In an unusual week for cross country, neither team did as well as initially anticipated. Both teams competed in two meets this week, something rarely done by PV cross country.

The team’s first meet was a normal dual meet at Darlington County Park where it fell to Old Tappan, a very good team. The loss left their record at a not-so-impressive 2-2. Jeff Roberts did in fact run, and placed very highly, as usual, finishing 3rd overall with a time of 17:16, finishing 19 seconds slower than his time last week. Behind Roberts were the usual faces of John Coyle finishing 7th overall and The Smoke Signal’s own Evan Jones finishing 8th overall. The three runners in the top 10 for PV was not enough and Old Tappan won by a considerable margin, 41 to 18. In addition, Roberts injured his foot, causing him to miss all of this week and he will miss the meet today against Demarest.  

The girls team 3-0 win streak was broken last Monday by Old Tappan. Everyone knew that Old Tappan was good coming in, and the Indians did not seem to get any luck at Darlington, as the final score was 44-19. Ashley Evans finished 2nd overall, Marlo Guastella finished 9th overall, and Megan Thorn finished right behind her at 10th overall.

In the second meet of the week,  the team traveled to Holmdel on Saturday and did not live up its expectations. 

The boys missed Roberts in this race, a crucial component to the team. The boys finished 20th out of 25 teams. This type of performance is not typical from this young team, but Roberts’s absence was the evident downfall of the team. Coyle finished first for PV and 69th overall, followed by a PV runner who that has not been in the top three this season, John McGrath who finished 106th overall. Lastly, Jones finished third for PV and 125th overall.

The girls fared better than the boys, but not as well as is expected of the 3-1 team. The “pow pow pow” combination of Evans, Nikki Criscuolo (who did not run earlier in the week), and Guastella once again played a major role in the success of the team. The team finished 12th out of 21 teams: Evans placed 16th overall, followed by Criscuolo who finished 48th overall, and last but not least, Guastella who finished 64th overall.

The girls placed better than the boys, and Ashley Evans had a great performance for PV by finishing 16th overall, which is the highest placement out of both the teams.

With championship season right around the corner, the boy’s record is 2-2, and the girl’s record is 3-1.

Injury Update: Jeff Roberts will definitely be missed tomorrow as he will not be running tomorrow at PV’s final duel meet. However, he will be back in time for championship season, which kicks off in two weeks.

This Week: The boys and girls cross country team will be against Demarest tomorrow, a team that beat Old Tappan, at Darlington. Demarest is going to be a tough matchup for the boys team, but the girls team should fare well in the final dual meet of the season. The boys are definitely going to have their work cutout for them.