New Jersey Groups - Girls

Date: Mon, 17 Nov 1997 14:57:56 -0500
From: "Edward  J. Grant" <102416.1703@compuserve.com>
Subject: t-and-f: NJ Group HS CC Girls

Netters:
        You had to arrive early at Holmdel Park last saturday to see the
top girls' action, for it took place in the first twp races of the day,
group I and Group IV.
        Erin Donohue of Haddonfield was the whole story in gr. I, the only
question being how fast she could run on the chilly day with a course left
wet from overnight rains. (Friday had been a simply awful day in NJ.)
        The answer was "not as fast as everyone expected." With no real
competition, she settled for a 19:12, some 36 seconds behind what she had
run a month earlier on a bright October day in the Shore Coaches
Invitational. This still gave her a 73-second edge over two-time defending
champ Laura Nann of Bernards.
        It was a different story with the ensuing Gr. IV race. Eight of the
state's 10 top teams were in this one as well as a half dozen of the top
individuals. Celeste Sedo of Ridgewood continued her winning streak as she
finished 50 yards ahead of K.C. Meehan of Brick in 19:10 which turned out
to be the best of the day. Stephanie Snyder of Randolph was another 30
yards back in third----all three will be first-team all-state selections.
        Shawnee, running as usual "incognito" in plain black jerseys, took
care of the team question by placing five in the first 20, but still had
only a three-point edge over Hackensack. (What made this race so rare was
that there were only two wild card runners in the first 25 finishers so
that the quick count made by reporters as the runners crossed the line were
hardly altered at all when the official results came out.)
        Ridgewood, which had hoped to get at least the wild card team slot
because of the high finishes of sedo and soph kelly Behan (4th in 19:41)
qualified absolutely when both NJ 2 entries, Randolph and Columbia fell
afoul of physical problems and finished 6-7, giving the wild card slot to
Brick (which had a 2-6 finish from Meehan and sarah Chase). Laura Goglas of
Randolph went down and didn't finish; Natalie Deffenbaugh of Columbia
hyperventilated and finished 134th, costing her team some 90 points.
        The rest of the day was anticlimactic, but provided a few
surprises. Ramsey retained its Gr. II title over favored Morris Hills,
Voorhees and Pt. Pleasant Boro; Morristown added an unexpected Gr. III
title to the boys' win. Jessica Thomas of Pt. Pleasant Boro upset Vheryl
Bauer of Morris Hills in the Gr. II race, Julie Culley of North Hunterdon,
a converted soccer player, did the same to cate Guiney of Middletown South
and Pam Meadors of Ocean Twp in Gr. III.
        Red Bank Catholic, which has won the last three AG titles, won
handily in Parochial A, but showed some 5th girl problems that may prevent
it from repeating.

                                Group IV
        Sedo, who swims during the winter, had lost her only NJ race this
season at the Shore Coaches meet where she finished 3rd to teammate Behan.
This time, she had a comfortable lead coming out of the hills, a necessity
since Snyder had great finishing speed. 
        Betsy White led the Shawnee win in 5th and Taylor Van Acker, who
had missed a number of meets this fall, came up with a 12th place finish.
The renegades were still missing Nikki Theimann, who was expected to be
their lead runner this fall. Hackensack had the Martin sisters, Jackie and
Patty, in the top 10 finishers. 

        T: 1-Shawnee 72. 2-Hackensack 75. 3-Ridgewood 115. 4-Brick 139.
5-Toms River East 145. 6-Randolph 153. 7-Columbia 203. 8-Westfield 249.
9-Cherokee 252. 10-South Brunswick 259.
        Ind: 1-Celeste Sedo, Ridgewood 19:10. 2-K.C. Meehan, Brick 19:20.
3-Stephanie Snyder, Randolph 19:26. 4-Kelly Behan, Ridgewood 19:41.
5-Jackie Martin, Hackensack 19:55. 6-Sarah Chase, Brick 20:04. 7-Lauren
Dunning, Toms River East 10:04. 8-Betsy White, Shawnee 20:10. 9-Patty
Martin, Hackensack 20:24. 10-Heather Laine, Hillsborough 20:25.
11-Catherine Casey, Columbia 20:28. 12-Taylor Van Acker, Shawnee 20:30.
13-Kelly Ortiz, Paramus 20:38. 14-Dara Crocker, Columbia 20:43. 15-Andrea
Pricskett, Shawnee 20:43. 16-Beth Androski, Hackensack 20:46. 17-Danielle
Stockdale, Randolph 20:47. 18-Lauren Anders, Shawnee 20:49. 19-Elizabeth
Eskow, Phillipsburg 20:58. 20-Marybeth Redheffer, Shawnee 20:59.

