The boys and girls cross country teams traveled to Holmdel Park to compete in the Group 4 Championships on Saturday afternoon.
In a day defined by obstacles and confusion, the boys ended up placing second. The race went out fast, and that, paired with an unusually hot November day, led to some problems for the Blue Devils. Junior Tage Mehta collapsed and was forced to drop out of the race with about one kilometer left. “I still don’t know exactly what happened,” said Mehta. “I got nudged and my body just gave out on me, but I’ll be back no doubt.”
The boys had three runners finish in under 17 minutes. Junior Avery Keith ran 16:10 and placed 6th overall. Sophomore Ryan Daly placed 22nd with a time of 16:46, and senior Johnny Scalia ran 16:59 and finished 30th.
“We definitely struggled with the heat,” said coach Chris Tafelski. “But I think we handled what we could control very well.”
The boys held on for second place, but even that came with its problems. The results were first posted with Westfield winning the meet, but it was then figured out that a Cherokee runner collapsed at the finish line and was never tallied into the results. When the results were fixed, Cherokee was determined to have won, and Westfield finished second.
“It should have never happened,” said Coach Tafelski. “The adults in the room need to own up and admit that mistakes were made.”
Despite all of this, Westfield will move on to the Meet of Champions next week and compete to be titled the best team in New Jersey.
The girls, who finished fourth behind Freehold, Ridgewood and Hunterdon Central, were also tasked with overcoming numerous obstacles. When senior Stacey Salz was unable to compete due to injury, sophomore Emily Kapuscinski stepped up in her first varsity meet of the season. Kapuscinski described the meet as “much faster” compared to other meets earlier in the season. All the girls ran personal bests Saturday. “Everyone pushed themselves,” said Kapuscinski.
Senior Sonia Olson, the lead runner for Westfield, was the only Blue Devil who cracked the top 30, but the other girls placed just behind Olson. The Blue Devils’ 1-5 split was 1:21, the third lowest in the meet. A 1-5 split is the amount of time between a team’s first and fifth finisher, going to show how well the Blue Devils worked together throughout the race. The Blue Devils followed the plan that head coach Joe Berardi gave them, leading them to all achieving personal bests, explained Olson.
The girls were also battling the heat. A high of 73 degrees in November was not ideal. “The weather made it hard,” said Olson. “But, you have to remember that everyone has the same weather conditions.”
The boys and girls will both compete in the Meet of Champions next Saturday at Holmdel Park.
