Ridge girls repeat at cross country Meet of Champions

HOLMDEL - The Ridge High School girls cross country team really likes Holmdel Park.

After winning the Group IV title for the second year in a row at Holmdel Park last weekend to qualify for the Meet of Champions, the Red Devils went out and won the MOC for the second-straight year, 71-114, ahead of second place finisher North Hunterdon on Saturday afternoon.

“I just think we do well at Holmdel as a team, obviously this is where it counts most, everything else is obviously great to win, but I think we just really pull it together as a team here," Ridge's Lexy Donaldson said last week after winning the Group IV meet.

Donaldson was the highest place finisher for Ridge, placing 15th in 19:17. Caitlin Haggard was 26th in 19:38, Amanda Passman finished in 30th, Shayna Bains was 32nd and Brooke Fazio placed 44th.

READ: RIVERA, WALSH VICTORIOUS AT GROUP CHAMPIONSHIPS

"It’s crazy, we’ve been talking about it since the day after we won it last year, we were like, alright let’s do it again," Donaldson said Saturday. "So just coming here this morning, we were like, it’s actually happening, we’ve been talking about it for so long and just to actually do it is insane. We definitely had a tough season with a lot of things and there were times that we weren’t sure if we could do it, and I think it’s really cool that we were able to do it again, we’re really lucky with the girls we have and we just have a really good team all around."

North Hunterdon's Ellie DiMarcello placed fifth in 18:54, while her sister Anna was ninth 19:05, which helped the Lions to a second place finish. North Hunterdon was looking for its first MOC title since 1986.

"We had high goals, we wanted to win and I wanted to be in the top 20, so I’m happy about that, that I got that goal," Anna DiMarcello said. "I'm just really proud, I think we all laid it all on the line and we tried our best and that’s all we could hope for, and I’m just proud of everyone for all the hard work we put in this whole season, these last few years and I’m just happy."

Ellie DiMarcello capped off a stellar sophomore season in which she set the course record at the Hunterdon/Warren/Sussex Tournament, as well as placed first at the Skyland Conference meet.

RELATED: RIDGE WINS SECOND STRAIGHT GROUP TITLE

"We’ve actually been talking about getting in the top 20, both of us individually, since the summer because we’ve been training together this whole time," Ellie said of her and Anna. "We really wanted the team to win. Everybody did their best and I’m really happy for everybody."

Hillsborough's Chloe Wong placed seventh in 18:59 and Hunterdon Central's Hannah Cella was 14th in 19:16. Colonia's Shelby Piccinic was 17th in 19:19 and Voorhees' Lauren Wagner placed 18th in 19:21.

On the boys side, Old Bridge's Rey Rivera finished 12th after winning the first individual Group title in program history last weekend. Rivera finished with a time of 16:14 after winning in 15:47 in the Group IV meet.

"I think last year, not my big excuse, but my excuse always was, I’m just an 800 runner, and I’ve been able to prove this season that I’m more than that and I have a little depth to me," Rivera said. "I’m proud that I was able to get here and that I was able to compete at a high level the entire season, there’s still a few more races, so I’m excited for that, just get after it and have a good winter season."

Ryan Martins of Watchung Hills was 13th in 16:15, Hunterdon Central's Justin Cornetta was 14th in 16:16 and Ajay Sarathy of Montgomery finished in 16th in 16:19. Franklin's Billy Hill placed 20th with a time of 16:22.

South Amboy's Patrick Walsh, who won a Group I title for the first time in program history last weekend, finished 73rd in 17:04.

"I haven’t ran three weekends in a row in a while, you can give 1,000 excuses of why I ran bad, but at the end of the day it happened and I have to get back up tomorrow and start working again and do all the necessary things so at Foot Locker next week I can run effectively and execute the game plan, unlike this week," Walsh said. "When you have a bad race, there’s a million things and you start getting nit picky and you’re like, 'I should have done this differently, I should have done that,' but at the end of the day, like I said you have to start working tomorrow and there’s always the next day."

Staff Writer Lauren Knego: lknego@gannettnj.com; on Twitter: @laurenknego