The Union Catholic cross-country teams solidified their place as the best combined program in the state with electrifying performances at the 53rd NJSIAA Meet of Champions on Saturday at historic Holmdel Park.
The girls, led by
Paige Sheppard's runner-up finish, threw down a performance for the ages by shattering their own course record average on their way to a 4th straight tite, and the boys finished a very strong third.
In the girls, no one should be surprised that Union Catholic, ranked No. 1 in NJ and No. 4 in the natiopn, won their fourth straight title. It came into the race as probably the biggest favorite of all time.
But the way the Vikings blitzed a loaded field and the times they burned were simply remarkable as UC's high octane pack produced the greatest team race this state has ever seen with an eye-popping average of 18:11.80!!!! That's all-time XC flex right there!
UC, ranked No. 1 in the state all season and currently ranked No. 4 in the nation, used a scoring combo of 1-2-5-11-20 as the five underclassmen scored 39 points. No. 2 Ridgewood averaged a public school record 18:57 and was second with 92.
By winning four straight titles, the Vikings are now tied with North Hunterdon (1983-86) for the second-longest winning streak in meet history. Red Bank Catholic won 5 in row from 1972-76, a record UC will be favored to tie next year.
After breaking the course record average last week by running 18:36 to win their fifth straight Non-Public A title, the entire UC squad said they had more in them and they'd run faster this week.
But 18:11.80!!! Holy Smokes!! That is the definition of leveling up!!!
Union Catholic now owns the 5 fastest times in course history!
Sheppard, whose second place time of 17:17 is the fourth fastest in the long history of Holmdel's 3.1-mile course, said she knew her team was ready for something big, but ran evern faster than they imagined.
"We thought maybe we'd go somewhere in maybe the low 18:20's, but we ran way faster than we expected and decimated the record,'' said Sheppard. "We were all ready to run fast, and we showed today that we are capable of anything we put our minds to.''
To break the most hallowed record in NJ XC, you need a lot of big PR's. That's exaclty what happened as the entire scoring 5 for the Vikings ran the fastest races of their lives at Holmdel, including some monster drops
Check this out!!!
After Sheppard's 21-second course PR, junior Cayleigh Kaiser was third in 17:45, that's No. 12 in course history and a 28-second course PR!! Kaiser's time is so fast that it would have won 41 of the previous 45 M of C races run on the current course!!!! Sheppard and Kaiser are the best 1-2 punch in NJ history!!!
Freshman Harper Telesca was sixth in 17:54, tied with Sheppard for the third fastest time ever run by a freshman at Holmdel and a course PR of 48 seconds!!! Briana Gess of Haddonfield, who ran 17:45 when she won as a freshman in 2013, and Christina Allen of River Dell (17:50 in 2030) are the only girls to run faster as a freshman.
Sophomore Saffa Ellis was next, placing 19th in 18:51, a 19-second drop, and freshman Eden Solorzano put an exclamation point on the historic victory by placing 42nd in 19:15, a nine-second PR.
Freshman Jia Jain and senior Ella Solorzano were the 6-7 runner for UC. Solorzano finished her amazing career as a member of 4 M of C winning teams, which never lost an XC race to a NJ team! Clock it!
To put 18:11.80 into further perspective, that average is faster than the winning time at 24 Meet of Champions races!!! How crazy is that!!!
The Vikings will now turn their attention to the Nike Northeast Regional next Saturday at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls, N.Y, where they are favored to win their third straight title and advance to the Nike National Championships for the fourth consecutive year.
"The way we are running, we all feel we have a shot at winning the national championship if we keep working hard and race to our potential,'' said Sheppard.
Time will tell, but after what they just did, this team might just be the best in the country!!!
BOYS POUND OUT A 3RD PLACE FINISH
The Union Catholic boys turned in a strong and balanced team performance to place third, finishing behind only No. 1 ranked Christian Brothers Academy and No. 2 ranked Haddonfield.
UC, led by junior Danny Kuran's impressive 13th-place finish in a big course PR of 15:57, packed its scoring five tightly and produced a 58-second spread on the way to 125 points, securing the final podium spot.
Senior Elijah McCoy was next across the line for the Vikings, placing 24th in 16:14, followed closely by junior Finn Riley, who clocked 16:19 for 29th. Junior Jayden Aine added a 44th-place finish in 16:36, and junior Nick Frank sealed the top-three team placing by running 16:55 for 72nd overall.
