By Kevin Cranston
Runningco.com Writer

HOLMDEL

It didn’t matter to coach Nick Baker that his 2007 Haddonfield High School boys’ cross country team would be led by underclassmen.

From the very beginning of the season, Baker was confident his team could compete with the state’s best.

“Our goal all along was to come to the Meet of Champions and try to get in the top three,” Baker said. “We absolutely thought we could accomplish that, even with all of the young guys.”

And at Saturday’s NJSIAA Meet of Champions at Holmdel Park, the Bulldawgs, featuring a top-seven lineup made of up three sophomores, three freshman and one senior, proved that Baker’s assessment of them was just right as they finished third with 159 points as South Jersey’s top team. It’s the second straight year Haddonfield has finished third at the M of C.

Don Bosco Prep, which turned in a 16:25.8 team average and jammed their first five runners in the top 22 of the team scoring, won the title – the Ironmen’s first since 1992 and second overall – with 69. Christian Brothers Academy was second with 150.

“They had their best race of the year on the last day of the season,” Baker said of his Bulldawgs.

“I thought we had a great race last weekend (in winning the Group 2 state title), but we were able to come back again with an even better performance. Consistency is always tough to have with a young team, but the guys were able to put together two really good races in a row.”

Having another outstanding race for Haddonfield, ranked No. 2 in runningco.com’s Top 20, was sophomore Boo Vitez, who dropped eight seconds off his Holmdel PR to finish 12th overall (seventh in team scoring) in 16:12.

“Boo is the fastest sophomore we’ve ever had at Haddonfield,” Baker said. “He just had a terrific race.”

Also having a big race for the Bulldawgs, which put together a team average of 16:47.2 (six seconds faster than their Group 2 average), was sophomore No. 2 man Colin Baker. Baker struggled with hamstring and shin injuries for a good portion of the season, but showed Saturday that that was all behind him as he ran 16:35 (19 seconds faster than he ran at last Saturday’s Group 2 race) to finish 33rd overall (19th in team scoring).

“The last two weeks have definitely been my best training weeks,” Colin Baker said. “I came into the race feeling good. I got out 12 seconds faster than I did last week and I was able to hold the pace.

“I’m happy that I ran well as an individual, but the team getting third is just awesome. We ran great this year with a lot of young guys on the team. The sky’s the limit for us the next couple years.”

Haddonfield’s third finisher was senior Dan Carreon, who took 54th (32nd in team scoring) in 16:52. Sophomore Ray Schlitt, who was sick this week and missed a couple days of practice, was a little slower than last week, but still managed to run 16:53 for 56th place (33rd in team scoring).  

And while nothing can be taken away from the fine races Vitez, Baker, Carreon and Schlitt ran, arguably the biggest performance came from freshman Matt Nussbaum. At last week’s Group 2 race, Nussbaum finished as Haddonfield’s sixth man in 18:03. On Saturday, though, Nussbaum ran a huge PR of 17:24 as he finished as the Bulldawgs’ No. 5 man in 101st overall (68th in team scoring).

“We needed our fifth man to run in the mid 17:20s if we were going to have a shot at placing high,” Haddonfield assistant coach Tom Brennan said. “Nussbaum really came through for us today.”

Next up for Haddonfield is the Nike Team Nationals Northeast Championships, which will be held next Saturday at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls, N.Y.

Ocean City junior Brett Johnson

ran a phenomenal last mile for the second straight week as he finished as South Jersey’s top individual in fifth place in a Holmdel PR of 16:03. Johnson’s best Holmdel time prior to Saturday was the 16:07 he ran last Saturday to win the Group 3 race.

West Windsor-Plainsboro South senior Brian Leung took the individual M of C title by 18 seconds in 15:33 – the No. 5 time on Holmdel’s all-time list. Leung’s much anticipated showdown with Gill St. Bernard’s junior Doug Smith never materialized as Smith dropped out of the race during the second mile.

Finishing after Leung were Brick senior Andrew Brodeur (15:51), Monsignor Donovan senior Ray Coles (16:00) and Manalapan junior Robby Andrews (16:02).

Johnson is the second straight Ocean City runner to finish as South Jersey’s top individual at the M of C. Last year, John Fennekohl ran 16:03 for eighth.

“The school record at Holmdel is John’s 16:03 from last year,” Johnson said. “I really wanted to beat his time, but I’m OK with being co-record holders with him.”

Johnson was in around 12th at the 2-mile mark when he shifted into another gear and started catching guys in front of him, just like he did at last week’s Group 3 race, when he went from eighth to first in the final mile.

“After the 2-mile mark, I said to myself, ‘This is the Meet of Champions. This isn’t a team thing, so I’m going to go as hard as I can until the finish line,’” Johnson said. “I just decided to go. It was either I was going to die or run really well.”

The latter occurred for Johnson as he finished as the state’s second-best junior.

Before the race, though, Johnson experienced what he described as a “scary moment.” While he was warming up, Johnson felt pain in the same left foot that he suffered a stress fracture in at the end of the 2007 outdoor track season.

“I didn’t tell anyone,” Johnson said. “I tried not to think about it. I just went out and ran.”

Luckily for Johnson, the foot didn’t give him any problems during the race. It certainly didn’t hamper his performance.

Holy Cross senior Mike Sheehan

shaved five seconds off his time from last Saturday’s Non-Public A race, in which he was the runner-up, as he clocked a 16:09 for ninth place. Sheehan, running in his first cross country M of C, was South Jersey’s second finisher.

Other South Jersey individuals that were in the top 25 included Haddon Heights senior Mickey Borsellino, who was 21st in 16:23, and Ocean City senior Ryan Birchmeier, who took 25th in 16:28.

No. 1 Cherokee

was nowhere near full strength on Saturday as it finished ninth overall – as South Jersey’s second team – with 230 points.

This past week, senior No. 1 man Alex Yersak missed a day of school due to his allergies acting up. And the Chiefs’ No. 2 runner, senior Kevin Schickling, missed three days of school with the flu.

Both of them raced, but they clearly weren’t their usual selves. Yersak finished 28th in 16:30 (nine seconds slower than what he ran in the Group 4 race last Saturday), while Schickling placed 89th as the team’s fourth man in 17:15 (40 seconds slower than last Saturday in the Group 4 race).    

Along with Yersak and Schickling not being completely healthy, the team’s No. 5 runner, junior Sean Hartnett, who didn’t run in the Group 4 state race due to an illness, collapsed during the second mile and was unable to finish.

“It was a tough one for us,” Chiefs coach Steve Shaklee said. “We knew we had some question marks heading into the race, but you never really know until you line up and race.

“Alex wasn’t quite 100 percent; his allergies were bothering him all week. And Kevin had the flu all week, which really took a lot out of him. And then Sean went down during the race. So things for us certainly didn’t go our way, but at the same time, some teams ran really well.

“I know we’re a much better team that we showed today. We had a lot of health issues, but that’s all part of the sport.”

South Jersey’s Other Team Qualifiers

No. 4 Moorestown finished 11th with 243 points. The Quakers’ top finisher was senior James Mulski, who placed 48th overall (27th in team scoring) with a time of 16:48.

No. 3 Haddon Heights, which ran without junior Josh Black (injured), took 13th with 356.

No. 11 Pennsville, led by senior Mark Kearney’s 41st-place finish (24th in team scoring) in 16:44, was 16th with 390.

No. 18 Moorestown Friends placed 20th with 527. Senior Sean Denson ran 17:07 (78th overall, 48th in team scoring) as the Foxes No. 1 man.

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