The Shore Coaches Invitational at Holmdel Park is the high point of the XC regular season. It attracts hundreds of schools, including almost the entire Garden State and several other top teams from across the Northeast. One major point of appeal is that it provides the only opportunity to race on New Jersey’s most historic and well-known course. For most athletes, that’s part of getting the quintessential New Jersey XC experience; for the top athletes, that’s essential for gaining experience on the infamously tough course that hosts groups and the Meet of Champions.

Because so many schools show up, it’s also a great chance for teams to see how they stack up against the competition in their conference, county, section, and state as they head into championship season.

Read on to see how Mercer County schools fared in each of the seven boys varsity races, plus a couple of freshman races.

Varsity G

Lawrenceville scored an impressive victory in the Varsity G race, winning with just 51 points over Manville’s 90 points. The Big Red packed four boys in the top 11 and at 17:44 or faster. Senior Bastian Bocklage led the way with a 3rd-place finish in a big Holmdel PR of 17:18. Sophomore Julius Jordan, running at Holmdel for the first time, placed 6th in an impressive time of 17:29, only 29 seconds off his all-conditions 5K PR. Junior Arunav Sarkar finished just a few seconds back in 17:32 for 8th place, and his classmate Hejyule Bae-Robinson wasn’t far behind in 17:44 for 11th place. Their #5 man, Matthew Fu, also scored a medal with a 25th-place finish in 18:42.

Princeton Day competed in the small-school division too, and they took 8th out of the 19 teams. Senior Grayson McLaughlin led the way in 18:01, which earned him a 15th-place medal.

Varsity F

Wilberforce and Peddie represented Mercer County in the Varsity F race. Wilberforce finished 17th as a team. Junior Elias Edwards shaved a second off his Holmdel PR with a 18:20 for 55th place, while sophomore Cade Wilson (73rd in 18:50) and Henry Jepson (80th in 18:57) also dipped under 19:00. Peddie placed 19th, led by junior Theo Salapatas’s 71st-place finish in a time of 18:47.

Varsity E

In the Varsity E team standings, Notre Dame finished in 11th place out of 29 teams. Junior Timothy Ellison earned the last medal and went sub-18:00 at Holmdel for the first time, running 17:46 for 30th place. His classmate Markus McParland also impressed by running 18:17 for 43rd place, breaking his all-conditions 5K PR despite the tougher course.

Robbinsville finished 15th in Varsity E. They were led by senior Nish Seshadri, who ran one of his fastest XC races ever to take 45th in 18:20.

Varsity D

The Varsity D race featured Ewing and Nottingham. Ewing finished 14th out of 26 teams, led by Shazad Singh (36th in 18:53), Ibrahim Songu (42nd in 19:09), and Landyn Loesch (47th in 19:15). Those were solid Holmdel PRs for all three boys.

Nottingham placed 20th in Varsity D, led by junior Matthew Alvarez running 19:58 to dip under 20:00 at Holmdel for the first time. Sophomore Michael Juliano followed closely with a time of 20:22 in just his second XC invitational ever.

Varsity C

The Varsity C boys race was loaded with local talent. Between WWP North, Allentown, Hopewell Valley, and Lawrence, almost every third runner in the top 40 came out of the CVC.

The WWP North boys came home with new backpacks after an exciting team win in this division. In the closest race of the day, the Knights edged Ocean City — ranked NJ #10 by NJ.com and NJ #16 by MileSplit — by just 7 points, 87 to 94. They got a huge boost by their phenomenal duo of Agrim Jha and Paul Wittenberg, who finished 2nd and 3rd individually. The sophomore Jha chopped 24 seconds off his PR with a time of 16:23, while the junior Wittenberg showed that he’s on an entirely new level this season by finishing just three second later in 16:26 — which is only 7 seconds off his overall 5K PR. Wittenberg also deserves extra credit for outleaning Ocean City’s #1 runner at the line.

The Knights put a grand total of six boys under 18:00. Senior Veejay Roy took 22nd place in 17:39. Ashvin Avineni finished as the top freshman in the race with a time of 17:49 for 29th place. Sophomore Rohan Varma broke 18:00 for the first time at any invitational with a 17:56 for 33rd place, and 6th man Andy Chi provided some insurance by finishing in 17:59 for 35th place, ahead of every other team’s 5th man.

Allentown placed three boys in the top 25. Senior star John O’Leary kept his momentum going and ran a 30-second Holmdel PR of 17:11 to claim 9th place. Sophomore Ryan Heissler, running the Holmdel course for the first time, wasn’t far behind and clocked a 17:27 for 13th place. Sarth Shah finished 24th in 17:41, faster than he ran on any course last year. The Redbirds finished 6th as a team in Varsity C, though that was without key scorer Reed Huggins.

Hopewell Valley took 8th place in Varsity C, led by Finnegan Curley’s huge 5th-place finish. The junior chopped 40 seconds off his Holmdel PR with an incredible time of 16:31, which is the 4th-fastest in school history. Sophomore Julian Hiraldo also stepped up and ran 17:51 to finish 29th and claim one of the last medals.

Lawrence finished 19th out of the 26 teams in Varsity C. Junior Alden Smith delivered a huge performance and took 38th in 18:04, which is the 2nd-fastest time by a Lawrence runner at Holmdel in the last five years.

Varsity B

Princeton senior Saboor Qureshi continued his incredible debut XC season, running 16:47 to take 5th place in the Varsity B race. He led the Princeton to 5th place in the team standings. The Tigers also got solid backing from senior Braedyn Capone, who continued his nice comeback with another good run for 19th place in 17:31.

Hightstown finished 12th out of 29 teams in Varsity B. Senior Mason Johnson has been running well all season but really broke through here with a 15th-place finish in 17:27. Junior Mateo Abad-Delgado returned from a brief absence in the Rams’ lineup with a 18:08 for 51st place.

Steinert took 20th place, led by senior Tyler Hurst in a season’s best race that saw him take 21st with a time of 17:34.

Trenton was led by junior Malik Kiawu in 19:54. He became just the third Trenton boy to go sub-20 at Holmdel in the last ten years, and the first since 2019.

Varsity A

The only Mercer County team in the largest division was WWP South, who took 11th out of 32 teams. They packed their five scorers in a very compact 27-second spread between 17:51 and 18:18. Their #5 man was junior Jascha Margolis (90th in 18:18), who did very well in his call-up to varsity after winning his JV race at Six Flags Wild Safari last week.

Frosh A & B

Several Mercer Country freshmen ran very well in their two-mile races. In the Frosh B race, Ewing’s Iain Walker placed 6th in 12:13, just ahead of Allentown’s Christopher Argilan in 7th with a time of 12:16. In the Frosh A race, WWP South’s Aidan Fan took 16th place with a similarly nice time of 12:18. In the Frosh C race, Pennington’s Hank Van Yperen was Mercer County’s top finisher in 12th with a time of 12:30.

Shore Coaches Boys Recap