With only a week left before the three-stage New Jersey state meet gets under way, two teams have propelled themselves into the all-group maelstrom with outstanding performances last weekend.

At Van Cortlandt Park, the Haddonfield boys turned in the fastest average of the season for a Garden State team, 13:18, as they won the Eastern championship race for the third time in six years, 53-62, over LaSalle of Philadelphia (a school that with Haverford coach Tom Donnelly in the lead role, once captured both the A and B races there, a feat never matched before or since). It was strictly a team effort with only 22 seconds separating leader Mike Burke at 13:06 and anchor Matt Golia (13:28).

The group included a freshman, Boo Vitez, in 10th at 13:20 and a sophomore, Dan Carreon, 11th at 13:22. And, as a bonus, Haddonfield’s top frosh, Colin Baker (son of longtime coach Nick Baker) made his first appearance of the season in the junior varsity event.

At the Ocean County meet at Ocean County Park, Msgr. Donovan finally put its act together and averaged 19:10 on the swift course with Molly Kempton in second place at 18:29 and Krista Loretto, Brianna Crowe and Devin Solvik finished 5-6-7, separated by just three seconds. Amanda Cavallo closed out the 33-67 win over Jackson. All five of these girls are underclassmen, three juniors and two sophs---a real full house.

This sets up a super-match this Saturday at the Ocean County site in other Shore Conference meet with Colts Neck, the state’s number one team, going against MonDon, the two joined by two other top 10 teams, Red Bank Catholic and Jackson. It will also match the state’s two top active runners, Amanda Marino of Jackson, who won the Ocean race in 17:51, and Ashley Higginson of Colts Neck, the Monmouth County champ. The 2005 winner, Danielle Tauro of Southern Ocean, will be just a spectator, her season due to begin in the Nov. 4 South Jersey sectionals.

Jackson took the boys’ race, 59-69, from Msgr. Donovan, even with two regulars on the sidelines, resting for the Shore Conference match with top-ranked Colts Neck. Kris Carle won the race by 85 yards from MonDon junior Ray Coles in 15:31.

Pope John swept the Sussex County titles for the fourth year in a row at the county fair grounds with Jeremy Scheid and Lara Heigis both setting course records. Jeremy took three seconds over brother Justin’s boys’ mark at 15:35 and Lara lowered her own record to 17:55, in the process joining county legends Lisa Pakutka of Hopatcong and Christi Constantin of Kittatinny as a three-time winner. It is not seven in a row for the boys.

Voorhees stars Chris Southwick and Valerie Thompson swept the individual titles at the Hunterdon-Warren meet on Oct. 20 at Delaware Valley. Southwick took the boys’ race by 70 yards in 16:06 from Ed Sheridan, who led Phillipsburg to a third straight team title. Thompson headed a fifth-straight girls’ victory as she finished almost 200 yards ahead of Asha Singh of Hunterdon Central in 18:28, only six seconds off Jodie Bilotta’s course record.

Heavy favorites won both Passaic County titles that day at Garret Mountain, Tony Salvatore of Wayne Valley repeating in the boys’ race in 16:11 and Christine Valerio doing the same in the girls’ event in 19:30. Both also led team wins.  

The Camden County meet on Oct. 20 again had the top teams skipping it to run two days later at the Easterns. Haddonfield was missing from the boys’ race, won by Haddon Twp in a neighborhood duel with Haddon Twp and both Haddonfield and Cherry Hill East were absent from the girls’ event, won by Timber Creek for the first time. Pennsville’s boys team, a heavy favorite for the Gr. I title, won easily in Salem with a 1-2 finish from Mark Kearney and Brian Maniglia, while Woodstown ended an eight-year run by Schalick in the girls’ event.

Another young team, Lenape with three sophs and two juniors, took its first Burlington County girls’ title, 31-53, over Cherokee with three girls following Allison Weeks of Cherokee over the line. A very close boys race among three brother schools saw Shawnee edged Seneca and Cherokee, 59-62-63 with Alex Yersak of Cherokee a narrow winner over Brian Tetrault of Cinnaminson in 16:36. 

TOP TENS

BOYS                                    GIRLS

1. Don Bosco                            1. Colts Neck

2. Pope John                            2. Roxbury

3. Haddonfield                         3. Msgr. Donovan

4. Jackson                                4. Cherry Hill East

5.  Old Bridge                           5.  Voorhees

6. Ridgewood                          6. Morris Knolls

7. Christian Brothers              7. Red Bank Catholic

8. Hopewell Valley                   8. Pope John

9. Colts Neck                            9. Ridge

10. St. Benedict’s                     10. Jackson