Maroon Runners Put Exclamation Point on 2011

You might say that the Bergen Meet of Champions was considered the highlight of the Ridgewood girls cross country season, but head coach Jacob Brown believes the team ran its best at the State Meet of Champions, the last meet in the high school season.

The Lady Maroons ran to the BMOC team title in the snow at the end of October while at the SMOC Ridgewood was the 10th best team with senior Caroline Davidson coming in 41st with the best time of the Lady Maroons at 19:42.

"That's interesting because we got the best result for the BMOC, but we ran well in the state meet," said Brown. "It was just everybody else ran better [at the SMOC]."

At the BMOC Davidson has the best time at 19:27, good for third place. Laura Weisberger and Hanako Shigenobu were fifth and sixth place respectively at the BMOC.

Brown also pointed to a meet at Penn State where the Maroons finished second place in the team standings against Pennsylvania schools.

As part of winning the BMOC, Ridgewood placed four runners on the All Bergen first team in seniors Hanako Shigenobu and Caroline Davidson along with sophomores Emily Fishbein and Laura Weisberger. In addition, Victoria Pan garnered an All Bergen third team selection.

Ridgewood also took the Big North Freedom division with a 4-0 record, ahead of Paramus at 3-1. "I was very, very happy with our season," said Brown.

The following were named to the all-league team.

First Team:

• Hanako Shigenobu
• Caroline Davidson
• Emily Fishbein
• Laura Weisberger

Second team:

• Lesley Jones
• Victoria Pan
• Fran Felder

Boys Cross Country

Just like the girls team, the Ridgewood boys team took home a Big North title, winning the Big North Freedom division title, undefeated at 4-0, head of Hackensack who was 3-1.

In addition to the plaudits for the team, Ridgewood head coach Mike Glynn was named the Big North Freedom Coach of the Year.

A pair of seniors led the All Big North Freedom division team in Travis Spicer and Mark French. The other Maroons to grab first team accolades were juniors Nick Salamone and Will Ades. Spicer had the best finish at the State Meet of Champions with a 48th place finish and a time of 16:37 while Salamone was next at 65th with a time of 16:47. The Ridgewood boys would come in seventh place in the team standings at the SMOC.

At the BMOC Ridgewood came in second in the team standings, only behind Don Bosco. Spicer and Salamone had the best finishes at the BMOC with an 11th and 12th place finish respectively.


Boys All Freedom Division

First team:

• Nick Salamone
• Will Ades
• Travis Spicer
• Mark French

Second team:

• Storm Dublirer
• Ben Fishbein

Honorable mention

• Davis Frering