Big North Divisional Championships

At Darlington County Park, Mahwah

Lakeland sweeps, Horevay sets Passaic County Darlington course record

Morgan Uhlhorn picked up where Angelina Perez left off and Owen Horevay went where no Passaic County boy has ever been at Darlington County Park before on Oct.6.

Lakeland's girls won their third straight title, 27-57 over West Milford, as Uhlhorn became the third straight Lancer to win a division title. The senior beat her Lakeland classmate, Reaghan Lamascola by over 300 meters and ran 18:39 for the 5,000 meter Darlington Park course, eighth fastest in Passaic County and second in school history behind only Perez, who sent the course record of 16:44 last fall.

Wayne Hills junior Kara Langbaum was third in the meet, with Passaic Valley's Katharine Cottone fourth and West Milford's Amanda Harvey fifth. Then came the Lakeland underclassmen in 6-8-10, with soph Brianna Fahy, junior Kayla Barnhardt and junior Alexa Goll all running well.

Horevay, who won by 250 meters in 15:33, broke the Passaic county mark of 15:38 set by Passaic's Luis Peralta, who now runs for the University of Oregon. in 2018. Horevay, who won this race last year in 16:21, became Passaic's fifth sub-16 Darlington runner last month when he ran 15:43 at the Season Opener meet.

Wayne Valley junior Matt Califf edged Nathan Caldwell of Lakeland for second as both were timed in 16:26. Wayne Valley's Sean Matthews was next and Colin Menier of West Milford was fifth.

Divine Crilly of Lakeland was sixth, but Wayne Valley seemed to be in great shape to snap Lakeland's boys title streak at two when the Indians went 8-9. But Joshua Donza, Evan Caldwell and Justin Lehr outran Wayne Valley's fifth runner and the Lancers survived over the Indians, 36-41.

Fort Lee's girls and Cliffside Park's boys repeated as American division champions.

Diana Valentini beat Leah Fedouchik of Cliffside Park by 125 meters and led the Bridgewomen to a 33-50 win over Dumont. Irina Gregoreva, Tabitha Reed and Nova Green went 6-7-8 for Fort Lee to hold off the Huskies who went 3-4-5 behind Sarah Lynch, Samantha Paez and Katelyn Reuter.

Brandon Barreto of Dumont outran Darwin Ruiz of Cliffside Park by 100 meters with defending champion Ekuyami Conteh of Fort Lee third. But Cliffside Park went 6-7-8-9 with Frane Cebao, Jaime Xec Ordon, Andres Gomez and Chris Catalan and defeated Fort Lee, 32-47.

Ridgewood boys, Northern Highlands girls confirm No. 1 rankings

Ridgewood won its fifth straight boys divisional title on Oct. 4 and kept its dominance atop North Jersey, placing six runners in the top 12 en route to a 27-50 win over a solid Northern Highlands team.

Ridgewood's Luke Pash, one of the top sophomores in the state, held off Bryce Teto of Paramus at the finish line to win the individual title in 16:23, with Teto just a second behind. Ridgewood junior DJ Murphy (16:30) edged Jackson Vogel of Northern Highlands (16:31) for third and Ian Bajrakatarian (sixth, 16:53) and Trevor Kane (seventh, 16:56) also broke 17 minutes for the Maroons. Tommy Koltermann was 10th in 17:16 to finish the scoring and Chris Brady was 12th for Ridgewood.

Amelia Keogh of Ramapo outraced Rebecca Maclaren of Northern Highlands by about 20 meters but it was the No. 1 Highlanders who confirmed their status as the area's best team and thrust themselves into the team conversation with a second impressive performance in four days and a second win over three-time defending Bergen County champion Ridgewood, 31-46. Ramapo was a close third with 56 points.

Keogh went under 19 minutes for the first time at Darlington, running 18:58. with Maclaren (19:02)leading teammates Autumn Ritter (19:05) and Allison Courtney (19:11) to a 2-3-4 finish. Freshman Sadie Meloro was 10th in 19:42 and Farrah Dello Russo wrapped up Northern Highlands scoring in 12th in 20:18.

