The Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School Girls Cross Country (XC) team has qualified for what is referred to as the XC Super Bowl — the Meet of Champions.
The meet is slated for 11 a.m. on Saturday at Holmdel Park.
To make it this far, the girls needed to make it to the top three teams from a group in the NJSIAA Cross Country Group Championships. They became the Group 2 champions for the second time in three years at the meet last Saturday at Holmdel Park, according to a release. In Group 2, there were 19 teams and 142 runners, it added.
RFH finished with 48 points. Haddonfield was in a close second with 58 points and Robbinsville finished third with 120 points, the release said.
Following the race, the team headed back to Rumson to celebrate, escorted by a parade of fire engines. “I’m reallly proud of them,” RFH Cross Country Coach Tim McLoone said in the release. “It’s arguably the most pressure packed of all the championship races, even including this Saturday’s Meet of Champions.”
The RFH girls knew they had a good chance of prevailing, but the team had some injuries and Haddonfield, one of the other teams in Group 2, had one of the top runners in the state, Briana Gess, dubbed a “frosh wunderkind.”
At the gun, however, the RFH girls positioned themselves in the top 25. Senior Jacqueline Gottuso got into fifth place early and held it the whole way, running 19:16, the second fastest time in RFH history, the release said.
Senior Megan Hellman finished second for RFH with a time of 19:43. Junior, Rachel Lehnert came in next at 20:01; and Junior Hannah Anderson was right behind her at 20:05.
Coach McLoone explained that to take the title, Junior Fini Satzke had to pass a number of Haddonfield runners. “She’s a tough competitor but it was not easy," he said. "She trailed Haddonfield’s 4-5 and six runners by about 15 yards. But with 800 meters to go in the race, she ran them down the stretch to finish in 20:27."
Sophomores Morgan Steinhacker and Emily Hellman completed the scoring for RFH.
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