Millburn Boys Cross Country Has a New Look

The only certainty about this year's boys cross country squad is that they will be very different from the 2009 version.

The losses of Tyler Udland and Brian Robinson to graduation are the obvious ones. Willy Friedlander also graduated, and John Murphy will miss his senior season while recovering from surgery. That means that four of Millburn's top five runners from last season are no longer on the team, leaving six spots to fill and a lot of uncertainty heading into the fall.

"We're a different team. We're not built like we used to be in the past," said head coach Jeff Kaye. "In the past, we've always had a number of frontrunners. Conference and county, they always ended up being easy wins for us. This year I think we have a chance to win still, but it won't be easy and we can't rely on frontrunners."

Last season, the Millers had a record breaking performance at the Essex County Championships at Brookdale Park, having five runners finish in the top nine and easily winning their third straight county championship.

Had it not been for a flu-like illness ravaging the team during championship stretch late last fall, the Miller boys would have contended for section, group and state titles. But things did not go as planned.

"I think we could've been top three in the state had we not gotten all sick at the same time," said Blake Udland. "But we can't come back and say let's do the season all over again."

While nothing is out of the question, it would be foolish for anyone to think that this year's squad will have the same results as last year's group, which was seventh in the state even while battling sickness. Only Blake Udland returns as a bonafide top of the rotation runner with 10 other guys, who are relatively unproven, battling for the remaining six spots.

"I'm doing the same things. I'm not changing my routine, I'm not changing what I'm doing in training or anything," Blake said of being the number one runner for the first time. "The only thing I'm doing is training a little bit more by myself. Other than that, it's the same thing except you have to lead the team through the race instead of following behind Tyler and Brian."

Add in the fact that Seton Hall Prep, Livingston and Columbia high schools are both expected to have very good teams this fall, it will take some solid finishes from the middle and bottom of the order to make Millburn contenders for any sort of championship this season.

Last year they were able to rely on top five finishes from both Udlands and Robinson to help supply the bulk of the points. This season, for the first time in a while, Millburn will not be so top heavy, so every runner will have to perform well.

Kaye said that there were some freshmen that he thought had potential to break into the top three or four and seniors Dan Baer, Eric O'Brian, Tom Morreale and Billy Cohen also will challenge for spots on the starting roster.

"It will be interesting to see how it shakes out and who comes out where," Morreale said.

While the expectations have been curved slightly this season, both the players and coach Kaye expect to be a top tier program this season, just maybe a notch below last season's group.

"Everyone tries to obviously push themselves more because there's not as many of those good runners at the front," Cohen said. "As a team, we are still going for the same goals."

"I think we still have a very strong program, which would put us definitely in the higher levels," Morreale said. "We may not have the first, second and high ranking finishes as we did in previous years. But I think the program is still strong."

Kaye has not written his team off for conference and county championships but said the biggest difference this season is that they are not going to be the favorites. In the past it was a disappointment if they did not win both. He said that the conference, county and section will be tough for them this season but he is hoping for at least a top two or three finish in each meet.

"The county knows how good we were last year," Kaye said. "So they may smell some blood in the water so to speak. I know there are teams out there that just think they're going to wreck us. If some pieces fall into place like I hope, I think we can make a run at some county and conference titles."