The PV girls cross country team finished second at the league championships this past Thursday at Garret Mountain, the toughest course Pascack Valley has ran this year. The last mile of this course goes on a steady incline and is torturous to say the least for anyone who is running up the hill.

However, the hill was no match for the girls’ best runner, Ashley Evans (Jr). Evans recently broke her own record for the fastest time for any girl at Pascack Valley High School. Continuing with great running, Evans finished 1st overall in Thursday’s race.

However, Evans was not the only PV runner with a stellar performance. A familiar name in Marlo Guastella, who has been consistent in finishing in the top 3 for PV throughout the course of the entire year, ran very well at Garret. She finished 7th overall for the race with a time of 21:23. Followed by her was Nikki Criscuolo at 15th overall. Nikki battled through the race with an ankle injury, which may have hindered with her performance, but still ran great at the meet.

The defending champions, the boys team, did not run well at Garret. This is mainly because the Indians’ best runners, Jeff Roberts and Evan Jones, were injured and did not run last week because of foot injuries. In the beginning of last week, Roberts was looking like he would run. However, in practice, the foot began to swell up once again, and it was decided that he is not just out for the league meet, but the entire cross country season. Roberts has finished 1st for PV every race this year, and is one of the best runners Valley has ever see. For sure, this injury will hurt the team who has already felt Roberts’ absence.

On a more positive note, senior captain Evan Jones will be coming back to run at the next meet which is next Saturday, and is the county meet.

The boys team finished at a disappointing 4th out 6 teams. John Coyle, who has also been very consistent throughout the season, finished 19th overall, followed by John McGrath at 22nd overall, and finally, Luke Dembeaux at 25th overall. As you can see, Valley only had one runner in the top 20, and that was certainly not enough to win. The defending champions were not able to defend their championship, but are looking to improve at the county meet this upcoming Saturday.