TCNJ XC Invitational Recap
TCNJ hosted its second annual high school cross country invitational. The local meet attracted several Mercer County teams like Ewing, Hamilton West, Hopewell Valley, Lawrence, Robbinsville, and Steinert, along with other strong teams from the region, like West Milford and Sparta. Full results here.
It was a beautiful day for racing on the spectator-friendly course. Track Mercer was there and got lots of pictures – click below to view the album with 750+ photos.
Girls 5K
The Hopewell Valley girls show off their well-deserved trophy.
The NJ #11 Hopewell Valley girls passed their first test of the season, beating West Milford 37-51 to win the TCNJ XC Invitational. The Bulldogs were led by junior standout Sydney Young, who flew to a 30-second victory with a time of 18:19. After her, however, West Milford – whom NJ.com calls one of the top teams in Group 2 – took three of the next four places, led by their superb senior trio of Ciara Clinton (2nd in 18:49), Amanda Harvey (3rd in 18:53), and Brenna Traverso (5th in 19:47). Sparta’s Celia Rossettini also had a great run to finish in that top group, getting 4th place in 19:42.
Hopewell Valley countered West Milford’s top three with a great trio of their own who took the next three places – Anna Wilson (6th in 19:51), Elsie Rey-de-Castro (7th in 20:15), and Sophia Pelligrino (8th in 21:06). With both squads waiting for their 5th runners to cross the line, it was another trio of Bulldogs that sealed the deal for Hopewell Valley, when Ashley Potter (15th in 23:04), Lainie Smith (16th in 23:05), and Maddie LaChance (17th in 23:05) all finished together.
Sydney Young (Hopewell Valley) charges up the hill for the first time, having already built up a large lead in the first mile of the girls 5K at the TCNJ XC Invitational.
Young’s time of 18:19 is a new course record, almost 30 seconds faster than the time that former Hopewell Valley standout Claire Dumont ran last year. That said, Young wasn’t even chasing the course record today. “It’s early in the season still, so I wasn’t trying to do anything crazy,” Young explained after the race. “I just wanted to stay consistent throughout and have even splits. I don’t really make time goals for cross country, since every course is different. It’s like, if you do everything right, the time will come with that.”
Young may not have been chasing a time today, but, like a true racer, she still needed a sense of competition somehow. “I wanted to chase the golf cart. It was just entertaining to chase something.”
Team Notes
Robbinsville finished 6th in the team standings, just three points out of 5th. They were led by Meghann Hansen (24th in 23:45) and Snigda Gonugunta (25th in 23:46).
Steinert didn’t field a full team, but their top finisher – who also edged the Robbinsville girls to be the top Mercer County finisher from outside Hopewell Valley – was Ashley Foster in 23rd place with a 23:45.
Boys 5K
Finnegan Curley (Hopewell Valley) pumps his fists after claiming victory in the boys 5K at the TCNJ XC Invitational.
The boys race featured two of Mercer County’s top returners from last season, Hopewell Valley junior Finnegan Curley and Steinert senior Tyler Hurst. Those two favorites quickly went to the lead and pushed the first mile at a very quick pace. Going up the first hill, though, Curley finally managed to gain some separation. He kept the pedal to the medal over the last half of the race, and he ultimately came away with a dominant win and a big 5K PR of 16:08.
“I just got out and tried to get to the front,” Curley said after the race. “When I finished that first mile, someone said ‘you went 5:00.’ And I thought, ‘well, I feel good still.’ I just tried to push and push.” After realizing he had broken open a large lead and had locked up the win – which was his main goal – he used the crowd’s encouragement to help him keep pushing. “It was really cool. Everyone was like, ‘It’s just you versus the clock, you’re going to win.’ So I thought, ‘I’m just going to see how fast I can run.’”
Curley’s sophomore teammate Julian Hiraldo also made a huge surge over the last half of the race to grab 2nd place in a time of 16:53, his first sub-17:00 result. Hurst came through in 3rd place with a time of 17:11. Hopewell Valley’s Colin Vickery finished 4th place in 17:17, a nice improvement from this race last year. Ewing’s Shazad Singh set a big 5K PR of 17:32 for 7th place. Steinert’s Adam Szpakowski earned 8th place with a time of 17:47, and his junior teammate Tyler Bearce, running in his first-ever XC invitational, ran 17:50 to give the Spartans three boys in the top 10.
Hopewell Valley won the team title with 72 points, which was 12 points ahead of runner-up Sparta. Steinert finished with 100 points for 3rd place, and Ewing took 5th with 115 points.
Team Notes
Steinert actually would’ve won this meet if it had been scored through only four runners. In addition to medalists Hurst, Szpakowski, and Bearce, sophomore William Conway ran 18:06 for 12th in his XC debut.
Lawrence edged Robbinsville for 8th place by just 1 point – so it’s worth pointing out that, twice, a Lawrence boy finished just 1 second ahead of a Robbinsville boy. The Cardinals were led by Wade Bullard, who ran a huge 5K PR of 18:55 to break 19:00 for the first time. The Ravens’ top finisher was Ryan Decker, who took 19th place in 18:34.
Ewing got top-20 finishes from Jayden Studivant (16th in 18:25) and Ibrahim Songu (18:31), to go along with Singh’s 7th place.
Hamilton West sophomore Michael Dentini led the Hornets with a 19:30 for 34th place in his first XC invitational.
Freshman 3200m
Sparta’s Avery Barrett won the first race of the day, the girls freshman 3200m, with a time of 13:39. Hopewell Valley’s Ceclia Carsky-Wilson narrowly outkicked McNair’s Alyssa Gonsalves for 2nd place, 14:06 to 14:07.
For the freshman boys, Hopewell Valley’s Declan Curley won his first high school invitational with a quick time of 11:07, giving the Curley family a clean sweep of the boys races at the TCNJ XC Invitational. Second place went to Bishop Eustace’s Rutger Sochacki, with a time of 11:21.5, and just a few seconds back was Ewing’s Iain Walker in 11:27 for 3rd place.