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 six girls varsity races.

Varsity F

*Blair Bartlett (Lawrenceville) charges to the line en route to the 4th-fastest time ever at Holmdel Park. | Tom Smith for MileSplit*

Cross country fans at Shore Coaches didn’t have to wait long to witness history. In the second varsity race of the day, Lawrenceville’s Blair Bartlett threw down an incredible time of 17:24. That’s #4 all-time at Holmdel Park! What’s even more amazing about that time is not just that she ran it solo but that she ran it blind — she had never run on the challenging course before, not even for a walkthrough. But she had experienced big hills at Bowdoin Park last week, which gave her the confidence that she could roll with whatever Holmdel threw at her this week.

Since Lawrenceville is not in the NJSIAA, this was Bartlett’s only shot to run New Jersey’s most historic course this year. She made the most of it, delivering a performance that will be tough for anyone to upstage, even at the Meet of Champions. She didn’t get to race head-to-head against any of the NJSIAA’s biggest stars — most notably Union Catholic’s Paige Sheppard, who ran a 17:38 in the next race to become #8 all-time at Holmdel — but that just builds the anticipation for their expected showdowns at NXR Northeast and NXN.

Further back in the Varsity F race, Peddie’s Shanel Tan, a senior doing XC for the first time, also delivered an impressive Holmdel debut and placed 16th in 20:43. Lawrenceville and Peddie each picked up a second medal too, as the Big Red’s Rory Laubach ran 20:57 for 21st and the Falcons’ Charis Chien placed 29th in 21:29.

In the team standings in Varsity F, Lawrenceville finished 5th out of 22 teams, while Peddie took 12th place.

Varsity E

Wilberforce senior Laura Sallade ran a superb race and finished 11th in 19:22, chopping 23 seconds off her already-impressive Holmdel PR. She held her own while running in the deepest race of the day, which featured both US #3 Union Catholic and US #8 Shenendehowa (NY).

Princeton Day’s Kayla Peckens continued her excellent freshman campaign by running 20:23 in her first trip around Holmdel, which earned her 19th place finish in the Varsity E race. A few seconds back, Notre Dame’s Alaina Sabo (22nd in 20:32) and Wilberforce’s Stella Blanchard (23rd in 20:38) also picked up medals with nice races.

Wilberforce finished 6th out of 17 teams in Varsity E. In addition to medalists Sallade and Blanchard, senior Emily Prothero, who is doing XC for the first time, had a nice Holmdel debut with a 40th place finish in 22:06.

Princeton Day placed 7th as a team, just 27 points behind Wilberforce. Behind Peckens was a trio of juniors — Olivia Lumba, Syona Gautam, and Victoria Sichel — who finished within 24 seconds of each other and provided solid depth for the Panthers.

Robbinsville’s top five, led by sophomore Snigda Gonugunta in 65th place and freshman Kavya Senthilkumar right behind her in 66th, all finished within 70 seconds of each other and claimed 10th place in Varsity E.

Notre Dame rounded out the Mercer County teams in Varsity E with a 13th-place finish. In addition to Sabo’s run up front, junior Valerie Cordero-Beckert (48th in 22:37) beat her old course PR by almost a minute to break into the top 50.

Varsity D

Mercer County’s lone representatives in the Varsity D race were the Pennington girls. Senior Emma Normand ran a very strong race in her first shot at the Holmdel course, running 21:07 and coming away with a 27th-place medal.

Varsity C

Hopewell Valley’s Sydney Young ran a bold race up front and was rewarded with a 2nd-place finish and a phenomenal time of 19:14. With that massive Holmdel PR, she crossed the line 12 seconds behind winner Amelia Pattwell of Middletown South and 4 seconds ahead of Ocean City’s Riley Tolson. Her time was the 23rd-fastest time out of all races on the day.

Young’s classmate Anna Wilson broke 21:00 at Holmdel for the first time and took 17th in 20:53. Overall, the Bulldogs finished 5th out of 25 teams in Varsity C, though that was without two of their usual top-5 runners.

Allentown didn’t run a complete team in the varsity race, but they did come away with two individual medals. Freshman Addison Frascella ran a very strong Holmdel debut of 21:04 for 22nd place, and junior Emma Ruchelman nabbed the last medal with a 45-second Holmdel PR of 21:41.

Varsity B

WWP North’s Allison Lee stole the show in Varsity B, defending her title in this race and winning by 18 seconds over Ridgewood’s Katherine Keating. Her time of 18:36 was very impressive given the afternoon heat, and it was 11 seconds faster than what she ran to win this same race in 2024. This was a very promising start to a season that Lee will hope to stretch into December.

Behind Lee, Princeton packed four girls in the next fifteen finishers. Grace Hegedus led the way by running a Holmdel PR of 19:25 for 4th place. She was followed by Kajol Karra (8th in 19:53), Phoenix Roth (14th in 20:25), and Ewoyn Deess (16th in 20:38). Freshman Caroline Kime just missed out on a medal but had a great race to round out Princeton’s scorers with a 21:07 for 31st place.

Princeton finished in 2nd place behind Group 4 rivals Ridgewood, 53 to 70. It’s worth noting, however, that the Tigers were without Rosemary Warren, who was their #3 girl at Bowdoin last week. Hypothetically, if she had run at Shore Coaches and finished alongside their #3 finisher, Princeton would have edged Ridgewood by 1 point.

WWP North finished 6th out of 27 teams. In addition to Lee’s 1st-place medal, sophomore Juliette Halpin picked up a 26th-place medal after going sub-21:00 for the first time in 20:56. And Lee wasn’t the only Knight to take home a 1st-place medal — freshman Anita Bhatia won the JV A race by 15 seconds with an impressive time of 21:15.

Hightstown placed 22nd place overall in the Varsity B race, led by senior Madalyne Ng in 80th place.

Varsity A

In the Varsity A race, WWP South finished 17th out of 27 teams. Their leader, junior Risha Rao, finished just outside the medals with a time of 21:14 for 35th. That mark beat not just her Holmdel PR but also her Thompson Park PR. Her classmate Shivani Joshi also showed big improvement with a time of 22:51 for 71st.

Shore Coaches Girls Recap