The Summit boys and Union Catholic girls, and Lucas Reguinho of Elizbaeth and Micah Lawson of Rahway all captured State Group Cross-Country Championships at Holmdel Park.
In the boys Group 3 race, Lawson and Summit made it a Union County championship sweep.
Lawson, a senior, made a huge surge coming out of the bowl to get away from favored Peyton Shute of Woodbury/Gateway on his way to victory in 15:45!! Lawson finished 39 seconds ahead of runner-up Shute, the largest margin of victory on the day.
Lawson, who became Rahway’s first sectional champ last week, is Rahway’s first state champion since Len Phillips won the Group 4 title in 1960!
“I know coming out of the bowl is a tough place to make a big move,” said Lawson. “It’s a place when runners like to relax a little, so I felt that if I could go hard there that it would be my best chance to win. And it worked out just the way I hoped.”
When Lawson came storming down the final straight, a huge group of family, friends, and classmates erupted in epohoria.
“I have a lot of people in my bag that have supported me, and it felt so good to have them her cheering for me,” said Lawson. “Hopefully, I can run another great race next week and try to win again.”
In the team competition, Summit, ranked No. 7 in the state, won its second title (the other came in 2014) on the strength of its superior running at the back of its pack.
Summit was trailing No. 8 North Hunterdon, 25-47, after each team had three runners across. But Summit erased that deficit but putting six runners ahead of North Hunterdon’s No. 4 runner to lock up a 106-126 victory over North Hunterdon. No. 9 Chatham finished third with 129. Summit averaged 17:18 and had a 1-5 spread of 1:00.
Summit’s top five were senior John Cho, ninth in 16:42, senior Jackson Levine, 23rd 17:11, sophomore Dan Cota, 28th in 17:22, junior Emre Kusmin, 38th in 17:35, and senior Sam Ard, 39th in 17:42.
In the boys group 4 race, there weren’t a lot of people picking Reguinho to win after he placed third at the North Jersey, Sec. 2 Group 4 race and had very limited training over the last two weeks due to what he described as a “medical emergency.”
But he never lost his confidence and was determined to prove people wrong.
He did exactly that.
Using his aggressive style of running by making several surges, Reguinho dropped a group of very talented runners when he threw down the hammer as he approached the tennis courts. He waited for someone to respond. But nobody had an answer.
Reguinho then poured it on in the back woods on his way to a nine second victory as he became the first state champion ever from Elizabeth. Reguinho’s 15:39, the fastest of the day, is even more impressive when you consider that he ran when it was around 75 degreee out!
Akshay Vadul of Edison, who finished ahead of Reguinho when he won the sectional race last week, was second in 15:49.
Reguinho, who is now the third fastest runner in Union County history at Holmdel, said the blistering pace (5:10 at the mile and 10:10 at two miles) combined with the heat took its toll.
“I was really good when I made that move by the tennis courts and I think the other guys were feeling it from the pace and the heat,” said Reguinho. “I knew I had to push through it if I wanted to be a state champion.”
In the girls Non-Pubic A race, Union Catholic came in as the No. 1 ranked team in the state and a huge favorite to win its second straight title.
The Vikings successfully defended their title as expcted, but it came with some misfortune as UC had to overcome the loss of junior star Peyton Hollis.
Hollis, running in her first XC season, came into the race undefeated and was one of the favorites. But unfortunately she had to drop out of the race just past the top of the bowl with a leg injury.
Union Catholic still had enough firepower to defeat No. 11 Kent Place, 52-88, to repeat as champions and win its fourth title overall. And the Vikings still managed to average 20:17 and finish second in the team merge to Haddonfield.
The top five for the Vikings were senior Kaleigh Gunsiorowski, fifth in 19:11, junior Courtney Kaiser, eighth in 20:00, freshman Emmy O’Hearn, 9th in 20:17, junior Leilani Gibson, 10th in 20:24,, and senior Victoria Urbaez, 17th in 20:56.
