Saint James Cross Country Team Remains Undefeated

Press release from Saint James School:

Oct. 29, 2021

Saint James School shakes off the early morning cold and is now knocking on the door of perfection. The Spartans have been undefeated in dual meets dating back to 2020, and currently, this season are undefeated in all meets and invitationals. Saint James will have just one remaining invitational before the Championships. Seeking to do what has not been done before, finish the season undefeated!

Going into the 2021 season, Saint James had never won an invitational. When asked why that was the case, the Spartans head coach, Matthew Wizeman had a very simple answer, “these invitationals are really, really hard to win. There are anywhere from ten to fifteen teams, all with the same goal.” Indeed, it is difficult. In fact, no team has ever gone through an entire season undefeated in all the years that Saint James has been part of the league. That has the potential to change this year as the Spartans are now just one invitational and the Championships away to pulling off the seemingly impossible.

The Holy Trinity School Invitational was the earliest meet of the season, where athletes were greeted with brisk and wet conditions at 8:00 AM for the warm-ups and walk-throughs, but by race time, conditions were almost ideal with the temps in the mid to upper 50’s.

Saint James was significantly short-handed all day and it got off to a less than auspicious start where the girls 3-4 squad literally started out in the wrong direction. The start of the meet was a bit awkward as officials were lining up the 3-4 girls before the finish of the 7-8 walk-through. This meant that coach had only a few seconds with the girls before the start and the whole course layout had changed. Coach Wizeman said, “They started left when they should have gone right. That was my fault for not giving them clear direction. It cost us a little time, but the girls adjusted beautifully, and I was reassured when one of the parents who told me not to worry, that our athletes would not let it affect them and that they would follow their training. That was really great to hear—and they did.” That said, the team was still short-staffed without some of its top runners, notably Avery Pfistner and Claire Johnson who have finished every race this year 1st and 2nd respectively. The girls, with a ‘next runner up’ mentality were solid taking 6th, 8th and 9th. Bella Milelli led the charge followed by Julia Naulty and Julia Daus.

The boys 3-4 division however was quite another story. They took care of business with precision and raw speed. The novice boys pulled off the incredibly rare complete sweep of the podium. Kaden Pye returned from the unable to perform list from last week, right back to the top spot on the podium, followed very closely by Liam Johnson in second and Nolan Lawlor capped off the scoring placing third. “I have never seen that before in any race at this level,” said Coach Wizeman. Having that type of clustering at the top of the leaderboard in any one race makes it very difficult for other teams to come back.

The girls 5-6 were also very solid, with perhaps the most stunning performance of the day by Riley Bevevino who stepped into the limelight taking 3rd overall followed by Julia Garcia in 5th and Lake Heinz who took 6th. Coach Wizeman noted, “I had several highlights today, but that was certainly one of the best. Those 5-6 girls are really good and for Riley to jump up there with Julia and Lake, it was really special to see.”

The 5-6 boys really started to put the squeeze on the competition and this race saw the return of Dylan Collins to the top podium spot. Dylan ran well last week but was heard saying at the starting line that he was seeking redemption this week—and he did, besting last week’s winner by the slimmest of margins. He was followed by his brother Eddie, who took 3rd. Coach Wizeman noted that “we sometimes see the greatest courage when athletes are not at their best, but fight through it. That happened a few times today and that really makes me proud. Eddie was fighting pain that whole race but came up big for us.” Trace Sikorski also had a great showing, taking 5th. Another notable performance was put in by Colin Scott who ran a PR and also medaled in the race.
But the meet was most likely put away with the girls 7-8 performance. The team was missing several key contributors, including Captain Kayla Vacarro and perennial scorer, Jillian Paolino, but this girl’s unit is so deep it didn’t matter on this day, as the other girls just went about their business and really dominated the race. Caroline Naulty and Ella Lawlor continued their incredible run through their inaugural season, taking 3rd and 4th respectively, but what was perhaps a little less expected was the electric performances of Meaghan Wizeman and Emerson Mania who took 6th and 8th to pretty much seal the victory for the Spartans. “That was the race of the day for me,” said Coach Wizeman. “I realize that Meaghan is my daughter, so of course I want to see her run well, but what she and Emerson pulled off showed incredible tenacity. We are really deep in our 7-8 girls’ group.”

The last race of the day saw Caylor Mendez return back to the top 5 and also saw two other gutsy scoring performances. The coach said this of the 7-8 boys: “Caylor promised me a top 5 and he delivered. But what I saw from Chase and Justin were the types of performances that confirm to me that we are learning about team. Chase was hurting and quite frankly, he was probably questioning if he could finish—but he did. And top 10 to boot. We really needed him today because of the unique scoring system, but we also needed a third scorer and that is where Justin came up huge for the team. He was not used to being in a spot where we needed him to perform like that and he came up big. I am so thankful for the depth on this team and how they all consistently pick up for each other. It is really special.”

Saint James School is a private, Catholic, co-educational school, fully accredited by Cognia. It is a vital, important ministry of the Church of Saint James and part of the Metuchen Diocesan educational system. To learn more about Saint James School, financial aid, and to schedule a tour, visit www.sjsbr.org.

This press release was produced by Saint James School. The views expressed here are the author's own.