Week 6 Recap: Manhattan Invy, XC Fall Classic, Peddie-Lawrenceville Dual
Fewer Mercer County teams were in action during this last weekend of the regular season, but those who competed still put on a show. Check out the highlights from this past weekend — including Lawrenceville’s Blair Bartlett running a state record of 16:16 on the Peddie course!
Manhattan Invitational
Princeton (girls), WWP North, Hightstown (boys), and Pennington traveled to New York for the historic Manhattan University XC Invitational. Hundreds of teams from across the East Coast come to run the 2.5 mile course in Van Cortlandt Park. Full results here.
Girls Results
Kajol Karra (Princeton) finishes strong in the Eastern States Championship Race at the Manhattan University Invitational 2025. | John Nepolitan for RunnerSpace
In the prestigious Girls Eastern States Championship race, Princeton produced with another strong showing against Northeast regional competition. Senior Kajol Karra led the Tigers with an elite time of 15:17 for 19th place, and junior Grace Hegedus followed closely in 15:30 for 23rd place. Junior Phoenix Roth took 32nd place in 16:00, and Eowyn Deess crossed just seconds later in 16:03 for 35th place. All four of those girls finished 4-6 places higher and ran 11-17 seconds faster than at last year’s Manhattan Invitational. Sevanne Knoch rounded out Princeton’s finishers with a time of 16:51 for 61st place in her first race at Van Cortlandt.
Princeton finished 4th out of 21 teams in the Eastern States Championships, and they were 6th in merged results across all . They were the top team from New Jersey, one spot ahead of NJ #9 Middletown South.
Allison Lee (WWP North) breaks the tape at the Varsity Girls E race at the Manhattan University XC Invitational 2025. | John Nepolitan for RunnerSpace
WWP North skipped Manhattan last year but made the trip this year, and Allison Lee made the most of it by claiming a 15-second victory in the Varsity Girls E race. That’s an upgrade from her 6th-place finish as a freshman, the last time she raced at Van Cortlandt. Overall, her time of 14:49 was 15th out of the 1,100 varsity girls who ran on Saturday. Lee is just the third Mercer County girl in at least the last 20 years to go sub-15:00 at the Manhattan Invitational.
WWP North finished on the team podium in 3rd place. Behind the senior Lee, the Knights got very strong runs from their underclassmen. Sophomore Juliette Halpin impressed with a 22nd-place finish in 16:36, freshman Anita Bhatia took 31st in 16:49, and sophomore Isabella Lee placed 36th in 17:04. Right behind them, junior Sara Secora rounded out the scoring with a 17:11 for 40th place.
The Pennington girls also took on Van Cortlandt Park for the first time in almost 10 years. They ran in the Varsity Girls C race, and their top finisher was senior Emma Normand in 51st place with a nice time of 17:11.
Boys Results
Agrim Jha (WWP North) comes to the line in the Eastern States Championship race at the Manhattan University XC Invitational 2025. | John Nepolitan for RunnerSpace
The WWP North boys were invited into the Eastern States Championship, and they held their own in a very fast race. Paul Wittenberg finished 19th in 12:48, which was a phenomenal result. For some context, based on TullyRunners’ speed rating, that performance is roughly equivalent to a 16:12 at last week’s Shore Coaches Invitational (where Wittenberg ran 16:26). His teammate Agrim Jha finished 44th in 13:13, which made him the 2nd-fastest sophomore in the race. Ashvin Avineni was the 2nd-fastest freshman in the race, finishing 86th in 13:49. Overall, the Knights finished 15th out of 24 teams in the championship division.
The Hightstown boys got to experience the Manhattan Invitation for the first time, where they competed in the Varsity Boys C race. They were led by senior Mason Johnson, who took 21st in 13:49. Junior Mateo Abad-Delgado followed in 42nd place with a time of 14:16. The Rams’ depth was on display here: despite having just the 12th-fastest #1 man, they had the 5th-fastest #5 man and wound up placing 8th out of 28 teams.
Pennington ran four boys in the Varsity E race. They were led by seniors Monte Huffman (36th in 14:07) and Andrew Hofaker (72nd in 14:40).
XC Fall Classic
Wilberforce, Notre Dame, Princeton, and Hightstown stayed more local and raced the XC Fall Classic at Thompson Park. Full results here.
Girls Results
Wilberforce junior Stella Blanchard once again proved that she’s entered the top tier of New Jersey distance girls. A week after a tough day at Shore Coaches, she rebounded quickly and blasted an incredible 18:34 to take the win at the XC Fall Classic. That’s almost a full minute faster than her time at the Thompson Park class meet two weeks ago, and it’s the #7 time among New Jersey girls currently competing. Since Wilberforce won’t be at CVCs or sectionals, Blanchard won’t get to race here this postseason, but she took advantage of one last shot on this course and left a mark that will still be right near the top of the Thompson Park leaderboard at the end of the year.
