Highlights from Week 2 of the North Jersey cross-country season

Amandine Fernandez has been around the Bogota cross-country program for almost her entire life.

She was six years old when her sister Anais began running for the Bucs and would come to races to watch her sister, who was a third team all-Bergen runner and part of the 2012 team that won Bogota's last girls county group title.

"When I started running cross-country I was always compared to my older sister, but I just wanted to be compared to me,'' said Amandine Fernandez, now herself the senior leader on a team that could end the Bucs county drought.

Saturday Amandine made her own mark.

She controlled the senior race at the Bernie Magee Memorial class meet, one of the oldest continuously run invitationals in the state, overtaking Hunterdon Central ace Margaret Michelet in the final mile of the 5,000 meter battle and winning by close to 100 meters on the Oak Ridge Park course in Clark, site of the North 2 sectional championships next month.

"This was definitely a surprise,'' said an elated Fernandez after her victory, her first ever in an invitational. "I was not expecting this at all.''

Running against a field of more than experienced runners, Fernandez spent the first part of the race in the top 10, confident of her ability to stay in the lead pack. She has finished fourth in sectional group 1 race last fall and comfortable with the pace.

By the time the pack reached the second and final loop around the park, Fernandez and Michelet had pulled away from the other runners and Fernandez let Michelet have the lead, while she waited for her chance.

"I started sensing her pulling back and her breathing began to change, so I thought of what coach (Jay) Mahoney always tell us, 'whatever happens happens'. I felt in my gut that she had drained some of her energy and it was time to make my move,'' said Fernandez, who raced by the Hunterdon Central runner and felt no response.

"It was so amazing,'' she said. "I just kept going and thought that pain doesn't matter when you have a chance to win it all. It was so exciting and I kept pushing, because you should never celebrate early."

The winning time of 20:18.4 took nearly 30 seconds off of her 2021 sectional finish and was the third fastest of the entire meet.

"I can't believe how much I've improved since I started running,'' said Fernandez, who would like to run in college. "It's just amazing.''

Passaic Valley's Katharine Cottone was fourth in the senior race in 20:54.1 and Sarah Dickson of Paramus Catholic finished sixth in 21:23.7. Bogota's Isabel Michel was 11th in the junior race in 21:16.3, while Grace Ruitenberg of Pompton Lakes took sixth in the soph race in 21:59.6.

Rutherford's Tadael Mihret stamped himself as a North 2, group 2 sectional contender with a third place finish in the boys race in 16:05.2. Nicholas Michael of Paramus Catholic was 19th in the junior race (19:07.0) while Basell Dahhan of Passaic Valley finished 20th in 19:13.9. T.J. Hill of Passaic Valley was 17th in the sophomore race in 18:57.9.

Ridgewood girls top Old Tappan in showdown at the Back to the Mountain Invitational

Ridgewood drew first blood in what should be an exciting rivalry this season when the No. 2 Maroons put five runners in the top 15 to defeat No. 1 Old Tappan, 50-75 in the girls large schools race at the Back to the Mountain Invitational meet at Garret Mountain Saturday.

Old Tappan's Kate Meeks edged Ridgewood's Cellina Rabolli at the finish line, running 20:18 for the 5,000 meter course and Ramapo's Amelia Keogh was fourth in 20:29. But after OT's Kristen Johnson took fifth, Ridgewood soph Ayla Cooke was seventh in 20:49 before junior Ciara Taylor (12th), freshman Katie Adams (14th) and soph Lola Jacqueline finished the Ridgewood scoring.

Ramapo finished third with 85 points despite running without all North Jersey standout Brianna Braver, who was on an official college visit.

Montclair edged surprising Teaneck, 64-102 in the large school boys race, placing five runners in the top 23. Clifton senior Hisham Ettayebi beat Paramus senior Bryce Teto by about 50 meters in 16:56, to lead the Mustangs to a third place finish.

Teaneck was led by juniors Joshua Tejada in fourth place and Court St. Prix Jr., who was 10th. The Highwaymen have never quaified for the state group championships as a team and last qualified an individual in 2014.

Leonia edged Kittatinny, 44-45 for the small school girls title when first-year junior Meline Tarpinyan ran more than 20 seconds than she had in the NJIC batch meet three days earlier to grab 24th place behind teammates Nina Twomey, Kierstyn Klingner, Sasha Raskin and Samantha Giangarra, all of whom finished in the top 20.

Mahwah's Zoe Merryman won her first invitational race, outduelling Cresskill's Danielle Tilp in 20:52 and winning by about 20 meters. The duo finished nearly two minutes ahead of the rest of the field.

Pascack Valley easily defeated Leonia, 37-105, for the boys small schools title. The Panthers went 1-2 behind seniors Michael Pizzella and Jay Ramirez, put four runners in the top 12 and all of their seven varsity runners ahead of Leonia's fourth.

Pizzella beat Ramirez by about 50 meters in 17:24, with Younes Abada of Secaucus next and Mahwah's senior pair of Brayden Lowe-Massi and Andrew Krocynski going 4-5.

