Forys, Higginson Win Big at Home

Story by John Nepolitan

Just as the Colts Neck girls team has gotten stronger each of the last four years, the central New Jersey school’s Cougar Invitational has grown in importance. In 2006, the final results not only featured a clash of NTN regional ranked teams on the girls side, but also a battle of two runners who will both be looking to qualify for the Footlocker Nationals.

Girls Championship/Large school race

Ashley Higginson’s (Colts Neck HS, NJ) pre-race plan was to run an even paced 5:45 first two miles, but a fast early pace of 5:30 through the first mile ruined it.  Alone at the front, Higginson would pass the two mile post in 11:20 and storm away. Her new course record of 17:34 for the 5000 meter course won by 1:00 over Lara Heigis, (Pope John XIII, NJ) who crossed the line in 18:34, which was also 8 seconds under the old record. 

Where the individual battle was a runaway, and never really in doubt, the team battle would be a chance of redemption for the Colts Neck, which had suffered a 95-point loss to Saratoga Springs HS (NY) just 6 days ago at Penn State.  Ranked #1 in NJ and dropped to #7 in the NTN Northeast rankings, Higginson and her teammates wanted to show people they were not done yet.  “We wanted to prove that there are not just 2 top teams”, said Higginson. 

Behind Higginson’s victory, Colts Neck placed its remaining scorers from 10th to 15th place to record a 51-69 victory over Assumption HS (KY), which had the 12th best team performance in the combined results from all races at the Great American Invitational.  Down in 5th place was NTN Northeast #5 Bronxville (NY) who, despite placing two runners in the top 5, had too much of a gap between the top 2 and the remaining scorers to run with Colts Neck. 

Boys Championship/Large school race

While the girls race was a runaway, the boys stayed grouped past the mile point. They passed in 4:48 with Tom Poland (Delbarton HS, NJ) leading the way and defending champion Craig Forys (Colts Neck) right off his shoulder. 

Over the next 800 meters, Forys and Unionville’s (PA) Paul Springer, the PA 3200m State Champ, would start to draw away with Forys making a break for home on a slight downhill between 1-1/2 miles and the 2 mile post (crossed in 9:42). 

From the break point, a little further out from the finish where he broke away last week at Penn State, Forys continued to push in an effort to get under the 15:00 barrier and did so in a new course record of 14:58. 

For the winner it was a good chance to keep testing different strategies as he gets closer to the championship portion of the season.  At last week’s Penn State Invitational, Forys pushed for the win with about 1 mile to go; today the plan was to push from a little further out and hold on.  Even though he is still logging 70 miles per week in training, Forys still showed a turn of speed once he knew he was close to breaking the 15:00 barrier.