                                Group III
        This was another very close team race with Morristown edging North
Huterdon, 94-96. What made it close was that Morristown had to wait to 63rd
place for Alyssa D'Alconzo to come in, wearing a cast on her left arm. The
first four were in  the top 21 finishers with another converted soccer
player, Megan Schwartz, leading the team in 3rd at 19:51. (Her wild sprint
after coming out of the woods picked up the points necessary for the win;
another factor was a 14th place finish by junior Ashley Bedell, two places
better than her sectional place).
        Culley, whose 19:23 was the 4th best of the day,  had been sick the
first month of the season and has been coming on strong since then, though
she finished a distant third to Meadors in the sectional at Holmdel a week
earlier. (North Hunterdon has another fine distance runner, Kris HJaughey,
who stuck with soccer this fall.) Culley, Guiney and Meadors are all
juniors who will be at it again next year.

        T: 1-Morristown 94. 2-North Hunterdon 96. 3-Middletown South 108.
4-Indian Hills 164. 5-Ocean twp 168. 6-Egg harbor 170. 7-Mt. Olive 241.
8-Ocean City 246. 9-Toms River South 247. 10-High Point 257.
        Ind: 1-Julie Culley, North Hunterdon 19:23. 2-Cate Guiney.
Middletown South 19:29. 3-Megan Schwartz, Morristown 19:51. 4-Pam Meadors,
Ocean Twp 19:51. 5-Kate Bongiolatti, Middletown South 20:13. 6-Tamara
Iglesias, Morristown 20:18. 7-Meghan O'Toole, Garfield 20:34. 8-Grace
O'Neill, North Hunterdon 20:37. 9-Josie Maceri, Fort Lee 20:48. 10-Erika
Lacovara-Switzer, Egg Harbor 20:50. 11-Kristen Kammerer, Sparta 20:53.
12-Amanda Smeal, Northern Highlands 20:57. 13-Vernick Smith, Wilson 20:58.
14-Ashley Bedell, Morristown 21:00. 15-Samantha Haydu, Ocean Twp 21:03.
16-Aisha Alexander, Passaic Valley 21:09. 17-Audrey Holst, Indian Hills
21:15. 18-Kristen Gisondi, Egg Harbor 21:16. 19-Meredith Millet, High Point
21:22. 20-Sarah Rush, Warren Hills 21:23.

                                Group II
        The key to the Ramsey win here was the fourth-place finish of
freshman Melissa Conway. It was expected that Morris Hills would pick up a
huge lead with its first three runners, but the margin was only three
points and Ramsey made this up with its 5th girl. Voorhees had only one in
the top 10, but finished 13-14-15 to stay close. 
        Thomas had won only the sectional race before this one and was more
than a minute behind Bauer in their Shore Coaches' race a month ago. Her
victory also deciuded the 66-67 team race since, had Bauer won, it would
have gone to the 6th girl comparison where Morris Hills had a huge edge.
        
        T: 1-Ramsey 66. 2-Morris Hills 67. 3-Voorhees 72. 4-Pt. Pleasant
Boro 111. 5-Pompton lakes 193. 6-Caldwell 208. 7-Westwood 238. 8-Manchester
248. 9-Ridge 269. 10-Hopewell Valley 276.
        Ind: 1-Jessica Thomas, Pt. Pleasant Boro 19:51. 2-Cheryl Bauer,
Morris Hills 20:01. 3-Tracy Kirk, Ramsey 20:08. 4-Melissa Conway, Ramsey
20:20. 5-Lily Thomas, Somerville 20:22. 6-Lauren Kelly, Morris Hills 20:24.
7-Michelle Miller, Freehold Boro 20:31. 8-Stacie Hillmann, Voorhees 20:33.
9-Erin Wyble, Morris Hills 20:37. 10-Kelly Chin, Holmdel 20:38. 11-Shana
Pitcher, Pompton Lakes 20:43. 12-Laura Petrillo, Hopewell Valley 20:44.
13-Kate Henninger, Manchester 20:46. 14-Megan Campbell, Ramsey 20:46.
15-Amy Howard, Voorhees 21:01. 16-Billie Wittmann, Voorhees 21;01.
17-Stephanie Van Arsdale, Voorhees 21:07. 18-Jenica Asadorian, Westwood
21:15. 19-Jessica Sarinelli, Morris Hills 21:20., 20-Megan Langhauser,
Ridge 21:25.

                                Group I
        It was deja vu all over again in the team race here as Bernards,
which won eight of nine state titles between 1978 and 1986 and took an AG
title in NJ's banner year of 1982, scored a 62-105 victory over Keansburg.
Nann was backed by frosh Lesley Barnet in 4th place. (And this won't be the
last one--three of the top five were frosh, another a junior).
        Donohue said after the race "I'm a warm weather runner" but that
probably won't mean much this Saturday, which again is predicted to be in
the 40s. 
        