Hasbrouck Heights and Ridgewood boys impress at Briarwood Invitational

Hasbrouck Heights put three runners in the top 10 and won the Boys Challenge division at the Briarwood Invitational at the historic Belmont Plateau course in Philadelphia Saturday, 41-45 over Marple Newtown H.S. Sophomore Aidan Morrow was third to lead the Aviators, running 17:28.3 for the rugged 5,000-meter course. Junior Ayaan Modak was sixth in 18:20.3 and soph Ryan Ober 10th in 19:38.7. Senior Bobir Asatov was 17th and Louis Perdomo was 24th to clinch the victory for Hasbrouck Heights.

Ridgewood finished a solid sixth in the Boys Championship race with 121 points, with its top four runners underclassmen. Three of Pennsylvania's top 10 teams were in the race, won by Pennsylvania No. 2 LaSalle College High School.

The Maroons were led by soph Luke Pash, ninth in 17:06.4. Junior DJ Murphy was 16th in 17:31.9, while soph Trevor Kane was 26th in 17:52.7 and junior Chris Brady was 33rd in 18:08.1

Decambre starts his season the way he finished last spring

The last time Bergen Tech senior Dylan Decambre competed in a high school race he finished third in the 800 in the New Jersey State Meet of Champions in spring track in June. Three months later, he was third in the Suffern Invitational large school race in a solid 16:03.8 for the three-mile Bear Mountain course on the Rockland/Orange County border in New York.

NJIC Dual Meet Batch Meets

The NJIC ran its first joint dual meet races of the year on Sept. 14 at Garret Mountain with three boys and three girls races matching all 30 cross-country schools in the league.

Boys race 1 saw Rutherford senior Tadael Mihret running 18:09 to finish more than 250 meters ahead of Paterson Charter's Thomas Martin with Joshua Gelayder of Leonia third. Leonia swept its five dual meets.

Hasbrouck Heights soph Aidan Morrow won race 2 with the day's best time of 17:42, about 100 meters ahead of Keanu Ray of Weehawken with Heights junior Ayaan Modak third.

Ben Raser of Glen Rock ran 18:33 in the final boys race of the day to finish about 100 meters of Younes Abada of Secaucus. Eastern Christian soph Alex Culp was third.

Haley Nowak of Secaucus held off juniors Lily McNair of Glen Rock and Razil Fernandes of Dwight-Englewood by about 50 meters in 22:28 to win the first of the three girls races.

Nina Twomey of Leonia held off teammate Keirstyn Klingner in 23:23 to win the second race with Jodi Desalvo of Rutherford third.

The final girls race was one of the best of the day as Danielle Tilp of Cresskill outran Amandine Fernandez of Bogota and Astrid Taffarello of Weehawken in a showdown of three of the top group 1 runners in the state. Tilp ran 21:06 for the win.

Big North Batch Meets

The third, fourth and fifth of the seven Big North batch meets were held at Darlington County Park on Sept. 12-13 and 15.

Ekuyami Conteh of Fort Lee ran away from Brandon Barretto of Dumont by more than 150 meters to win the American division boys race in 17:46, but it was Cliffside Park which swept its four duals by placing six runners between third and 13th places, led by third-place finisher Darwin Ruiz. The Red Raider pack proved enough to edge Dumont, 28-31, in the closest dual score overcoming the Huskies' 1-3-4 finish in the showdown.

Fort Lee also won the girls race, with Diana Valentini defeating Cliffside Park's Leah Fedouchik by about 40 meters, running, 21:59. In contrast to the boys race, the Bridgewomen used this win to record a four-meet sweep, as they also went 7-8-9 overall to overcome a 3-4-6 Dumont finish in their closest win, 27-30, over the Huskies.

Paul Maguire of Don Bosco confirmed his status as an early-season favorite for the Bergen County boys title, by comfortably running 16:20 to win the United race by nearly 300 meters over Thomas Rogers of Bergen Catholic. His teammates took five of the next seven places as the Ironmen easily swept the four duals.

Leanna Johnston of IHA had an even more overwhelming seasonal debut in the girls race, running 18:24, one of the top 50 times in course history. Her margin over runner-up Sarah Dickson of Paramus Catholic was nearly four minutes and the Blue Eagles took six of the first nine places to sweep the division.

Indian Hills made its debut performance in the Patriot Division a successful one sweeping both the boys and girls races by placing six boys in the top 14 and five girls in the top 10 in their respective races.

Brayden Lowe-Massi of Mahwah held off Indian Hills senior Raffi Buchakjian by 25 meters to win in 17:09 with Deniz Kalkandelen of Hills third in the boys race. The closest of the Braves' five wins came, 23-38 against Mahwah.

River Dell took 1-2 in the girls race behind Christina Allen (19:33) and Rachel Mills (20:12). But Indian Hills packed Summer Myrhen, Kayla O'Neil, Camryn Finn, Annelise Barney and Alyssa Maybeck into a 41 second pack from fourth to 10th to earn a 27-30 win over the Golden Hawks.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Highlights from Week 2 of the North Jersey cross-country season