(Additional stats plus the JV results were added by David B. Corbin of The Leader) On October 23, the Westfield High School cross-country teams competed in the Union County Championship at Warinanco Park in Roselle. Both the girls and boys teams placed within the top five of their incredibly competitive county conference.
The Union Catholic Vikings handily won the girls varsity race with a total of 20, followed by the Summit (S) Hilltoppers at 93, Oak Knoll (OK) Royals at 96 and Westfield at 121, while Scotch Plains-Fanwood placed sixth at 161 and the Cranford Cougars took ninth at 194. Cougar senior Courtney Toy, who finished ninth overall with a time of 19:29.51, recorded the second-best Public School time. Only Summit’s Ella Ryan (5th overall) recorded a lower time of 19:09.79.
The Viking girls placed six of their runners in the top-10, beginning with junior Paige Sheppard at 17:56.7 and junior Cayleigh Kaiser at 18:15.57, who finished 1-2. Junior Reagan Moore (OK) crossed third at 18:41.35, followed by Viking freshmanAbigail Robitsky at 19:08.73 and Ryan. Viking seniors Emmy O’Hearn at 19:18.33 and Ally Sparno at 19:25.11 finished 7-8, followed by Toy then Vikings Saffa Ellis (sophomore) at 19:31.08 and senior Joelle Ruccio at 19:40.24.
Blue Devil junior Anna Youssef finished 12th at 19:55.27 and sophomore teammate Oriana Soloway crossed 15th at 20:23.92. Raider senior Mia Savare finished 22nd at 20:45.31, followed by Cougar senior Maanya Kuthethur at 20:46.62. Blue Devil sophomore Natalie Salzano was 25th at 20:52.71. Raider juniors Josephine Rebuth at 20:59.22 andAli Bejarano at 21:15.27 finished 27-31. Blue Devils Claire Sewald (senior) at 21:28.3, Abigail Drennan (sophomore) at 21:53.93 and junior Jessica Zhou at 21:59.33 finished 33-36-37.
Following the girls first-place finish last week at conferences, the Blue Devil girls were ready to keep it strong and steady at counties ahead of next week’s sectional meet. Head Coach Joseph Berardi said this meet’s goal was to “Just treat this as a dress rehearsal for the state sectionals next weekend. It was tough because we lost one of our better runners this morning. She got sick. But [despite that] I thought we ran well. We had about three girls run two-minute drops, which is great.”
It is clear that the girls put in the work to perform to the best of their abilities at counties, but outside circumstances, including illness, did slightly hurt them. The standout performance came from Youseff, who was able to run below that 20-minute mark. Youssef said, “I think this [race] is a good boost of confidence for next week at sectionals.”
The Blue Devil boys placed second, scoring 59 points, behind the Union Catholic Vikings, which managed
a score of 22. The Summit Hilltoppers finished third with a 90 total, followed by Oratory Prep (OP) at 145. The Cranford Cougars took seventh at 179, followed by the Scotch Plains-Fanwood Raiders at 187.
Westfield was led by senior Brody Toriello who took bronze, placing third overall with a time of 16:11.93. Behind him, junior Alexander Davlouros took ninth with a time of 16:42.85 followed not far by sophomore Lincoln Staiger who ran
photos at goleader.com Ballyhoo Sports 16:51.25. To round out their top-5 scorers, junior Brent Kengeri placed 17th (16:54.7) and senior Christian Buonopane was not far behind in 19th (16:56.95).
Vikings Elijah McCoy (senior) at 16:08.64 and junior Danny Kuran at 16:09.69 finished 1-2. Senior Connor Bassolino (OP) finished fourth at 16:15.63, followed by Viking juniors Finn Riely at 16:18.82 and Jayden Aine at 16:30.4. Jonathan Dayton senior Elliott Reines finished seventh at 16:35.55, followed by Viking junior Quinton Clemons at 16:41.2. Raider senior Jonah Tamayo crossed 10th at 16:43.67.
Blue Devil junior Nikos Davlouros crossed 25th at 17:09.73. Cougar senior Ethan Klapinski at 17:35.49, sophomore Caleb Goldblatt at 17:44.82 and junior Alex Ritter at 17:45.99 finished 29-31-33, followed by Raider junior Luke Lang at 17:46.11 and Blue Devil junior Matt Logozzo at 17:46.14. Raider junior Will Rooney finished 39th at 18:00.28, followed by Cougar junior Ryan Hutton at 18:02.11.
The boys team had similar circumstances with two of their top varsity runners not being able to compete in the varsity race due to illness and injury. Despite those losses, performances were solid and saw personal bests for the majority of the runners, many of whom have less experience in the varsity setting.
The team’s biggest detriment in the race was positioning. As they struggled behind Union Catholic and had to fight for every spot, they ultimately came up short of the win. Following the second-place team finish, Toriello said, “We did realize today that we know we can be a better team. I feel like when [our ill/injured runners] get back into shape, they will give us great depth and can contribute highly to the team.”
Head Coach Christopher Tafelski thinks next week’s sectional race will be a similar fight to the county tournament. With Westfield’s main team competition of this meet being Union Catholic, next week’s will be Ridge. Tafleski said, “It’s like the same scenario, but different characters.”
The Blue Devil boys won the JV race with a total of 21, placing six of their runners in the top-10, which included 2-3-4-5-7-10. The UC Vikings were second at 59, followed by Summit at 78, Oratory Prep at 92 and the Raiders at 140. Viking Jeremiah Shepard took top honors with a time of 17:21.24, followed by Blue Devils Zach Turetsky at 17:37.01, Luke Barba at 17:42.6, Aidan Murphy at 17:42.64 and Declan McGorty at 17:51.97. Greyson Astle (OP) at 17:56.82 finished sixth, followed by Blue Devil Robbie Epstein at 18:01.36. Viking Henry May crossed eighth at 18:02.17 and Summit’s Bennett Story finished ninth at 18:14.76 and Blue Devil Alex Stepanov finished 10th at 18:15.97. Blue Devils Cam Hilliard, Alex Danenhauer, Auden Van brunt and Liam Graf finished 12-13-14-15.
Union Catholic captured the first eight places and won the JV girls with a total of 15. Summit was second at 68, followed by Westfield at 81 and the Raiders at 116. Viking Jasmine Parran took first at 20:13.81. Blue Devils Evangeline Van brunt at 22:33.35 and Keri Kapuscinski at 23:01.79 finished 12-16. Raider Londyn Rhodes was 17th at 23:10.43, followed by Blue Devils Grace Taylor at 23:18.3 and Kayla Yip at 23:38.21. Raiders Sophie Mason at 24:13.77 and Clemencia John Clement at 24:14.64 finished 23-25.
On November 1 at Greystone Park in Morris Plains, the Blue Devils will face the biggest meet of their season, hoping that all their hard work and training will lead them to sectional titles.