Ridgewood went 6-7-8 behind Cellina Rabolli (19:21), Avery Sheridan (19:23) and Ayla Cooke (19:26) as both the Maroons and Highlanders went under a 20-minute average for its top five girls, the first time that has happened this fall. Ramapo's Brianna Braver, the defending division champion was ninth in 19:35 and was the only senior in the top 14 finishers

Indian Hills dominates Patriot in first year in division

After several years in the Freedom division, Indian Hills moved to the Patriot division and with a first year head coach in former Braves standout Pete Tuohy, won both the boys and girls races in remarkably similar fashion on Oct. 3.

The boys had six runners finish before any other team could finish three and easily defeated Pascack Hills, 33-64 to win the title. Mahwah's Brayden Lowe-Massi led the individual race from start to finish, winning by 50 meters over Indian Hills senior Raffi Buchakjian, in his first year of cross-country in a personal best Darlington time of 16:30. Deniz Kalkandelen of Indian Hills was third followed by Andrew Kroczynski of Mahwah and a pair of Pascack Hills underclassmen, Peter Priestner and Jack Herrington before the Braves took command with four of the next seven places.

Senior Sameer Katwala was eighth, soph Justin Vitale ninth, soph Brady Dransfield 11th and junior Dan Phillips, running his first race of the season after recovering from an injury was 13th.

"I kind of knew the boys were going to win after the batch meet last month,'' said Tuohy. "We didn't run spectacularly today and we should have some guys running faster, but these kids are coming together and Raffi's starting to learn how to race a 5K.''

The girls were just as good in a 34-44 win over a River Dell team that is always a contender in championship season.

2022 state 800 meter champ (and 2021 state 3,200 meter champ) Christina Allen of River Dell outdueled Zoe Merryman of Mahwah by about 30 meters to win in 19:16 (with Merryman scoring a personal best of 19:23, second best in Mahwah history at Darlington).

River Dell went 4-6 with Rachel Mills and Sarah Cookson both scoring Darlington bests, but Indian Hills was relentless, going 3-5-8-9-10 to easily earn the win.

Indian Hills soph Summer Myrhen led the Braves in 19:33, while junior Alyssa Maybeck was fifth in 20:28. Annelise Barney, who returned to the cross-country team after a year's absence, scored her third personal best in three meets and was seventh in 20:37, while soph Camryn Finn finished ninth and senior Kayla O'Neil 10th.

"I'm pretty excited about this team, because last year we couldn't even field a full team until the county groups meet,'' said Tuohy. "These five girls have stuck together like clue, and they've put the focus on the team all season. I'm looking forward to the rest of the season.''

Clifton sweeps Liberty meets for the third straight year

Clifton had little trouble sweeping the Liberty meets for the third straight time.

Dylan Decambre of Bergen Tech won the boys race in a Bergen leading 16:04, by 60 meters. But Clifton took six of the next seven places to win the title, 23-43, over the Knights. Hisham Ettayebi led the Mustangs in 2nd (16:16) and soph Lamarr Olive was third in 16:50. Sebastian Toro was fourth for Bergen Tech but then Harrison Schimpf, Patrick DuBois, Alexandro Ralli and Raphael Cabanilla finished from fifth to eighth in an 18 second pack to clinch the win.

Remy Dubac signalled her return to form, winning the girls race by more than 250 meters over junior teammate Viktoria Green in a season's best time of 18:56. After Nicole Lesiczka of Bergen Tech and Grace Napoli of Passaic Tech finished third and fourth. But the Mustangs went 5-6 behind Olivia Green and Hala Mohamed and put its final three runners in 11--12-13 to defeat Bergen Tech, 25-52. It was the Clifton girls' fifth straight title win.

Teaneck breaks long drought in National boys win

When Teaneck's boys last won a league cross-country title, John F. Kennedy was in his second year in the White House, the Mets were a newborn team in the 10-team National League, Lawrence of Arabia was the Oscar winner for best picture and the Beatles were a year away from their first No. 1 song.

On Nov. 1, 1962, the Highwaymen won the NNJIL title easily in a race at the Demarest course and a week later won the Bergen County championships at the same site. Then for nearly 60 years -- nothing. In fact it's been a decade since Teaneck even finished in the top half of a league championship race. Until Thursday.

On Sept. 29, Teaneck broke that long drought by placing four runners in the top six and holding on to beat favored Pascack Valley, 35-38, to win the Big North National title. Junior Joshua Tejada held off a surging Jay Ramirez of Pascack Valley at the finish line to win the race as both were clocked in 16:41 for the 5,000 meter Darlington Park course in Mahwah.

