After coming up short from being Union County Tournament champions on Oct. 19, the Blue Devils came back hungry for the North 2, Group 4 Sectional championship. Both teams swept away the competition: The boys won by 50 points, the girls won by 27 points.
Even with this amazing victory, both teams were missing key runners, senior captain Avery Keith and freshman Anna Youssef. Leading the way for the boys, senior captain Tage Mehta broke the Greystone course record for Westfield with a time of 15 minutes 38 seconds. “We knew what we needed to do. We needed to have a solid performance, so we could win the section, and I think we really did that,” said Mehta. “We set a course record, which is pretty cool.”
Out of the Blue Devils who raced, all 7 placed within the top 10 times for the Greystone course with highlighted performances from Mehta, senior captain Jimmy Gildea, and senior captain Eamon Mason who all placed within the top 5.
Head coach Christopher Tafelski said, “It was a really nice rally from counties, you know, which was what we were looking for. I mean we knew we were going to win.”
The coaching staff made the calculated decision to not have Keith run. “We need all the other guys to run as a tight group for as long as possible in the race. I didn’t want them to have Avery be the guide and have them follow him,” said Tafelski. “So taking him out of the race was like a deliberate thing to make them do that themselves.”
The boys will be racing this Saturday at Holmdel Park for the Group 4 championship. Based on their most recent performance at this course, the odds seem to be in their favor. However, when the boys were favored to win states last year, they did not succeed in doing so.
“We’re the favorites going in and that’s tough,” said Tafelski. “We were the favorites going in last year, and we didn’t win, it was a pretty bad situation. I’m sure that’s on the kids’ minds.”
The boys are looking to rewrite their past this Saturday. Mehta said, “We’re going to try and win that state championship.”
The boys were not the only success story coming from this past weekend as the girls team also took home the sectional title. With 3 finishes in the top 10 coming from junior Emma Pranke, senior captain Lina Wright, and junior Anna Kylish, the girls crushed their competition.
Head coach Joseph Berardi said, “They were awesome. I can’t really say enough good things.”
Although the girls lost key runners, Youssef and senior captain Grace Lisnock, they persevered and stepped up to the challenge. Senior captain Belen Arbelaez was not expecting to be racing in this meet. With the last minute loss of Youssef, she was thrown into the race with hours notice.
Arbelaez said, “We all had to kind of step it up because we weren’t going to have our number one girl and if we wanted to win, we really needed to give it our all.”
Alongside the boys, the girls will also be running in groups on Saturday. Berardi said, “I’m excited about this week because if we can keep that momentum going, it’ll bode well for the next few weeks.”
The Group 4 championship is looking bright for the Blue Devil cross country programs on both ends. With both teams attempting to take the crown, there is the potential for Westfield history to be made.
