BASKING RIDGE, NJ — At Ocean County Park, a flat course, both Ridge cross country teams set many new personal records(PRs).
In the class-based meet, many of the fastest Ridge cross country runners made their season debut. The girls' team earned trophies in the freshman and sophomore races, while the boys took home trophies for the sophomore and junior classes.
Rachel Ellis won the girls' freshman race in a time of 12:46, a margin of 0.78 seconds between second place.
Antonina Kane, Lily-Josephine Stephen, and Alex Winterfeldt all placed top 15 in the freshman race as well.
In a 32-second PR of 18:01, Jennifer Friedman finished first in the girls' sophomore race, winning by 53 seconds.
Two more top ten finishers, Keiko Hou and Maya Glover, also ran new PRs. Maia Zalmover, junior, placed top ten in 19:27, earning a medal.
Senior Isabella Beaudry placed 7th in 18:42, a strong start to the season.
Overall, the girls' cross country team is in a good position to score well in the championship meets.
On the boys' side, freshman Dillon Feehan finished 7th in 11:15, qualifying for a medal.
Sophomores Andrew Bandrowski and Jeffrey Chen placed 1st and 2nd in 16:05 and 16:27, two of the fastest underclassmen at Ridge. Arush Goel followed in 12th, securing the win in the sophomore race.
In the junior race, Ridge took 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, with fast times by Ernan Nargotra, Rehann Wadhwani, and Nishank Shivapur, running 15:59, 16:18, and 16:20.
Finally, Owen James won the senior race in 15:21 by a tenth of a second, with Matias Valle in 4th in 15:55.
All in all, both the Ridge girls' and boys' cross country teams have a bright future ahead for November. The 2026 Ridge cross country season is bound to be an exciting one.
— Submitted By Keiko Hou
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