US#1 CBA wins at Bowdoin Park without Ferro

By John Nepolitan of DyeStat

After weeks of high temps in the Northeast the weather turned to perfect race conditions - 60's - low 70's no humidity.

Girls 1 race - A pack of 5 went through the 800 together, which became a pack of 3 -- Briana Gess (Haddonfield, NJ), Jillian Howard (Weston, Ma) and Jillian Turner (New Providence, NJ) -- at the mile point.  It was at that point that Gess began to push the issue and steadily pulled away for the win crossing the line in 18:26.51 just slightly off her winning time of 16:22.6 from a year ago.   Not only did Gess have the fastest time of the day, her winning Haddonfield team also posted the best team average of the day.

Boys 1 race – US #1 Christian Brothers Academy (NJ) ran without #1 Blaise Ferro, who is nursing an early season shin issue and is expected to return to action by the Manhattan Invitational in 2 weeks (Ferro was working out on the course this am), went right to the front in an effort to dominate the race.  Placing 5 runners in the top 12 overall it was pretty much mission accomplished winning 37 – 77 over NJ #7 Haddonfield.  CBA would also post the best team average of the day – 16:39.37 with Haddonfield’s 16:53.79 the 3rd fastest of the day.  The individual battle was much closer as 4 runners came into the final 1000 meters together.  Nick Dahl (Germantown Friends, Pa) would pull away from a 5 second win over Drake Anzano (CBA)  16:19.46 – 16:24.79.

Girls 2 race – Passing the mile it was a 3 runner battle between Mercy (Ct) teammates Mackenzie Pias and Bridgid Selfors and Ella Ketchum (Poly Prep, NY).  Not far behind was the Notre Dame (NY) duo of Sydney Rice and Keiana Mitchell.  Coming down off the major hill on the course to the final 1000 meters Pias and Selfors had broken away with Pias going on to take the indivual  crown in 19:09.63 – 19:27.77.  The upfront packing of Norte Dame was enough to hold off Staples (Ct) 45 – 57 for the team title.  Staples was running without one of the best runners in the USA, Hannah DeBalsi who was taking a week off from racing to make a college visit.

Boys 2 race -  From the gun David Principe and Matt Bouthillette of NE #2 LaSalle (RI) pulled away and were off with a purpose.  The two would never really be challenged with Principe posting a blazing 15:44.99 the number #13 ever recorded over the hilly 5,000-meter Bowdin Park course.  Hanging on the all time top 50 list is former national indoor mile champion Justin Romaniuk (Suffern, NY) and current Hoka One One professional runner Kyle Merber (Half Hollow Hills West) both locked at 15:99.9.  Bouthillette himself would go on to also crack the 16:00 barrier crossing the line in 15:59.12.  Voorhees (NJ) , currently ranked #8 in NJ) had bus issues on the way to the meet missing their race and a chance to run against in state rival CBA.  Meet management switched Voorhees over to the Boys 2 race and with limited race warmup and a chance to go over the course, placed 3 runners in the top 10 to upset LaSalle 50- 68.  LaSalle on the strength of the two up front fast time posted a faster team average 16:52.5 – 17:04.86 (#2 on the day)