Deep Hills Boys XC Squad Racing to be the Best

The deep and experienced boys cross country team at Indian Hills High School has hopes of bringing home piles of hardware this year, while the precocious girls squad is hoping their unrefined talents will surprise opponents.

The boys squad is led by senior Nick Ward, who won the league, county and sectional titles before finishing third at the Bergen County Meet of Champions and 14^th at the group state meet a year ago. Coach Tom Zaccone, in his third year at Indian Hills and 34th year in coaching, also has high hopes for senior Pete Tuohy, who was all-league a year ago and finished eighth at sectionals and 19th at the Meet of Champions. 

Though it's his first year running cross country, Zaccone expects big things from senior John Prizzi, whose twin brother Evan ran last year and is back. Junior Scott Savage looks to improve on his second-team all-league, 22nd in the section performance from a year ago. Junior Adam Frank and sophomore Hee Jae An round out the starting seven.  Seniors Jim Klimic and Matt Brand are available to fill the lineup as needed.

"The strength of the boys squad is we're pretty deep," Zaccone said. "I have eight what I would consider varsity-caliber guys."

After winning league and county titles as a team, as well as finishing as runners-up at the state sectional meet, the Braves will have to adjust to new opponents in the Division 6, Big North Conference.

"The boys team on paper should be very good," Zaccone said. "We have new leagues this year; our chief competition should be Ramsey. They have all their kids back and should be very respectable. We could be league champs and even county champs.  We're moving up to Group 3 at sectionals, so it's a whole new ball game."

The girls team lost four seniors who led IH to a top 20 finish at the Meet of Champions and only have one senior this year, captain Kate Johnston. After finishing ninth at sectionals and 23rd at the Meet of Champions in 2008, Johnston missed all of her junior year with a knee injury. 

Junior Jamie Pepper is the top returner from last year after finishing sixth in sectionals and 24th at the group state meet. Also vying for spots in the starting lineup are junior Emily Wilkes (39th at sectionals), sophomores Jaime Mangold, Nikki Felice, Brianna Ward and Liz Sidaros and freshman Krissy Gaffney.

"The strength of our girls team is they have absolutely no pressure on them; no one is expecting anything of them, but they're good runners that could make some noise," Zaccone said.

With a senior-rich boys lineup this year, Zaccone recruited long-time friend, Brian Rodak, a very successful head coach in his own right, to come out of retirement and bring his freshman up to speed.

Additionally, Alissa Vetter continues to serve as an indispensable assistant coach, helping Zaccone, who had only coached boys prior to his stint at Hills, to become more in tune with the challenges of leading the girls squad.