“Sweet as can be” is how Pascack Valley Cross Country Coach John Murtaugh described his team’s North 1, Group 2 State Sectional victory on Saturday in Garret Mountain. 

Led from the front by Michael Pizzella—who finished eighth overall with a time of 17:26—Valley narrowly edged second-place Lakeland to claim top spot in the race by just two points. Jay Ramirez, Patrick Kurtz, Aaron Ng, and Chris Martino rounded out Valley’s top five runners, whose times contributed to their first-place finish. 

“Today there were just a bunch of MVPs,” Murtaugh remarked. “Mike Pizzella marching down the guys from Indian Hills and Lakeland, that just pushed us over the edge…Patrick Kurtz coming back and staying with Aaron Ng. From the rear you had Connor Oates and Marc Monti doing their job.”

With such a slim margin of victory, these contributions proved vital. 

“Cross country is not an individual sport: everybody plays a role,” an elated Pizzella stated. “I think it was our back guys that really won it because they were fighting hard.”

Boys Cross-Country wins the NJSIAA North 1 Group 2 State Sectional Championships! pic.twitter.com/ArlvibhUba

— Pascack Valley Athletics (@PVALLEY_SPORTS) October 29, 2022

Going into the race, the boys felt that they had something to prove. The common prediction amongst New Jersey publications was that Valley would be a competitive top-three finisher in the race but ultimately lose out to favorites Indian Hills.

“North Jersey wrote that we were going to lose this race,” Pizzella noted. “So it was just angering when I saw [other runners] in front of me, and I’m sure a lot of the guys felt the exact same way.”

While Boys Cross Country hadn’t won a sectional title since 1992, the taste of victory was familiar to this group of runners. Five of Valley’s seven runners at Garret Mountain won the county championship as freshmen. From that moment, the Valley Cross Country coaches—including Russ Grier and Brian Koch—were sure that this group was destined for even more. 

“[3] years ago around this time, this group handedly won Freshman Counties,” Murtaugh stated. “…the coaches and I always knew that we had something that was really special.” 

It’s clear that this group of runners is immensely talented. But what might be just as instrumental to their success is their chemistry. Their close bond, just like their running ability, has been growing stronger since their freshmen season. 

“We’re such a special group; we love each other so much,” Pizzella commented. “Since day one [when] we were all freshmen and we didn’t really know each other that much, we really came together and learned how to run as a team. We just learned to love each other and trust each other, and I think that’s what we did today.”

Boys Cross Country will compete in the Groups Meet this Saturday in Holmdel, where the team will seek to keep its season alive and advance to the Meet of Champions, either as a team or as individual runners. 

Contrary to the nature of the sport, this group will want its journey to cross the finish line as late as possible.