Cranford cross country's depth as a pack helped them dominate on Tuesday afternoon at Warinaco Park in Roselle.
The Cougars boys and girls cross country teams defeated both Rahway High School and Arthur L. Johnson High School to up the two teams’ records to 3-0 each. Both teams had defeated Governor Livingston last week.
While the Indians had the top runners, it was the Cougars' depth as a pack that put them past both schools, even Rahway that had the top two spots for the boys and the top spot for the girls.
The Cranford runners came in just behind them and many at a time.
The boys nipped Rahway, 27 to 31 and took care of Johnson, 21-37 while the girls defeated Johnson, 23-34 and Rahway, 20-34. The lower score is the better score in cross country meets.
"We had two solid packs and the boys stayed with the race plan. They didn't go too hard," said Cranford head coach John Schiano. "The girls stayed within themselves and our depth really helped. We went out on a nice pace."
Both senior Jeff Sun and sophomore Elias Howard finished with their team's best times of 17:48. Junior Bridget Miller finished with a time of 21:01 as the top Lady Cougars runner.
Sun admitted it wasn't his best time.
"I rolled my left ankle last Friday and took Friday and Saturday off from running," he said after the meet. "I always seem to do it. I have weak ankles. I felt stale today."
Both Sun and Howard stayed together throughout the course.
"I wanted to stay with Jeff and not run off to catch the Rahway guys," said Howard.
All of the runners take the early races as stepping stones for improvement as the season goes along. They tend to peak for next month's county and state races.
While Miller had the best time on the girls' side, there were a couple of underclassmen that stood out. Sophomore Megan Byrnes held the second best time on the team and ran her personal best of 22:19, surpassing her previous best time of 23:03.
"She did it in only her second time on the course," said Schiano about Byrnes. "She's still learning the ropes."
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After Byrnes was junior Veronica Miller at 22:20 and freshman Katia Oltmann at 23:29 for third and fourth best in the race for the Lady Cougars.
"We knew that [Oltmann] would do a nice job for us and this was just her third race," said Schiano.
Sophomore Rebecca Hanke finished fifth with a time of 24:00.
In cross country the top five runners count toward the final score.
Senior John Powasnik was not far behind Sun and Howard at 17:56. A pair of juniors, Billy Haussner and Mike Cassidy, ran as another pack and finished fourth and fifth on the team with times of 19:00 and 19:03.
The Cranford cross country team will have a tough task ahead of them when they battle Union Catholic on Tuesday, Sept. 29 at Warinaco Park.
Cranford 2009 boys, girls cross country schedule
(Meets at Warinaco Park in Roselle at 4 p.m. unless noted)
Sept. 29 Union Catholic,
Oct. 3 Shore Coaches Invitational, Holmdel Park, TBA
Oct. 6 at Summit/Hillside
Oct. 13 at Elizabeth/Brearley
Oct. 20 at Conference Meet
Oct. 28 at Union County Meet, TBA
Nov. 7 at Sectional Championships
Nov. 14 at Group Championships, Holmdel Park, TBA
Nov. 21 at Meet of Championships, Holmdel Park, TBA
