Meet of Champions

The weather conditions for MOC this year seemed near perfect. Sunny, 50 degrees and no wind. We had another great week to prepare to line up with the best in the state of New Jersey. This year's meet had so many story lines. How close could team get to Union Catholic. The battle between Paige Sheppard(UC) and Leah Starkey(Ocean). For many it was the first time that some of these teams got to race head to head. On paper, I thought if we ran really well we could finish anywhere from 5-8 meaning we ran really well and still could get 8th. I was pretty sure there were four teams that were untouchable. Union Catholic, Ridgewood, Princeton and Voorhees. The next battle was between PVI, Haddonfield, CH East and Ocean City.

The day started off a little uneasy for me. As I drove into school, the road going towards Cherokee from the bypass was closed for construction. I drove around the cones and pulled into the lot and talked with one of the guys in the trucks to make sure we can get in and out of Cherokee with the bus. He assured me that everything would be ok.

One by one the team started to arrive and eventually the bus got there and we loaded up. Apparently this year's theme was the founding fathers. You will have to ask Alexa Butler and Sonal Patel the reason behind this, but it was quite humorous to see The flags and patriotic costumes that the girls brought.

The ride up was typical of most rides up. The usual making fun of each other, and then replacing spikes in most of the varsity girls shoes. I don't know why, I find that relaxing. Some of the girls prefer to do it themselves, but You can always count on Erin Healy to just pass her spikes up. After helping everyone else, everyone just seemed to settle in. Once we arrived at Holmdel, I went and picked up the packet. It was nice that they had a fire going. Back to the tent and we handed out the numbers and not too shortly afterward the girls began their ropes and then the warm up. The mood was really light during stretching other than the fact that due to the no cell service, we were stuck with listening to Disney songs.

It was now time to line up. We were in box 9 right next to Haddonfield. This is the first time that we have had 5 teams from SJ competing that were all ranked so high. With the new formula for qualifying, it is a lot harder to get a team into MOC. Coach Viscidy and I both gave our last minute pep talk and then "Chiefs on 3". We made the trek up the first hill and awaited the gun going off.

As the race went off, coach Viscidy and I both scattered across the course. I saw them before the half mile mark, the bottom of the bowl, then by the tennis courts and then hopefully at the finish. With as crazy as MOC is, it is often hard to know just how well you are doing as a team. There are so many individuals that aren't on a team up front and with as congested as the race often is, it is so hard to know places of your own team let alone all the teams we were racing against. I was able to see everyone at the bottom of the bowl and made it back to the tennis courts. Seeing Alyssa, she was approx. in 30th place, then next was Erin, Maddie, Sofia, Maya Ava then Gabby. I started the trek down to the finish line and knew I wasn't going to see most of them finish. I roughly saw Sofia Recinto and knew that it looked like she was going to be under 20 minutes. The next one I saw was Ava, then Gabby finished. I had no idea of the order, places or times.

Former partner in crime coach Petruzzi was at the meet and was telling me how strong everyone looked. Then I started to get in results:

Alyssa Suriano - 18:53 20th 1:02 faster than States Holmdel PR (#5 AT.#3 Sr AT)

Erin Healy - 19:31 57th :40 faster than States Holmdel PR (#12 AT, #5 Fr AT)

Maddie Meder - 19:43 70th :58 faster than States Season Holmdel PR (#10 Sr AT)

Sofia Recinto - 19:53 80th :51 faster than States Holmdel PR (#13 Sr AT)

Maya Kumar - 20:00 90th :33 faster than States Holmdel PR (#14 Sr AT)

Ava Guarini - 20:41 128th :13 faster than States Holmdel PR (#4 Fr AT)

Gabby Urban - 21:53 150th :44 faster than States 1 second off her Holmdel PR

1-5 Team Average 19:35.89 - 2nd fastest Team average in school history and #5 AT in SJ History

1-5 spread 1:06

When I heard the team finished 4th we were all ecstatic. What a performance. 4th place. This was our second best finish ever at MOC.

1. Union Catholic

2. Ridgewood

3. Paul VI

4. Cherokee

5. Haddonfield

6. Princeton

7. Voorhees

8. CH East

9. Middletown South

10. Ocean City

11. Pingry

12. Shore Regional

13. North Hunterdon

14. Villa Walsh Academy

Next up for the team is NXR. Thank you again to the Alumni Association for covering the rooms and the meet entry cost. This year we are taking a record 14 girls to NXR. The season recap will happen after that meet.