Ridge Runners Extend Control of Somerset County Title
The Ridge boys cross country team, currently ranked # 5 in NJ, made a big statement on Thursday at the Somerset County Championship at Pleasant Valley Park. They easily outdistanced the field, placing 6 runners in the top 10, on their way to their fourth consecutive team tile.
Patrick Doran led the way for Ridge, capturing the individual title in a time of 16:18. Doran’s victory ignited a historic victory for Ridge, who finished 1-2-3-6-8, with a remarkable 1-5 compression of 27 seconds on their way to setting a new five man course average record of 16:28. The former course record of 16:31 was set by Hillsborough in 2013.
Following Doran in the scoring was junior Matthew Fukushima, second in 16:23, sophomore Brenden McMahon, third in 16:24, senior Connor McMahon, sixth in 16:34 and junior Dmitry Cole, eighth in 16:45. Senior Jon Wey, ninth in 16:53, and sophomore Kaleb Huang, nineteenth in 17:21, rounded out the team.
After the race Doran commented, “Today was all about running well as a team and extending our control of the county title. We have been improving steadily since the start of the season and understand that we are part of a legacy that expects maximum effort. Hopefully this will carry forward to the state championship season that starts next week.”
Added Coach Nicole Gilhuley, “I’m extremely pleased with the boys’ performance today. Prior to 2018 we had a lot of trouble winning this meet, so to have won the last four county championships means a lot to me. Having six finishers in the top ten, and seven in the top twenty, is impressive for any meet. All seven boys ran personal best times on this course, with Patrick and Matthew moving onto the Ridge top 15 all-time list at PVP. I also want to point out that in addition to Patrick’s win, which was the fifth in school history, Dev Patel won the JV race with a time that would make the varsity at all other schools in the county and Maxwell Neumann won the freshman race. A sweep of the individual titles.”
Next up for the team is the NJSIAA Group 4, North 2 sectional championship at Oak Ridge Park in Clark. On Saturday, October 29. The boys race goes off at 10:30, followed by the girls at 11:30.
By Mike Doran
