Spotlight: Ewing boys qualify for groups with historic race
For ten to fifteen minutes after the end of each race at sectionals on Saturday, there was a period of great suspense. That’s because the live results online showed the preliminary order of individual finishers, but not the team scores. So, for the coaches, athletes, and fans of schools hoping to be one of the five team qualifiers from each race, this meant constantly refreshing phones and anxiously wondering when the official results would be posted.
But everyone knew exactly when the Central Group 3 Boys results were posted, because the roar from the Ewing Blue Devils tent could be heard all across Thompson Park.
The Ewing boys qualified for the group championships!
Most people at the meet probably didn’t truly appreciate how wild it was for Ewing to be one of the five teams to qualify. Consider Ewing’s record at sectionals in the last 25-50 years:
The last time Ewing sent a team to groups was 46 years ago, in 1979.
The Blue Devils had sent only one single boy to groups in at least the last 25 years, when Matthew Bearden qualified four times from 2008-2011.
When the Ewing boys finished 11th at sectionals last year, that was their best finish since 2010.
In four of the last six years, Ewing didn’t even field a complete boys team at sectionals.
But it’s time to update the Ewing record books. The Blue Devils will be sending seven boys to Holmdel this weekend after an incredible race at sectionals where their heroic top seven — junior Shazad Singh, junior Landyn Loesch, senior Ibrahim Songu, freshman Iain Walker, junior Jayden Studivant, sophomore James Kammer, and sophomore Jason Zhu — pulled off a stunning upset to grab the fifth and final qualifying spot in the Central Group 3 race.
The Preparation
Like so many cases of incredible turnarounds and year-over-year improvements in cross country, Ewing’s story started with ambitious preseason goals and summer training. Their goal was to make it to the group championships, and that required a renewed dedication to training.
“Our training through the offseason was definitely more strict this season,” Studivant explained. “We definitely kept it more disciplined, added on more mileage, stayed together as a team.”
One big advantage for Ewing is that their top runners are all similarly talented, so staying together as a team doesn’t mean that anyone is taking it easy. They can all push each other in practices and in races. “In-team competitiveness played a good role in the success,” Studivant added with a grin.
The boys wanted to make practices hard, but they also wanted to keep them fun. “Showing up to practice every day with a smile on our faces” is important, remarked senior Victor Serna. “That cheers everyone on, every day.”
Their hard work, discipline, consistency, teamwork, and positive attitude helped them grow quickly, but that didn’t come without growing pains.
“We’ve all had some injuries this season,” Studivant recalled. “Ankle injuries, hamstring injuries, knee injuries. Recurring problems that have been going on since freshman year. Those were our main obstacles.”
Songu added that it wasn’t always easy to maintain the confidence to keep pushing towards their lofty goals. “Some of the obstacles we faced were within ourselves, to just believe in ourselves and believe that we could make it to groups as a team.”
But whether it was minor injuries or creeping self-doubt, the Blue Devils didn’t give up.
“Overall this season, we were so motivated and disciplined that we didn’t let the obstacles get in our way,” said Studivant. “Instead, we ran over them.”
Their team-first mindset was also a big driver of their rapid improvement and their ability to overcome challenges, both in training and in races. “Every time we raced, we knew what we were racing for. We were racing for the next person,” explained Songu. “We just wanted to get better as a team. We all believe in each other, and we have trust. I’m racing for the other six people, and I’m going to do well for them.”
The Race Plan
Their self-belief, discipline, motivation, trust, and training had put them in a position where they could qualify for groups. One more thing they needed was a smart sectionals race plan, and Coach Dan Johnson had them covered.
On the tactical side, Coach Johnson told them to run aggressively, which included a fast start. “We knew that we had to get out just a little bit faster than we did at counties,” Coach Johnson said. So he had them do 400m repeats the week before sectionals to practice the quick pace.
On the mental side, Coach Johnson again reminded them to believe in themselves. “That was pretty much the talk all week, just for them to be more aggressive and believe that they can do great things.”
The Race
Coach Johnson told his boys to get out aggressively, and that’s exactly what they did. Their top five runners were all sitting between 25th and 35th place at the one-mile mark, just a few seconds behind the huge front pack that had gone out at a relatively conservative pace. Loesch, Singh, and Songu were running together at this point, with Walker and Studivant close behind.
Because the front of the race more bunched up and in-touch than normal, the Ewing boys had a better idea of how well they had gotten out and where they needed to be. “I noticed that the top pack was getting pretty close, so I knew that we were going to be up there and in the race,” Loesch said. “We needed to stay in eyesight of that top pack as long as possible.”
The boys continued to keep that front pack in eyesight throughout the second mile, staying aggressive and keeping the pedal down. By the two-mile mark, Loesch had moved ahead a little bit, Walker had moved up to join Songu and Singh, and Studivant followed close behind. They were in a great position as a team, still holding onto 5th place as they entered the final mile.
But at Thompson Park, it’s the mountainous last mile that can make or break a race. Ewing’s strategy for closing well even after the aggressive early pace was the same strategy that had carried them to this point in the first place: teamwork.
“In the last mile, we tried to stay together as close as we can, because that’s what Coach told us.” Songu said. “He said that we have to stay in a pack and run in a pack.”
Songu, Singh, and Walker did just that, charging up the hill side-by-side-by-side and holding their own even as the fatigue sunk in. With about 600m to go, Singh put in a huge surge and caught up to Loesch in the final stretch — which was especially remarkable given that Singh had lost a shoe on the hills! The two boys kicked together and crossed the line in a dead-even finish. Singh was credited with 32nd place in 18:07.82 with Loesch taking 33rd, just 0.02 seconds behind Singh in 18:07.84. Those were Thompson Park PRs for both boys.
Just 7 seconds later, Songu and Walker came powering down the homestretch together, also finishing just a half-second apart. Songu earned 36th in 18:14.24 and Walker took 37th in 18:14.68, both of which were course PRs. More importantly, Songu and Walker crossed the line at the very front of the pack of six boys who finished a two-second span.
Studivant kept his teammates in his sights going up the hill and followed them to a very strong finish in 46th place with a time of 18:37, which was his best result of the year and was 35 seconds faster than last week on this same course.
Kammer also set a big course PR of 19:25 for 68th place, and Zhu rounded out the historic squad with a 19:48 for 75th place.
When all the points were eventually tallied, Ewing finished in 5th place with 184 points, just 17 points ahead of Brick Memorial and 20 points ahead of Red Bank Regional. Their team average was 18:16, which was 33 seconds faster than what they had run just the week before at CVCs.
The Aftermath
With the results posted, the celebration was on. Amid the laughter and the threats to dump Gatorade on Coach Johnson, the happy coach reflected on what’s made this team so special compared to years past.
“Just seeing their growth, seeing them actually run as a team, compete as a team, actually leaning on each other and everything else to pull them through races and everything,” Coach Johnson said. “That’s been our major strength this year.”
With the new culture of camaraderie, self-belief, and success that this year’s group has developed, watch for Ewing’s inspiring teamwork to be a major strength for years to come.