Mount Looks to Sprint to Top of Essex County

The Mount St. Dominic cross country team raced to the team's best finish last year by placing second in the Essex County championship meet.

Now the Lions are looking to take it a step further.

Mount, which had never placed higher than fifth, finished behind only Livingston last fall. 

"I'm expecting a lot of good things from us," Mount coach Asim Kohli said. "I'm cautiously optimistic. Barring injury, they will perform very well."

In order to top larger schools like Livingston, Mount will need to stay healthy and be peaking for the championship season.

While placing second in the county, the Lions finished 6-0 in dual meets to capture the Super Essex Conference's Colonial Division title.

Another promising sign is the return of three-fourths of the outdoor track team's 3,200-meter relay team that placed second at the Meet of Champions last spring. While the quartet graduated Vincia Jackson, juniors Ashlynn Fields, Kathleen McCurdy and Kelsey O'Driscoll all return for the fall cross country season.

Fields finished second behind Livingston's Monica Kinsella in a time of 19:11 in last year's country cross country championship.

"She's extremely focused and dedicated," said Kohli, who pointed out that he was able to get her to come out for the fall after running in the winter and the spring. "For a lot of people it was a surprise, but to me it wasn't."

Fields was the team's top finisher at the Non-Public A cross country meet last season with a time of 20:27 to place 15th overall.

The next top returnee is senior Caitlin Naughton, who finished 52nd with a time of 22:04.

Naughton feels that the Lions don't feel "intimidated" by some of the larger schools they encounter.

"We never feel intimidated, somehow we hold our own," Naughton said.

Naughton, who is recovering from a knee injury but expects to be back to 100 percent soon, is targeting low 19 minutes this season. 

The other top senior runner is Elijah Kohli, the daughter of the head coach. "She's going to deliver for us," said the coach, who is aiming for her best time to be in the mid-19 minutes this season.

The younger Kohli believes the Lions can build upon their performance at last year's county championship.

"It was humongous," she said, "because the best that the school finished was fifth."

In addition, seniors Jordan Barry, Kelly Dunnigan, Erica Taliaferro, Courtney Bush, Alanda Alexandre and Nikki Doerr all return this season.

Another top returner is junior Kathleen McCurdy, who had a time of 22:11 to place 56th at the Non-Public A race.

But the coach pointed out that McCurdy, who was in her first season with the team last year after transferring from Immaculate Heart, was hampered by injuries in 2009.

"She had an off cross country season," Kohli said. "We're expected great things from her this season."

Complementing the experienced runners will be freshman standout Amanda Corbesciro. "She's been running with me as a youth runner for years," Kohli said of Corbesciro and the school's youth program. "We're expecting real good things."

Sept. 10    at Randolph Invitational, 6 p.m.
Sept. 12    at Livingston, 5:30 p.m.
Sept. 14    at Montclair, 5:30 p.m.
Sept. 18    at Villa Walsh, 11:15 a.m.
Sept. 21    at West Orange
Sept. 21    at Nutley
Sept. 25    at Passaic County Coaches Invitational
Sept. 28    at Millburn
Oct. 2         at Shore Coaches Invitational, 9 a.m.
Oct. 5         at Columbia, 5 p.m.
Oct. 5         at Verona
Oct.  9        at Manhattan College Invitation, noon
Oct. 12       at Super Essex Conference Championship
Oct. 16       at Ridgefield Invitational
Oct. 29      at Essex County Championship
Nov. 3,      at Prep Championship, TBA
No. 6         at New Jersey Catholic School Championship
Nov. 13     at NJSIAA state group championship, 9 a.m.
Nov. 20    at NJSIAA Meet of Champions