Shore Coaches Invitational now open to out of state teams
By JIM LAMBERT
Sept. 3, 2009
There has been a lot of discussion on forums over the past few years about how fast some of the nation’s best could run at Holmdel Park if they ever had the opportunity?
The time has finally come to find out!
Starting this season, the Shore Coaches Invitational, scheduled for Oct. 3 at Holmdel, will expand to allow any high school team in the country to compete over the 3.1-mile layout, it was announced tonight.
In previous years, the Shore Coaches Invitational, which began in 1977, was strictly open to New Jersey teams.
``Entry for the meet has declined a little bit, and with talk of maybe moving the state meets out of Holmdel one day, this should create some more excitement for the course and give runners and teams from other states the chance to challenge the best from New Jersey,’’ said Colts Neck coach Jim Schlentz, a member of the Shore Conference Track Coaches Executive Committee.
Schlentz said the Shore Coaches Invitational will add a championship division race next season. For this season, all teams will be placed in one of the six varsity races according to the school’s size, which is how the meet has always been run.
Holmdel’s individual course records are 15:16.0 by Craig Forys of Colts Neck in 2006, and 17:35.0 by Janet Smith of J.P. Stevens in 1983. The course record for team averages are 16:14.4 by the West Windsor-Plainsboro boys last year, and 19:00.5 by the Voorhees girls in 2007.
Holmdel is considered one of the most challenging courses in the country. Teams that want to to take a crack at it at the Shore Coaches Invitational should contact Hank Nonnenberg at 732-539-7858.
