A Look Back at All XC Meet of Champions
A Look Back at All XC Meet of Champions
Cherokee plays a prominent role in either team or individual titles in 7 different races
For more details about the upcoming Meet of Champions, see the info below:
11:00 AM Girls Race
12:00 PM Boys Race
As this is the 51st MOC, the great Jim Lambert recaps the previous 50 editions, which include lots of Cherokee influence.
1998
Nate Miller became just the third runner to win the M of C after losing at the Group meet. Joe Weber (1978) and Robinson (1995) also won after losing. Miller, second to Jon Fasulo of Hunterdon Central in Group 4, changed his race tactics for the M of C and surprised Fasulo and Cranford's Tim Styler, winning in 15:57. Styler was second in 16:04. Miller placed 23rd in 16:21.2 at FL Nationals, and after a brief time at Stanford, he transferred to Villanova.
CBA, led by Geoff Fahey's fifth place in 16:12.5, averaged 16:48 and edged Cherokee, 55-66, for its fourth straight championship.
In the girls race, senior Cate Guiney, who had multiple sub 18 times at Holmdel during the season, ran 18:06 to win. Guiney is the first girl to finish first and be on the winning team as she and twin sister, Maggie, led Middletown South to the title.
2000
Senior Mike Myers of Eastern won a SJ battle with junior Marc Pelerin of Cherokee, 15:50.3 to 16:01.5, and CBA captured its sixth straight boys title and 13th overall, 61-69 over Cherokee.
On the girls side, Erin Donohue of Haddonfield made it two in a row by running 18:27, and Hunterdon Central won its third team title.
2001
Haddonfield, under Hall of Fame coach Nick Baker, became the first Public School to win the boys title since Bernards in 1985 and became the first team to ever have three runners, junior Chris Platt (15:49), senior Skip Stiles (15:55) and senior Breton Bonnette (15:56) go sub 16 at Holmdel in the same race.
The Dawgs, who bounced back after losing at the Group 2 meet the week before when Stiles couldn't finish due to illness, outscored Old Bridge, 87-124. CBA, which had won the last six titles, placed eighth.
Individually, Cherokee's Marc Pelerin, after his second place finish in 2000, won in 15:43, the fastest winning time in 10 years. Platt, was second 15:49. Pelerin went on to finish 25th at the FL Nationals in 15:57.31, and also won the M of C 1,600 title in spring of 2002.
In the girls race, junior Lindsay Van Alstine of Hawthorne Van Alstine ran 18:43 to defeat Passaic County rival Jesse Mizzone of Passaic Valley (18:53), and Moorestown, second in 1999, captured the team title.
2002
In their only season running cross-country, senior twins Katy and Amanda Trotter of Red Bank finished 1-2 as both crossed together in 18:43. Katy was declared the winner. They are the only sisters to ever place 1-2. Katy went on to finish second at the FL Nationals.
Mohamed Khadraoui of Paterson Kennedy, who was third in the Group 4 race (behind winner Keith Krieger of Cherokee and Pete Hess of Toms River North), put together a whole new race plan for the M of C and the Moroccan Rocket won a thrilling duel in the boys race with Keith Krieger of Cherokee, 15:48.0 to 15:48.9.
In the team competition, Mainland's No. 5 runner, Spenser Popseon, finished five places and five seconds ahead of the No. 5 man for Toms River North to give Mainland a 101-104 victory over TRN in the boys race, and Shawnee won its third girls title.
2011
After a pack of six went by the first mile in 5:10, Piscataway's Tim Ball went by Cherokee junior Shawn Wilson just after coming out of the Bowl and opened a 20-yard gap at two miles. Ball, who ran 5:03 in that pivotal second mile, was never seriously challenged in the final 1.1 on his way to victory in 15:31, tied for No. 10 in course history at the time.
Ball, a senior, led a record 12 runners under 16 minutes on a perfect day for running. George Kelly of CBA was second in 15:37 to lead his team to a then course record average of 16:04.4 as CBA won its second straight title and extended its state record to 17 M of C titles. CBA went on to win the National Championship a couple weeks later.
