The girls cross country team qualified for the State Championship and the boys qualified for groups after both teams had great outings at the state sectionals.
The girls finished 2nd in the 12 team sectional race after impressive running from Anna Damratoski, Mei Salemi, and Ayla Johnson. Damratoski finished in the top 10 with a time of 20:33.44 and was the top runner for the girls team. Overall the team was excited about their performance, but were a little disappointed as Vorhees joined last second and finished 1st place ahead of Bernards. The girls fought through adversity as some of their runners had injuries throughout the season, including Caroline Lewis, Mei Salemi, and Anna Damratoski.
The boys ran one of their best races of the season, finishing in 4th, to qualify for groups. They ran their fastest race of the season, with some running PRs. Marcus Dickson ran a 40 second PR, at 18:15.70, as well as Ben Connell, who ran a 25 second PR at 17:50.94. The team had their fastest 5 man average of the season, with great runs from Dylan Crain, Patrick Griffin, and Ben Connell, all running under 18:00.
“Qualifying for groups was very exciting, that was our goal and we did it.” Ben Connell on how the team felt after qualifying. Qualifying for groups did come with some challenges, including having a smaller team and no freshman. The team had to step up for each other in order to qualify for groups.
On Saturday, for group 2 the girls finished in 10th place in the state, while missing their number 1 runner. The boys ended up running on Tuesday, due to weather conditions, and finished in 12th also in group 2 for the state. All 5 runners ran course PRs and were 4 points off of 10th place.
