princeton teammates, junior Finn Wedmid (95th in 17:12) and sophomore Lachlan Arnold (102nd in 17:19), worked together the whole way to achieve solid results in their first Meet of Champions. Allentown senior John O’Leary wasn’t far behind, crossing in 114th with a time of 17:31.
The Non-Public B qualifiers more than held their own against the bigger schools. Wilberforce’s representatives, junior Elias Edwards (133rd in 17:54) and sophomore Caed Wilson (142nd in 18:08), both trimmed several more seconds off their Holmdel PRs, and Princeton Day senior Alexander Chia joined the sub-18 club with a huge race, placing 135th in a 31-second course PR of 17:58.