"Teaneck has a great history of success in track and field and winning this makes us a complete team,'' said Teaneck head coach Brian Walker. "It's a honor to coach these kids -- after we came so close (to winning North 1, group 3) at sectionals last spring, these kids got locked in and never stopped trying to get better.''

Walker credited assistant coach Joel Garcia, himself a former all-Passaic runner at Passaic High School in motivating and training he team.

"Without him we don't come near this,'' said Walker.

Michael Delgado, one of two seniors on the Teaneck varsity, finished fourth in 17:00 and led first year juniors in Lucas Cedano (17:06) and Courtney (C.J.) St. Prix (17:14) to huge personal bests and a 5-6 finish. PV, with Ramirez and Michael Pizzella going 2-3, put four more runners in front of Teaneck's fifth, senior Lucas Perez, who returned to the team after a two year absence, ran a two minute PR to finish 19th in 18:44 and clinch the title.

Old Tappan dominates girls race

Old Tappan retained it's girls championship by taking four of the top six places, and defeating Demarest, 23-40. Golden Knights senior Kristen Johnson won the race by about 15 meters over teammate Kate Meeks with Rowan Leddy fourth. Johnson won in 19:34, with Meeks earning a PR in 19:38. Lily Dipple of Demarest was third in 19:44, also a personal best. Sophie Cheesman of Tenafly was fifth in 20:30.

Johnston and Maguire set the bar in United division wins

Coming into the 2022 cross-country season, both Paul Maguire of Don Bosco and Leanna Johnston of IHA had solid cases for being the top cross-country runners in Bergen County.

At the Big North United races on Sept. 29 at Darlington Park in Mahwah, both confirmed their favorites status and made their case that they will be contenders for state honors the first two weeks in November.

Maguire, third in the Lou Molino Bergen Meet of Champions last fall, spent the first two miles of his race chatting and cajoling teammate Ryan Locicero to a huge personal best of 16:19, and eased his way to a 16:09 clocking that makes his seasonal goal at the Darlington course more than a pipe dream.

"I am going for the county record at Darlington,'' said Maguire, referring to the Bergen County and course record of 15:05 set by Bob Keino of Ridgewood in 1993. "I've upped my weekly mileage to 70 miles a week this year and I haven't had any speed work yet, so I think it's possible.''

Maguire had an excellent race at the Bowdoin XC Classic at Bowdoin Park in Wappinger Falls, N.Y. on Sept. 24, finishing in 16:29.2, among the top 15 North Jersey times in history on the home course for the annual Nike Cross Northeast Regionals. He expects to break 13 minutes at the classic 2 1/2 mile course at Van Cortlandt Park at Saturday's Manhattan Invitational meet, the largest and oldest major cross-country high school meet in the country.

"I think these races are the start of something good for me and for my team,'' said Maguire, whose team easily defeated Bergen Catholic, 20-45, for he boys team title.

After Maguire and Locicero, BC's Thomas Rogers was third in 16:47 followed by Bosco's Brenden Klemm (17:08) and James Hughes of Bergen Catholic (17:09). Don Bosco took the next four places.

Johnston breezed to a 600 meter win over Sarah Dickson of Paramus Catholic in 18:13, just one second off of her personal best and while the course record of 16:44 set by Angelina Perez of Lakeland last year is out of reach, the Bergen County record of 17:28 set by former Northern Highlands star Monica Hebner in 2017 is not, and Johnston seems sure to become just the 18th girls to break 18 minutes on the Darlington course.

"This is the first summer I was able to fully follow the training plan coach (John Downey) gave us,'' said Johnston. "It's cool knowing that I can run 18:13 this early with so many big races coming.''

"We incorporated more workouts and intervals this year,'' said Johnston, who moved with her family to Glen Rock recently. "Moving to Glen Rock gave me some new routes to run and I've taken advantage of them.''

Johnston's win and top 10 finishers Meaghan Keating (3rd, 21:23); Reagan Scarpelli (4th, 21:32); Emily Wunsch (7th, 22:32) and Darcy Moore (9th, 22:51) gave IHA a 24-40 win over Holy Angels in the girls team championship. Federica Zazzali led Holy Angels with a fifth place finish.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Big North Divisional Cross-Country Championships