Notre Dame’s Alaina Sabo delivered her own breakthrough race to take 2nd place in a very impressive 19:25. The sophomore has run some very fast times on fast courses but had yet to break 20:00 at the Thompson Park or Holmdel. She shattered that barrier with an excellent run here. Her teammates Valerie Cordero (16th in 21:48) and Leah Rouse (19th in 21:56) also broke into the top 20 at this meet thanks to gutsy PR performances.
Princeton ran their top five girls at the Manhattan Invitational, but they still brought a strong squad to the XC Fall Classic and placed 2nd to Moorestown. Senior Avery Bahr delivered a big-time performance to lead the Tigers, taking 5th place in 20:27 and setting a 20-second 5K PR even on this challenging course. Her sophomore teammate Isabella Franceschi finished just a few places back in 9th with a time of 21:06.
Another notable result at the XC Fall Classic was the season opener of Hightstown sophomore Siena Rivera. She was one of the top freshmen in the county last year, and she’s hinting at a promising comeback this year after taking 7th in 20:51 on Saturday. Also medaling for the Rams were Hayley Watkins (29th in 23:00) and Amara Stewart (30th in 23:18).
Boys Results
Princeton senior Saboor Qureshi got his first win of the year at the XC Fall Classic on Saturday, crossing the line in a very quick time of 16:21. For context, that would’ve been the #2 time at Thompson Park by a Mercer County runner last fall. This was Qureshi’s first race on this course, which probably felt like a comparatively flat one after having run up the Bowdoin and Holmdel hills in the prior two weeks.
Princeton went on to sweep the top three places, as junior Finn Wedmid (2nd in 16:48) and sophomore Lachlan Arnold (3rd in 16:50) both bounced back from tough races at Shore Coaches to deliver strong performances here and go sub-17:00. The Tigers actually put their whole squad in the top 12, with Ziyang Ling taking 6th in 17:34 and then the trio of Aleric Deess (10th in 17:43), Evan Raphael (11th in 17:44), and Terrance Tien (12th in 17:45) all finishing together.
Notre Dame junior Timothy Ellingson more than held his own against all the Princeton boys. The junior took 4th place in 17:18, chopping over a minute off his Thompson Park PR. His classmates Markus McParland (13th in 17:55) and Simeon Salins (14th in 17:59) also both broke 18:00 for the first time at Thompson Park — with McParland doing it for the first time on any course. In the freshman 2-mile race, Kevin Ellingson took 2nd place in a nice time of 11:13.
Nottingham freshman Gabriel Toure stepped up to the 5K for the first time this season and produced a great debut, leading the Northstars with a time of 18:35 for 17th place. His teammate Matthew Alvarez dipped under 19:00 for the first time with a time of 18:59.9 for 25th place, and Michael Juliano crossed the line just a few seconds later to claim a 29th-place medal and a new 5K PR of 19:05.
Peddie-Lawrenceville-Hill Meet
It might have just been a dual meet on a rainy day at the Peddie golf course, but that didn’t stop Lawrenceville’s Blair Bartlett from doing what she does almost every time she toes the line: rewrite the history books.
Her latest result might have been the most jaw-dropping of them all — she just ran a 5K in 16:16.7. It’s hard to adequately convey how impressive that result is. It shattered the old New Jersey all-course 5K record by 27 seconds, and it’s #12 all-time in the entire United States!
This incredible result wasn’t totally out of the blue. Bartlett ran 16:48 on this same course three weeks ago at the Jerry Hart Invitational — in what was effectively her first XC race ever — and it presumably was very nice to return to this faster course after racing consecutive weeks at hilly Bowdoin Park and Holmdel Park. Of course, while Peddie’s course is definitely fast, it’s also not exactly pancake flat, with roughly 130 feet of total elevation gain.
Behind Bartlett, there were several other strong performances. Peddie senior Caitlin Williams ran 19:19 for 2nd place, which was a 13-second improvement from her time at Jerry Hart. She was followed by another Falcon, Shanel Tan, whose 19:34 was 24 seconds faster than last month. Lawrenceville’s Rory Laubach took 4th place and dipped under 20:00 again with a 19:53, and she was followed by Peddie’s #3 girl Charis Chien, who ran a new PR of 20:09 for 5th place.
While the race between Lawrenceville and Peddie was tight through the first few finishers for each team, a Big Red trio of Gigi Aitken-Davies (6th in 20:15), Essie Chafin (7th in 20:29), and Yasmin Willie (8th in 20:59) clinched the win for Lawrenceville, 26 to 33.
On the boys side, Lawrenceville’s Arunav Sarkar got his first win of the season after narrowly edging Peddie’s Elie Meyer in a tight battle the whole way. Sarkar crossed in 16:32, less than a second ahead of Meyer in 16:33. Lawrenceville sophomore Julius Jordan took 3rd in 16:45 after holding off a pair of runners from Lawrenceville’s archrivals, the Hill School. He and senior teammate Nico Montenecourt (6th in 16:54) both broke 17:00 for the first time. Also finishing in the top 10 for the Big Red — who are ranked NJ #20 by MileSplit — were Bastian Bocklage (7th in 17:00), Hejyule Bae-Robinson (8th in 17:18), and Matthew Fu (10th in 17:39).