Mendham Junior Racing Toward Victory

Winning has now just become part of Mackenzie Barry's life.

Running for Mendham High School since she was a freshman, Barry has amassed a series of accolades, including a Meet of Champions 3200 meter title last spring (ranking her first in New Jersey), she won the Roxbury Invitational (2.9 miles) with a 16:34.4, the Bernie Magee Meet (3.25 miles) in 18:44.3 and the Shore Coaches Open Race at Holmdel (3.1 miles) in 18:55.

Barry was undefeated in her dual meet season and most recently placed 3^rd in the 40^th Manhattan Invitational at Van Cortlandt Park.  Her time of 14:25.5 (for 2.5 miles) is the 7^th fastest time ever run by a New Jersey girl.

Three days after that race, she placed 2^nd in the Northwest Jersey Athletic Conference (3.1 miles) race in 18:02.94, the first time this year she was beaten by a NJ runner.

But now, just as Mackenzie and her team are entering the championship part of their season, there is a race to the finish Mackenzie can't win herself.

Mackenzie was voted as the mid-season Athlete of the Fall for Cross country by NJ.com and she is down to the wire with the polls closing Sunday night at 8 p.m.

Whether the Mendham cross county standout wins, or the honor goes to Oak Knoll field hockey star Ryan McCarthy is up to the voters.

We here at Mendham-Chester Patch wish all the girls on the cross country team luck as they head into the second half of their season and hope to bring home County, Conference, Sectional and Group titles like the boys team did last year.