Livingston Girls Cross Country Team Notches 2 Big Wins

LIVINGSTON, NJ — The Livingston High School Girls Cross Country team recently notched two big victories at a pair of competitions.

The following news releases come courtesy of the team.

LHS Girls Cross Country Wins the SEC Championship Crown

Though 10-0 in dual meet action, the LHS girls XC squad went into the Super Essex Conference (SEC) Championship meet ranked 2nd on Tuesday 10-15. In the dual meet seasons head to head match, Columbia HS had not run all their top girls. The “virtual” championship match-up had Columbia winning by 20+ points. They had been the pre-season favorites and remained so, running strong races outside the SEC league meets. The coaching staff and girls of Livingston knew they were facing a tough task. The coaches reviewed all the data, and scenarios were presented to the team that could give them a chance to put up a good fight despite the odds, they knew every place would count. Against this backdrop on a beautiful seasonally cool Tuesday 10/15, sixty-six athletes lined up in Branch Brook Park (BBP) in Newark to battle for the SEC crown.

The race went out predictably, with West Orange's Ava Neretic and LHS Sophia Paparsenos taking the lead. Columbia's Keira Monagle, checking her watch at the mile mark, appeared to be working her race plan. She was pacing herself behind the leaders through the first half of the race. As more runners passed, it became apparent that the lancers were all in on the day. Six of their 7 runners had their fastest opening miles of the season. As the race progressed to the 2nd mile, the lancers top 2, Paparsenos and Sophie Schumacher (21:00; 8th), were doing their part. Looking to step up on the day was their third, Sarah Nidhan, who passed mile 2 close to 30 seconds faster than she had all season. Lila Maru held the 4th spot. Meanwhile Columbia was working their race plans and still in a position to win. Monagle had moved into first, and her team mates were running strong. After a massive personal best (PB) in week 4 , LHS #5 Kiera D'Souza, also passed the 2nd mile in her fastest time to date. This was shaping up to be a down to the wire finish. Lancers #6 , Annie Ferrans (23:38; 38th), and #7, Avery Lerman (24:05; 44th), also went by mile 2 with their bests of the year. Though measured by a watch, place is the final authority in a XC race score. Monagle (19:14) cruised in for the individual title a full 26 seconds ahead of 2nd place Neretic (19:40). Paparsenos took 3rd in 19:59.6. Columbia had the fastest top 5 girl average on the day of 21:37.02. They put 6 girls in before the lancers got 5 in. It appeared they had run their race plan well. The coaches gathered the lancer squad, and applauded their efforts not knowing the final results as it truly was too close to call by a simple visual analysis. They had been told there is no shame in a better team winning, and that giving your all is all that can be asked. They had done that. Nidhan (21:25; 11th) had dropped a huge PB to get ahead of Columbia's pack, Maru (22:28;24th) had held off 2 Columbia runners who had faster times than her coming in. D'Souza (23:13; 33rd) put in a massive drive over the final 600 meters passing 2 runners in her attempt to catch a Columbia runner. It was not just one thing, one girl, it was a true team effort. The squad ran a 5 girl average of 21:37.30, making this crews avg. LHS 5th fastest at BBP ever. Back in Dec. of 1965, famous Kentucky BB coach Adolph Rupp had stated, “That's why we play the game to see who'll win”. As the final results were tabulated, “Dolph” Rupp was right, as the lancers pulled off the upset 69-71 over Columbia to be crowned SEC Champions. Millburn nipped Montclair by 2 points for 3rd and 4th respectively. In earlier action, the frosh girls,led by Ava Gelfenshteyn (8th), Allison Zhou (12th) and Summer Levy (14th) finished 3rd as a frosh team. The JV 5k crew raced well with Lexis Chen (5th), Carolina Romero Vasquez (6th) and Jordyn Fersko (7th) leading them to a 2nd place JV finish.

