The NJCTC Championships, held Saturday at Greystone Park, turned out to be the most successful meet of the season for the Immaculata Cross Country team. Coming off a much needed two and a half week layoff from racing, the team looked spry, fresh, and hungry out on the race course.
In the boys race, TJ Harkins and Mike Paustian became the first pair of teammates in Immaculata history to both break 17 in the same race, but more on that in a second. First, let's give it up for Sean Castellano, who had the biggest PR of the day. He ran a whopping 1 minute 33 seconds faster than he ran just 5 weeks ago at this same exact course when he set his previous PR. The way Sean has progressed throughout the season shows that he is on his way to becoming "the man" -- as does his position in the picture above.
Now back to TJ and Mike. While standing at the mile mark, the coaches were ecstatic to see Paustian pop out of the woods leading the entire race. He hit the first mile in 4:51 while Harkins followed closely in 4:55. This hard early pace was great to see as it's exactly the kind of aggression these two will have to show next week at the Group Championships. Harkins ran a strong second mile, coming thru the two-mile mark at 10:15 with Paustian close behind in 10:20. The two pretty much held steady over the final mile with TJ coming thru the finish line in 16:39 for a 19th place finish and Mike at 16:53 with a 26th place finish. TJ's time of 16:39 represent's the second fastest time in school history.
The girls race was just as delightful as Taylor Luger absolutely smashed her PR. Taylor followed the boys lead by setting a hard early pace and giving herself a chance for success which led to the best race of her life. Not only did she break 25:00 for the first time but she crushed it as she finished in 24:23, almost a minute faster than her previous PR. Carly Makowicz also flashed superb form as she crossed the line in 24:11, which is by far the best and toughest she's run since coming back from injury recently. Carly didn't stop there though, as she also competed in a road race Sunday morning in which she ran an even faster time of 22:44.
Next up for the Spartans is the Non-Public B State Championships held at Holmdel Park on Saturday November 11th. If CTCs is any indication, everyone is rounding into peak form at the right time and Saturday at Holmdel should be a very exciting day for the Immaculata Cross Country program. The girls race at 12pm with the boys following at 1pm. Abeamus!!
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