Cross-Country: South Brunswick sweeps GMC Championship titles

JAMESBURG - Colonia High School's Shelby Piccinic knows what it takes to win the Greater Middlesex Conference Cross-Country Championships. 

Piccinic finished first Saturday in a time of 18:56, winning back-to-back GMC Championship titles at Thompson Park. Last year Piccinic won in 18:46.2 and became the first girl in Colonia history to win a GMC cross-country championship. 

As a sophomore, she finished second to Metuchen's Rachel Suss. 

"It feels awesome, I'm happy to have back-to-back wins," Piccinic said. "I had a late start to summer training because I had an injury last season, so I'm just hoping to have a really good peak at the end of the season."

Sayreville's Kayla Rosario was second in 19:01, and South Brunswick's Nicole Fenske, Rebecca Hartman and Julianne Ferraro went 3-4-5 as the Vikings won their third-straight team title and 10th overall. 

"I realized at the mile mark, I was like, 'I got this, no one is really like sticking with me,'" Piccinic said. "I tried to make sure people were behind me, staying in a little pack, and then once we hit the hill I was like, it's go time."

South Brunswick won with 56 points and an average time of 20:05.48. Metuchen was second with 95 points, and East Brunswick was third with 101. 

On the boys side, Metuchen's Jake Beacher became only the second person in program history to win a GMC Championship. Beacher won in 15:56, which was a personal best. Old Bridge's Cyril Harvey was second in 15:59, and East Brunswick's Reyden Davies was third in 16:03. 

"Metuchen has always had a good program regarding running, so for me to be the second kid only ever to do it, it really means a lot to my family, my town, the kids I run with, coach definitely, he's really excited for that, but I'm just ready to run again," Beacher said. "It's super awesome though, I didn't think it would happen."

The previous weekend, Beacher placed third as Metuchen finished second at the Fall Classic, and the finish didn't sit well with him heading into Saturday's GMC Championships.

"I knew our county is really strong, and I didn't really have a good meet last weekend, I ran 16:44 for third place. I got caught at the line, so it wasn't a very good day for me last weekend, so I really had to kind of rewrite mentally what I was thinking and how I was planning on racing today, and I knew it was going to be tough," he said. "I knew none of these guys were going to let me just run away with it, and obviously that wasn't the case, they pushed me right to the finish and it just hurt a lot, it hurt mentally, physically, everything hurt, and at the end it was awesome. And I'm glad I have these teammates, I'm so happy I had them with me for this experience."

South Brunswick also won the boys team title, taking first with 72 points and an average time of 16:33.61. Brandon Diaz, Dario Epifania, Ethan Febinger, Amael Audibert and Rohit Narayanan went 5-10-13-18-26 to earn the victory after finishing fourth last year. 

East Brunswick was second with 84 points, and Old Bridge was third with 87 points. 

BOYS RESULTS

Top finishers: 1. Jake Beacher (Metuchen) 15:56.3; 2. Cyril Harvey (Old Bridge) 15:59.2; 3. Reyden Davies (East Brunswick) 16:03.2; 4. Peter Tilton (Highland Park) 16:03.7; 5. Brandon Diaz (South Brunswick) 16:06; 6. Chris Smith (Edison) 16:13.8; 7. Eduardo Cermeno (Dunellen) 16:15.7; 8. Leland Davies (East Brunswick) 16:19.2; 9. Dylan Rodriguez (Sayreville) 16:22.6; 10. Dario Epifania (South Brunswick) 16:30.2. 

Team scores: 1. South Brunswick 72; 2. East Brunswick 84; 3. Old Bridge 87; 4. Metuchen 96; 5. Spotswood 233; 6. Piscataway 238; 7. Sayreville 244; 8. St. Joseph (Met.) 254; 9. J.P. Stevens 274; 10. North Brunswick 279; 11. Dunellen 298; 12. Highland Park 327; 13. Edison 329; 14. Monroe  363; 15. Woodbridge 367; 16. Bishop Ahr 431; 17. South Plainfield 433; 18. J.F. Kennedy 480; 19. Middlesex 524; 20. South Amboy 537; 21. New Brunswick 547; 22. South River 550; 23. East Brunswick Tech 658; 24. Wardlaw-Hartridge 697. 

GIRLS RESULTS

Top finishers: 1. Shelby Piccinic (Colonia) 18:56.8; 2. Kayla Rosario (Sayreville) 19:01.9; 3. Nicole Fenske (South Brunswick) 19:25.9; 4. Rebecca Hartman (South Brunswick) 19:32.9; 5. Julianne Ferraro (South Brunswick) 19:33.2; 6. Camille Lussier (Metuchen) 19:50.1; 7. Nina Suss (Metuchen) 19:51.9; 8. Angela Cao (J.P. Stevens) 19:57.2; 9. Cynthia Boryeskne (Edison) 19:59.2; 10. Cassandra Vega (South Brunswick) 20:01.4. 

Team scores: 1. South Brunswick 56; 2. Metuchen 95; 3. East Brunswick 101; 4. Sayreville 135; 5. Old Bridge 141; 6. Woodbridge 195; 7. Monroe 229; 8. J.P. Stevens 256; 9. Edison 258; 10. Spotswood 267; 11. Piscataway 291; 12. South Plainfield 297; 13. Middlesex 352; 14. Colonia 377; 15. North Brunswick 426; 16. Highland Park 431; 17. J.F. Kennedy 454; 18. Dunellen 476; 19. South River 491.