The Livingston High S chool girls ’ cross country team took part in the Essex County Championship on Friday October 25 at Cedar Grove Park in Cedar Grove. With over 20 teams on the starting line, the race looked to be a close battle with first seeded Columbia, LHS, Montclair, Millbum and Mount Kimberley Academy (MKA) having aspirations of a title. Over 100 athletes came to the line. The week before, the Lancers squeezed out a two point win over Columbia in the American Division of the Super Essex Conference (SEC).
AvaNeretic, of West Orange, took the role of front runner through the mile in about six minutes. LHS’ Sophia Paparsenos was close behind with a pack that included Kiera Monagle (Columbia), Meya Ranges (Nutley), Corrine Stewart (Montclair), Sophia Van Roon (Millburn) and Victoria Altirs (MKA). Behind them, skirmishes were taking place among the rest, as about seven teams had three or four girls among the top 30.
As the race passed two miles, (Continued on Page A-7) Neretic was in a close fight with Monagle, and Paparsenos was losing some ground to the pack of five runners behind her.At the SEC championship the week before, the top finishing spots tracked pretty close to predictions, but this week things were looking different. Monagle (19:12) would once again win the race 16 seconds ahead of Neretic, but Paparsenos (20:15) struggled a bit down the stretch and finished in sixth place. After Paparsenos, both Sophie Schumacher (20:35; eighth) and Sarah Nidhan (21:01; ninth) clocked personal bests. Lila Maru (22:08, 23rd), pushing through with some shin issues, held tough and still managed a season’s best for the LHS fourth spot. After four runners were in for each team, Columbia led 38-41 Kiera D’Souza blasted yet another huge personal best, clocking 22:25 for 25th. This secured a hard fought victory over Columbia 64-73.Annie Ferrans (23:37; 49th) andAvery Lerman (23:41; 50th) both had personal best times. Montclair came in third place with 89 points. Millburn was in fourth with 115 and MKA in fifth with 124 points. In winning their first County Title since 2009, the Lancers had run a 20:17 top five girls average, their best of the season and among the top ten all time for LHS at a county championship. They earned three spots on the first team All-County squad and ended the SEC and County season undefeated.
LHS’ freshman squad followed suit, taking the first two overall places in their 3K race. Shubhada Bhoyar (12:53: first) and Ava Gelfenshteyn (13:18: second) led the crew. They were joined by Allison Zhou (sixth), Kayla Greenfeld (25th), Ioanna Gliati (26th), Samridhi Sharma (29th), Richelle Lederman (30th) and Emilie Lapointe (31st). The freshman Lancers won the team race over Millburn and Columbia by three points. The junior varsity team performed well, with all five girls running personal bests. They were led by Jordyn Fersko (24:00; fourth) and Carolina Romero Vasquez (24:19; seventh). Kacey Law (17th), Elyana Boutros (29th), and Sofia Iskold (38th) rounded out the scoring with 55 points to tie Millburn behind Columbia, but ended up third on the sixth girl tie-breaker rule.
During this race, 17 of 20 Lancer runners turned in season or personal best performances. The team celebrated the win and it was also a day to honor the teams seniors, captains Paparsenos and Maru, along with Nidhan, Fersko, Iskold and Darcy Bialick.
The team will now turn its focus to competing in the State Group 4 North 1 Sectional Championship to be held Saturday November 2nd at Garret Mountain in Woodland Park.