        T: 1-Bernards 62. 2-Keansburg 105. 3-Bogota 130. 4-Haddonfield 132.
5-Palisades Park 184. 6-Metuchen 187. 7-Maple Shade 206. 8-Haddon twp 208.
9-Montgomery 222. 10-New Providence 248.
        Ind: 1-Erin Donohue 19:12. 2-Laura Nann, Bernards 20:25. 3-Sharon
Crow, Haddon Twp 21:05. 4-Lesley barnet, Bernards 21:15. 5-Stephanie
Paglione, Palisades Park 21:20. 6-Erica Cesario, Bogota 21:38. 7-Cindi
Thompson, Maple Shade 21:39. 8-Arleeny Rodriguez, Newark Arts 21:51.
9-Tiffany Harris, Burlington wp 22:01. 10-Stephanie Burgener, Palisades
Park 22:02. 11-Chris Connell, Haddon twp 22;02. 12-Jessica Garafalo,
Keansburg 22:10. 13-Alexis Skoda, Bernards 22;15. 14-Natalie DeBenedictis,
Roselle Park 22:20. 15-Cynda Pettrow, Keansburg 22:21. 16-Elaine Cook,
Montgomery 22;25. 17-Paula Morgan, Haddonfield 22:32. 18-Cozette Ruddy,
Metuchen 22;34. 19-Leslie Bruno, Keansburg 22:36. 20-Katerina Jiminez,
Metuchen 22:37.

                                Parochial A
        Meghan Cunniff of RBC is always at her best for the all-group meet
and this time seems ahead of schedule. She won this one by almost a miniute
in 19:32 in what amounted to a workour for the Caseys who placed four in
the top six. However, there was a 44-second gap to the 5th girl and this
could be fatal in the AG meet. 
        Paul VI took the 2nd spot as expected, but Pope John edged Bishop
Eustace for third on a 20-point edge in the 5th position.

        T: 1-RBC 33. 2-Paul VI 78. 3-Pope John 118. 4-Bishop Eustace 121.
5-St. John Vianney 125. 6-Holy Angels 168. 7-Immaculate Heart Academy 185.
8-Msgr. Donovan 203. 9-St. Dominic Academy 204. 10-Holy Cross 232.
        Ind: 1-Meghan Cunniff, RBC 19:32. 2-Erin Walker, Paul VI 20:29.
3-Melanie Bauman, RBC 20:40. 4-Kathleen Porter, Holy Cross 20:50. 5-Bridget
Bulman, RBC 20:51. 6-Jackie Iovino, RBC 20:57. 7-Julie Clifford, Holy
Angels 21:02. 8-Brandee Neiderhoffer, Holy Spirit 21:03. 9-Maggie Martin,
Paul VI 21:04. 10-Elizabeth Hackley, Holy Cross 21:15. 11-Jody Benedict,
St. John Vianney 21:24. 12-Katherine Lively, Paul VI 21:34. 13-Karen
Decina, St. John Vianney 21:36. 14-Bridget Opfer, Pope John 21:37.
15-Michelle Bottalico, Bishop Eustace 21:38. 16-Megan Mansfield, Bishop
Eustace 21:40. 17-Melissa Garlit, Bishop Eustace 21;40. 18-Amanda Sabatos,
Red Bank Catholic 21:41. 19-Lateefah Gourdine, St. Dominic Academy 21:42.
20-Devon Moran, Pope John 21:47.

                                Parochial B
        This was the smallest field of the day; so many of the schools in
this group do not field CC teams, a couple who do didn't bother to enter.
        St. Rose was the hot pre-meet favorite and, despite leaving injured
star Maura Bolger on the sidelines, won comfortably, 44-61. Villa Walsh
topped Pingry for the 2nd spot.
        The indidvidual race was interesting/ Lauren Avallone of Morris
Catholic was the favorite, but another Morris County runner, soph Janie
Steinemann of Villa Walsh won comfortable from Adrienne Alexnader of Sacred
Heart in 19:55. 
        T: 1-St. Rose 44. 2-Villa Walsh 61. 3-Pingry 64. 4-Mater Dei 103.
5-Morris Catholic 148. 6-Wildwood Catholic 156. 7-Union Catholic 169. 8-Oak
Knoll 188. 
        Ind: 1-Janie Steinemann, Villa Walsh 19:55. 2-Adrienne Alexander,
Sacred Heart 20:19. 3-Lauren Avallone, Morris Catholic 20:47. 4-Susanna
Christman, Villa Walsh 20:54. 5-Melanie Nakagawa, Pingry 20:56. 6-Melissa
Capone, St. Rose 20:57. 7-Jesica Van Denend, Eastern Christian 21:33.
8-Bridget Dunn, St. Rose 21:41. 9-Elizabeth Allen, St. Rose 21:55. 10-Katie
Todd, Mater Dei 22:00. 11-Lauren Washychyn, Pingry 22:07. 12-Devyn Smith,
Wildwood Catholic 22:08. 13-Rebecca Paustian, St. Rose 22;09. 14-Dori
MacDonald, Mater Dei 22:10. 15-Cherie Fuhrman, Pingry 22:19. 16-Nancy
Sinclair, St. Mary's (Rutherford) 22;21. 17-Jessica Delia, Pingry 22:23.
18-Devon Landers, St. Rose 22:28. 19-Kathryn Tappen, Villa Walsh 22:.34.
20-Rian Landers, St. Rose 22;54.

                                                Ed Grant