Week 2 Recap: TCNJ, Thompson 2 Miler, and More
The XC season keeps heating up as more and more runners make their fall debuts. One of the biggest meets for Mercer County schools this weekend was the TCNJ XC Invitational, and that gets its own recap here. Many other local schools went to Thompson Park for the Thompson 2 Miler, and there was also a notable dual meet for Lawrenceville. Read about those below!
Thompson 2 Miler
It’s never too early to start getting more reps at Thompson Park, which hosts big postseason meets like the CVC Championships and sectionals. The Thompson 2 Miler is a popular early-season option for getting familiar with the course because the races are a little shorter but still let runners experience the tough, long hill in the last mile. This Saturday morning, runners from Allentown, Hightstown, Peddie, Wilberforce, WWP North, and WWP South showed that they are ready to rock this course over the next few months. Full results here.
Boys
Mateo Abad-Delgado (Hightstown) sprints down the homestretch en route to winning the junior race at the Thompson 2 Miler. | Jeff Granit for NJ Advance Media
In the senior boys race, Hightstown’s Mason Johnson was Mercer County’s top finisher with a time of 10:48 for 4th place. That was a nice improvement from 16th-place finish last year. A little further back, WWP South’s Aradhya Vijay was 8th in 11:02, and Hightstown’s Javin Spearman cracked the top 10 with a time of 11:16 for 10th place.
Hightstown’s Mateo Abad-Delgado earned his first-ever win at a major invitational with a stellar performance in the junior race. His time of 10:20 got him the race victory by 7 seconds over Arturs Krumins from Metuchen. Also in the junior race, Allentown’s Sarth Shah continued his solid start to the season by taking 7th in 10:49. Two WWP South teammates had great runs to dip under 11:00, with Druv Kumar getting 10th in 10:58 and Jascha Margolis taking 12th in 10:59. Wilberforce’s Elias Edwards finished just a few seconds back in 11:05 for 16th place.
Also placing well in the junior race – which turned out to be the deepest race of the day – were Allentown’s Matthew Brueggemeier (18th in 11:12), Peddie’s Theo Salapatas (25th in 11:19), and a trio of Hightstown teammates: Dhruva Sribuddharju (20th in 11:12), Matt DeAngelo (22nd in 11:15), and Howard Stewart (26th in 11:20).
In the sophomore race, a pair of Pirates stole the show. WWP South’s Aron Zola took home top honors in his first invitational of the season with a time of 10:32. His teammate Sean Maina was close behind in 10:36 for 2nd place, 3 seconds ahead of Old Bridge’s Daniel McFarland in 3rd place. Allentown’s Ryan Heissler followed up on his nice debut at the Cherokee Challenge with another great run here, taking 5th in 10:48. WWP South’s Harsh Sharma finished 7th in 10:58, almost a minute faster than his time from freshman year. WWP North’s Rohan Varma also broke into the top 10, running 11:03 for 8th place.
The boys freshman race featured two of Mercer County’s top young talents dueling for the win. In the end, WWP North’s Ashvin Avineni was able to hold off Allentown’s Reed Huggins by 8 seconds, 10:49 to 10:57. Huggins finished 4 seconds ahead of Pt. Pleasant Boro’s Crosby Grace in 3rd place. WWP South’s Aidan Fan also ran well to take 6th place in 11:19.
Girls
Laura Sallade (Wilberforce) runs at the front of a stacked senior race at the Thompson 2 Miler. | Jeff Granit for NJ Advance Media
Wilberforce’s Laura Sallade opened her season with an excellent 3rd place run in a time of 11:43. She finished only behind two of the top girls in the state, Molly Domurat from Hunterdon Central and Ivy Slavinski from Pt. Pleasant Boro. Sallade’s time of 11:43 was 21 seconds faster than her season opener from last year at this same meet, which bodes well for an exciting senior year. Her teammate Emily Prothero took 14th place in the senior race with a 13:52.
In the junior race, WWP South’s Risha Rao grabbed 3rd place in an exciting finish – she was just 1.4 seconds behind 2nd place and just 0.2 seconds ahead of 3rd place, with a time of 12:54. Not far behind, Allentown’s Emma Ruchelman grabbed 6th place in 13:01 – also outkicking the next girl by just 0.2 seconds – and Peddie’s Charis Chien took 8th in 13:08, a massive improvement from when she last raced here as a freshman. WWP South’s Yana Chheda finished just outside the top 10 in 13:21 for 11th.
In the sophomore race, Allentown’s Isabella Maltese was the top Mercer County finisher in 7th place with a 13:37, running even faster than she did at the Cherokee Challenge last week. WWP North’s Isabella Lee also earned a top-10 finish with a time of 13:50.
Just like the boys freshman race, the front of the girls freshman race was loaded with Mercer County talent. Allentown’s Addison Frascella backed up last week’s 7th place finish at the Cherokee Challenge by taking 2nd place here in a time of 12:51. Just a few seconds back, WWP North’s Anita Bhatia took 3rd in 12:59, 10 seconds faster than her season opener at Run the Night. WWP South’s Cecilia Szostak also had a nice debut by getting 6th place in 13:52.
Lawrenceville Dual Meet
In other action, Lawrenceville traveled to Pennsylvania on Saturday morning to face off against the George School. Full results here.
The girls swept their dual meet, scoring a clean 15 points. Junior superstar Blair Bartlett made her XC debut, cruising to the win in 19:40 on a very hilly course. Fellow junior Rory Laubach took 2nd place in 22:04.
The boys also prevailed in the team scoring, 23-36. They were led by great results from their top two, Arunav Sarkar (2nd in 17:14) and Bastian Bocklage (3rd in 17:15), along with Julius Jordan (4th in 18:07). The race was won by the George School’s Michael Mascari in 16:26.