On Oct. 23, the Westfield cross country teams competed in the Union County Championship at Warinanco Park in Roselle, NJ. Both the girls and boys teams placed within the top five of their incredibly competitive county conference.
The boys team placed second, scoring 59 points, behind Union Catholic, which managed a score of 22. Westfield was led by senior Brody Toriello who took bronze, placing third overall with a time of 16:11. Behind him, junior Alexander Davlouros took 9th with a time of 16:42 followed not far by sophomore Lincoln Staiger who ran 16:51. To round out their top 5 scorers, junior Brent Kengeri placed 17th (16:54) and senior Christian Buonopane was not far behind in 19th (16:56).
On the girls side, the team took fourth, scoring 121 points, behind Oak Knoll (96), Summit (93) and Union Catholic who took first, completing their sweep by scoring 20 points. Westfield was led by junior Anna Youssef, who placed 12th overall, running a time of 19:55. Closely in 15th was sophomore Oriana Soloway, who ran a time of 20:23. Behind them, sophomore Natalie Salzano took 25th (20:59), senior Claire Sewald placed 33rd (21:28) and sophomore Abigail Drennan placed 36th (21:53).
Following the girls first-place finish last week at conferences, they 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 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.”
On Nov. 1 at Greystone Park in Morris Plains, NJ, 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.
