Cross Country: Ridge girls, Voorhees boys win group titles

HOLMDEL - Last season the Ridge High School girls cross country program fell just short of their ultimate goal. Hillsborough was able to hold them off them off in the team standings by a mere one point in Group IV.

On Saturday, the Red Devils flipped the page on the past, winning the Group IV title at Holmdel Park.

“Last year every one of us was just beat by a Hillsborough girl, it was so frustrating,” Ridge senior Sophie Spring said. “This is what we have been working toward. It’s the first time any of us have done this ... We are friends with the girls, we have so much respect for them, and it means a lot to be here with them. Especially to beat them.”

None of the individual results pop off the paper, but as a collective group, Ridge came together when it mattered most. Spring led the way by coming in 10th with a time of 19:18. Clare Jones came in 20th (19:44) and Catherin Gieuseffi was 25th (19:47).

“I never really considered myself one of the top runners,” Spring said. “Our strength is our team, it means more that I could score well for my team.”

This one was also for the girls who graduated last spring.

“We were really close to all of the girls who graduated last year,” Spring said. “We couldn’t do it last year, but they taught us a lot and inspired us to do it this year.”

Voorhees grabs Group II title

If the Voorhees boys wanted to take home a trophy on Saturday, they would have to go through perennial state power Haddonfield.

The Vikings did just that.

Voorhees did it in convincing fashion too, running away with the Group II title. This comes on the heels of losing to Haddonfield last year.

“They beat us last year pretty badly and that was kind of an upset for us,” Voorhees senior captain Robert Whitney said. “This year we came back and did well. This would be our first state title so this would be a really big deal for us.”

Voorhees had a group effort. Whitney came in fourth (16:07) and was followed by Chris Romero (16:16). Brendon McGill finished in 12th and Joseph Capone followed closely behind in 13th.

“To beat Haddonfield, that’s a storied program for the state of New Jersey in cross country,” Voorhees coach Jeff Capone said. “We didn’t beat them last year, they were better. We had to go get it from them today. That was enjoyable and I think the kids looked forward to that. Nobody is giving you anything, the kids stepped up.”

Turner leads New Providence

New Providence’s Jillian Turner entered the day not expecting much individually. With Metuchen’s Rachel Suss coming in as the heavy favorite, she just wanted to keep the ball rolling after claiming gold at sectionals.

Instead, she went home as a state champion. Suss fell with an agonizing injury during the final stretch of the race. But Turner already had a commanding lead. She finsihed in 19:41.

“I ran my hardest, I guess it turned out the way I wanted it to,” Turner said.

After suffering a stress fracture last fall, an injury she didn’t even know about until the winter track season, Turner entered her senior year as a different runner -- one far stronger from her previous three fall seasons.

“Last year I kind of burned out at the end of the year and ended up with a stress fracture,” Turner said. “I had the whole winter and half of the spring to get better, I was training on the stationary bike. I came back so much stronger than I left. I felt completely recovered.”

New Providence claimed their second consecutive team title by holding off Mountain Lakes. Kelsey Turner (20:33), Megan Friscia (20:50) and Sarah Zeto (21:40) helped give the Pioneers an extra push.

“That was our goal coming into this meet,” Turner said. “We wanted to come in first since that’s what we did last year. Before last year we didn’t win this meet since the 1980’s. It started last year and it was great to repeat it this year.”

Union Catholic wins first state title

There’s not too many teams in the county that can stay on Union Catholic’s level during the spring track season. That success is beginning to carry over to the cross country team.

The girls grabbed their first Non Public A title. They were able to defeat Red Bank Catholic and Pope John.

“We needed a team effort,” Union Catholic coach Mike McCabe said. “We needed five girls to put it together and run strong. We knew we would be strong up front. The girls had to handle the pressure of it all because they have never been in this position to win a cross state meet like this before.”

Amare Onque-Shabazz, who is a star during the track season, showed she could turn in similar results during the fall by coming in second overall (19:48)

“She was really great,” McCabe said. “Her specialty is in track, so for her to come out and get second in this was really huge.”

The Vikings also received a productive performance from a freshman. Jerika Lufrano came in fifth (20:03) during her first group championship. Tressa Novack took eighth (20:15).

Bonaguidi moves on to the Meet of Champs

Competing against Briana Gess of Haddonfield is one of the most difficult task in New Jersey cross country. She is almost a sure bet to win every race that she enters.

For Hannah Bonaguidi of Delaware Valley, her goal was to keep Gess within a comfortable distance. The Lehigh-bound senior was able to advance to the individual Meet of Champions with a third place finish (18:58) in Group II.

“The wind made it hard. I went in knowing I was going to race Briana,” Bonaguidi said. “She’s so good, it just destroys you mentally. I was hoping for second, but I wasn’t feeling it at one point in this race.”

Bonaguidi has came a long way since the beginning of her cross country career. Her hard work is paying off at the right point in her career.

“It’s crazy going from looking up at girls at the top to now being one of them,” Bonaguidi said. “I’m so happy with the way my senior year has gone. I did a lot of work over the summer and it really paid off more than I thought it would.”

Staff Writer Steven Macri:

smacri@njpressmedia.com