Ball, 16th at the FL XC Nationals as a senior, is now a senior starring at Notre Dame. He finished 26th at the ACC Championships and 13th at the Great Lakes Regional Championships.
2021
In the girls team race, Cherokee, which entered the race ranked No. 3 in the state, threw down several huge Holmdel PR's to outscore runner-up No. 4 ranked Ridgewood, 117-126, for its first ever title. This is the third straight time that Ridgewood has finished second. No. 1 Colts Neck was third with 147. No. 5 North Hunterdon finished fourth with 149, and No. 2 Haddonfield, running without the injured Sabrina Miller, was fifth 179.
Cherokee, which finished sixth in 2010 and eighth in 2004 in its only other appearances at the M of C, is the first South Jersey girls team to win since Shawnee won a second straight title in 2003.
Despite defeating then No. 1 ranked Ridgewood by two points to win its first Group 4 title ever last week, Cherokee came into this race as an underdog because it was third in the team merge last week, well behind both Haddonfield and Colts Neck.
But Cherokee stunned the field by dropping its average from 20:01 last week all the way down to a South Jersey course record 19:23.
A huge key for the Chiefs was that its fifth runner finished ahead of Ridgewood's No. 4 runner to seal the deal.
Cherokee's top five finished 8-22-24-26-37 in the scoring, and Ridgewood's scoring five finished 9-16-21-39-41.
Senior Nicole Clifford led the charge for Cherokee by placing 11th in 18:43, No. 2 in school history. Junior Kelsey Niglio placed 35th in 19:22, sophomore Kerry O'Day was 38th in 19:24, sophomore Olivia Parkinson placed 44th in 19:30, and freshman Megan Niglio 60th in 19:58.
2022
Micah Lawson of Rahway made history by pulling off a stunning comeback victory, and Christian Brothers Academy returned to glory and by adding to its rich history in the boys race by extending its state record to 25 titles on when the Meet of Champions celebrated its 50th year on probably the warmest day in meet history at Holmdel Park.
Lawson, who showed a lot of resiliency by overcoming multiple setbacks during the season, was sitting in 11th place at the mile mark after hitting it in 5:15. He could have easily panicked, but instead he stayed patient, dug down deep, and pushed himself harder than he ever has before in the back woods to rally for the breathtaking win, stopping the clock at 15:38. Lawson joined the late Cliff Sheehan of Westfield (1980) as the only runners (boy or girl) from Union County to win the coveted crown.
Lawson kept himself within striking distance as he moved through the bowl, and cranked it up after he came out of the bowl and moved up to fifth place after a 5:10 second mile.
Lawson was still well behind the leader, Patrick Ditmars of Cherokee, who made a huge move in the bowl and kept pushing the pace as he opened a five second lead at the two-mile mark. It looked like Ditmars might steal the race, but then Collin Boler of Delbarton, who was leading a big chase pack, overtook Ditmars and made a big push going toward the woods.
That's when Lawson, who was five seconds behind and in sixth place when he turned into the woods, went to work and poured it on, blasting past all five runners ahead of him, including Boler on the short rise just before coming out onto the final straightaway. Once he got the lead, Lawson wasn't going to give it up as he kept the pedal to the medal and slammed the door on his remarkable come from behind victory as he put the finishing touches on a blazing 5:08 over the final 1.1.
The boys team race went as expected as CBA, ranked No. 1 in the state all season and No. 3 in the nation coming into this race, accomplished one of its biggest goals of the season by getting back on top after finishing second to Union Catholic in 2021.
The Colts, who averaged 16:07.2, avenged its loss last year with a 44-98 victory over runner-up Union Catholic. UC, ranked No. 2 in the state and No. 21 nationally, averaged 16:31.8 and ran without injured star Jimmy Wischusen. Group 4 champion Cherokee was third with 106, Westfield was fourth with 121, Ridge placed fifth with 179, and Group 2 champ Haddonfield finished sixth with 183.
With the victory, CBA has won four of the last five titles and the Colts extended their state record to 25 M of C titles. That's one more than the rest of the state combined. That's right, the M of C all-time scoreboard now reads, CBA 25, the rest of NJ 24. There was no boys team scoring in 1972, the first year the meet was held.