Cross-country: Clifton herd delivers at Passaic County Championships
The term pack is used in cross-country to describe the group of runners that make up the bulk of the race after the front-runners have finished. The team with the closest pack is often the winner of the race as long as that pack isn't too far behind the team's top finishers.
Clifton coach John Pontes doesn't call his 3 to 7 runners a pack, however.
"We're the Mustangs, and Mustangs run as a herd,'' said Pontes after his back runners secured Clifton's second straight Passaic County cross-country championship (and record 11th overall), edging Lakeland, 46-50 for the title in the race held, as it has for more than 60 years at Garret Mountain in Woodland Park. "We knew Lakeland was going to be tough but our kids really got after it today.''
Wayne Valley finished third with 68 points.
Lakeland's Owen Horevay won the race, dominating the field with a 200 meter victory in 16:12, easily the best time at Garret Mountain this year. Wayne Valley senior Sean Matthews nipped Clifton front-runner Hisham Ettayebi at the line for second in 16:48, with Matthews' teammate, junior Matt Califf fourth, also breaking the 17 minute barrier. Lakeland's Nathan Caldwell recovered from a fall that may have cost him the second spot to finish fifth. Sophomore Lamarr Olive was Clifton's second finisher, in 7th.
Then the Mustang herd took over.
"The order of our other five kids after Hisham and Lamarr hasn't been the same in any race all year,'' said Pontes. "If one kid isn't having a good day, the other one picks him right up. They do that all the time.''
First year runner Alexandro Ralli was 10th for Clifton, its third finisher. Thirty-one seconds later, senior Raphael Cabanilla was the Mustangs' seventh and final finisher, in 17th place and the herd had done its job.
Senior Harrison Schimpf, who has struggled at times this year, after a great first three years, was 12th, followed by senior Josue Xochipa in 14th and junior Patrick DuBois in 15th, before Cabanilla finished the day and secured the win.
"Harry knows he's a big part of this and every meet as being one of our top five and he's taken a kid like Lamarr under his wing and shown him what to do,'' said Pontes.
Horevay added the school record at Garret Mountain to his Passaic County record at Darlington Park set earlier this month and stamped himself as a contender for the state Group 2 championship at Holmdel Nov. 5 with his clocking, one second faster than that run by the late Andy Latinsics in 1982. Horevay became Lakeland's fifth county boys champ and the fifth member of his family to win a Passaic cross-country title, joining his grandfather, great uncle, mother and cousin as champions. His time ranks 12th all-time among Passaic County runners at Garret.
"It's crazy that my family has had so much success and I'm proud that I'm able to share it,'' said Horevay. "It's also a great honor to be compared to great runners like Jacob Heredia, Jesse Campoverde and Luis Peralta.''
Horevay has big goals for the rest of the season.
"My goal is to be top 10 at Meet of Champs and maybe even top five,'' he says. "I'll be fighting for it, because I want to recognized as one of the best.''
Dubac gets her title, the Lakeland girls retain theirs
There were family connections surrounding the individual winner of the girls race as well.
Remy Dubac of Clifton controlled the race from start to finish and ran a Garret best of 18:57 to defeat Lakeland's Morgan Uhlhorn by nearly 100 meters and join her sister Mia, now at Loyola of Chicago as a Passaic County champion.
"It feels great to win this,'' said Dubac, who was second to the now graduated Angelina Perez of Lakeland last year but then went on to win the state group 4 title and finish fifth in the State Meet of Champions. "I was thinking about it all week and it was a race I definitely wanted to win.''
Lakeland repeated its 2021 win, putting five runners in the top 13 and defeating Clifton, 36-49 with West Milford next with 73 points.
Uhlhorn ran a personal best of 19:16 for second, to become the 23rd best performer on the course in Passaic County history, while Reaghan Lomascola was fourth in a Garret best of 20:37, Brianna Fahy sixth in 21:40, Kayla Barnhardt 11th in 22:11 and Alexa Goll completed the scoring in 13th at 22:25.
"The girls took care of business as they have all year,'' said Lakeland coach Damiano Conforti. "We graduated three division 1 athletes (Perez at the University of Florida, Abby Horevay at Lipscomb University in Nashville and Caitlin Fahy at Seton Hall) but these girls had the drive to work hard all summer and kept working all season.''
"We limited our races at Garret this year because I think by the end of last year we might gotten a little beaten up. This time I want us as fresh as possible for the end of the year.''
Other notable finishes in the girls race, included Viktoria Green of Clifton, who ran 20:22 for third, a nearly three minute improvement over her race last year, and Wayne Hills junior Kara Langbaum who was fifth in 20:49 in her first crack at the difficult Garret course in her first year in the sport.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Cross-country: Clifton herd delivers at Passaic County Championships
