With upwards of 6 seniors taking the SATs, it was the underclassmen’s day to take on the storied Holmdel cross country course.
The first race featured soph. Mike Rankin, fr.Tom Hoban, jr. Alec Connelly, sr. Jamie Rooney, and soph. Tom Pellegrino. Several of these underclassmen have never run the course, but seasoned sophomore Rankin was ready to tackle it all. Looking to eclipse his PR at Holmdel from last year of 17:23 set at the same race, Rankin was poised to get out with the front crew. The plan was played with a bit when Camden Catholic senior Kevin McDonnell and Somerville’s Dan Stiles sprinted out to the lead and pushed Rankin to keep conservative on the first mile and work his way up gradually from the Top 30 to the Top 15 by the top of the Bowl. Heading into the backwoods, Rankin kept picking people off one-by-one and with defiance in the last 300 meters. That kick pushed him all the way up to 7th place and a respectable 17:15 time. Though he expected a sharper drop in time, the 17:15 signifies great improvement on a day where PRs were a bit hard to come by.
Speaking of personal records, freshman Thomas Hoban had his first taste of Holmdel and put himself early on in the Top 50 to ensure his best 5k time ever on any course. His time of 18:27 was good enough for 47th place and the establishment of himself as one of the top Freshman runners in New Jersey.
Alec Connelly ran a Holmdel PR in 23:27, while Jamie Rooney and Tom Pellegrino had decent times of 24:06 and 24:27.
The Freshman race at 12:15PM had over 150 competitors in it and featured freshman phenom Eric Hubbs, Alec Holland, Mike Giordano, Nick Vadino, and Joe Pinto. They ran a 2 mile course which cut off the famous ‘Bowl’, which sat well with every PVI runner even though they had run the Bowl in a workout the weekend before. All fared well with Giordano posting the biggest improvement of the day by using his speed in the backwoods to pick off 30 or so and finish in 49th place with a time of 13:43. Though not particularly happy about his performance, Hubbs finished in 13:35 for 43rd place while Holland came in at 13:53 (52nd), Nick Vadino came in at 14:51 (84th), and Joe Pinto at 15:35, good for 107th.
A decent day overall as the halfway point for HS cross country season looms and some big match-ups are ahead. These performances certainly bode well for the future of the program and the kids are ready to run with it.
More to come – links to results, upcoming meet information, etc.