Saturday 10/19 saw the team hop the bus over to Cedar Grove Park, the new home of the Essex County Championship in 2024. Many girls would run the Essex County Track Coaches Invitational, a “class” meet to experience the new course prior to the Counties on Friday 10/25. Races would be run according to academic class. In the frosh race, 7 lancers competed, with Shubhada Bhoyar (4th), Gelfenshteyn (6th) and Levy (11th) leading the way. Richelle Lederman (14th), Kayla Greenfeld (16th), Ioanna Gliati (17th) and Samridhi Sharma (20th) all contributed as the girls took the first place team plaque home. For the Sophomores , Kaya Bhansali (8th) teamed up with Kacey Law (13th) and Jessica Yu (18th) to finish 2nd. The juniors were led by Schumacher (4th) who was backed by Ferrans (9th), Chen (10th), and Romero Vasquez (13th), to earn another 2nd place spot. The seniors saw Paparsenos win in 19:58 combining with Darcy Bialick (9th) and Fersko (16th) to grab 3rd place. The crew had quite the week becoming only the second LHS squad since the inception of the SEC in 2009 to go undefeated in dual meets and capture the championship crown. It was done in the inaugural year of 2009 and now 15 years later for a second time. Next up is the Essex County Championships where the girls will again battle top seeded Columbia and close rivals, West Orange, Montclair and Millburn among the 35 teams scheduled to compete.

LHS Girls Cross Country Team Wins Essex County Championship

The LHS Girls Cross Country team kept striding along going into the Essex County Championship on Friday October 25th at Cedar Grove Park in Cedar Grove. With over 20 teams on the starting line the race looked to be a close battle with Columbia, once again, seeded first, LHS, Montclair, Millburn and MKA having aspirations of a title. Over 100 athletes came to the line looking to give it their all in pursuit of a race they would want to remember. The week before the lancers had squeezed out a 2 point win over Columbia in the American Division of the Super Essex Conference. The two teams were lined up side by side as the gun went off on this new county championship course. Conditions were good for an afternoon of hard racing to see who would earn the individual and team titles.

Ava Neretic of West Orange took the role of front runner through the mile in about 6:00. Sophia Paparsenos (LHS) 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 7 teams had 3 or 4 girls among the top 30. As the race passed two miles it was shaping up to be another close one. Neretic was in a close fight with Monagle, and Paparsenos was losing some ground to the pack of 5 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 6th. The lancers would need help from the rest of the squad in order to pull this one out. The crew responded with some blistering kicks over the final mile to place 3 athletes in the top 9. After Paparsenos, both Sophie Schumacher (20:35; 8th) and Sarah Nidhan (21:01; 9th) clocked PB's. Lila Maru (22:08, 23rd), pushing through with some shin issues, held tough and still managed a seasons best for LHS fourth spot. But after 4 runners were in for each team, Columbia led 38-41. At the SEC meet, the cougars had placed 6 girls in front of the lancers 5th. But this week, the lancers #5, Kiera D'Souza, would blast yet another huge PB clocking 22:25 for 25th. She was in front of the cougars 5th girl by 12 scoring places. This secured a hard fought victory over Columbia 64-73. Annie Ferrans (23:37; 49th) and Avery Lerman (23:41; 50th) both had PB times in quality performances for the lancer girls team effort. Montclair would earn 3rd with 89 points. Millburn was 4th with 115 and MKA fifth with 124 points. In winning their first County Title since 2009, the Lancers had run a 20:17 top 5 girls average, their best of the season and among the top 10 All-Time for LHS at a county championship. They earned 3 spots on the first team All- County squad and ended the SEC and County season undefeated.

The Lancers Frosh squad followed suite taking the first two overall places in their 3K race. Shubhada Bhoyar (12:53: 1st) and Ava Gelfenshteyn (13:18: 2nd) led the crew. They were joined by Allison Zhou (6th), Kayla Greenfeld (25th), Ioanna Gliati (26th), Samridhi Sharma (29th), Richelle Lederman (30th) and Emilie Lapointe (31st) winning the team race over Millburn and Columbia by a mere 3 points. The JV squad performed well with all 5 girls running PB's. They were led by Jordyn Fersko (24:00; 4th) and Carolina Romero Vasquez (24:19; 7th). 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 6th girl tie-breaker rule.

It was truly a great day for the lancers as 17 of 20 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. Refreshments and camaraderie would abound in a fitting end to this day. 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.

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