ED GRANT'S MEET OF CHAMPS WRAP UP

There were no surprises at the New Jersey all-group championships today at Holmdel County Park as heavy 
favorites Christian Brothers (boys) and Roxbury (girls) scored comfortable wins in the team races, while Bobby 
Papazian of Gill-St. Bernard's took the boys' race in 15:39 and Brittany Sedberry of Ocean City successfully 
defended her girls' crown in 18:12, fifth fastest time in course history (three of the four ahead of her were top 
three finishers in the Nationals).

     Christian Brothers had the 10th best team performance  ever at Holmdel with a 16:27 average as it defeated 
Morris Hills, 69-96. Roxbury  improved its own third-fastest girls' mark in a 73-138 victory over Msgr. Donovan. 
It was CBA's 14th all-group title; it was the first for Roxbury.

      Morris Hills, which had been in a recent slump despite remaining undefeated on the season, snapped back  
with a team effort that ranks 15th on the all-time list. The Knights actually led CBA at both the mile and two-mile 
posts on the 5K course, but could not hold off the typical late surge by the Colts, whose first six ran between 
16;07 and 16:50. 

      Junior Chris Horel led CBA in 5th with three classmates following him, Kevin Rogers in 14th, Justin Wheat in 
26th and Greg Leach in 37th. Junior Jayson Decker ran 9th in 16:12 as all five of Morris Hills' scorers were either 
sophs or juniors. So the two schools will be doing it all over next year.

      The battle for third was a repeat of last week's Gr. IV race with Old Bridge again edging Toms River North, 
140-144. Cherokee was a close fifth at 149.

       Papazian took the lead almost from the start and put on the pressure in the hills, finishing 75 yards ahead 
of sophomore Craig Forys of Colts Neck in 15:39. (Forys, who already held the course frosh record, added the 
soph mark; in both cases the previous mark was held by Brad Hudson).
        Junior Brian Dennis of Hillsboro was another 50 yards back in 16:03 and then came the surprise of the race, 
Joe Berardi of Red Bank Cathoilic, who improved his group mark by 38 sconds to edge Horel for fourth as both 
clocked 16:07.

        Roxbury turned in its fifth bravura performance in a row as it averaged 19:20 with its top three running between 
18:34 and 19:03. Ali Caruana was back in her lead position for the Gaels, placing 4th, just ahead of Leah Brogan of 
Msgr. Donovan. Junior Jenn Ennis and Kris Stevens came across together in 14th and 15th at 19:03 and frosh 
Ashley Cromartie was 32nd in 19:41.

     Donovan was only 11 points back of Roxbury after the first four runners for each team finished, but had fifth girl 
problems and was only 19 points ahead of Morris Knolls in the battle for second. Jackson, which had beaten Knolls 
for second in the Gr. IV race, also suffered from that fifth girl syndrome and barely held off Ridgewood for fourth. 
(In a statistical oddity, Pope John was 6th in both race with the identical score of 191.).

    Jen Clausen of Jackson set the pace most of the way and was four or five seconds ahead of Sedberry coming 
out of the "Bowl" just short of the two-mile mark. But she faded after that and wound up 6th as Sedberry came on 
to win by 50 yards from fellow junior Vanessa Wright of Haddonfield, the Gr. II champion. Sophomore Danielle Tauro 
of Southern Ocean, the all-group 1600-meter champ last spring, was another 50 yards back in third in 18:33.

      The counterpart to Berardi in the girls' race was Amy Van Alstine of Midland Park, younger sister  of 2001 
ll-group champ Lindsey, who finished 7th in 18:40, a minute and a half faster than her Gr. I win a week earlier. 
She ran third through most of the race, trailing Clausen and Sedberry.

                                              BOYS
            T-CBA 69, Morris Hills 96, Old Bridge 140, Toms River North 144, Cherokee 149. 1-Robert Papazian, 
Gill-St. Bernard's 15:59. 2-Craig Forys, Colts Neck 15:53. 3-Brian Dennis, Hillsborough 16:03. 4-Joe Berardi, 
Red Bank Catholic 16:07. 5-Chris Horel, CBA 16:07. 6-Jeff Perrella, Westfield 16:07. 7-Umar Saeed, Old Bridge 
16:08. 8-Nicolai Naranjo, Montclair-Kimberley Academy 16:12. 9-Jayson Decker, Morris Hills 16:12. 10-Tom 
Yersak, Cherokee 16:13. 11-Chris Guerriero, Saddle Brook 16:14. 12-Anthony Kelhower, Lenape 16:15. 
13-James LaGreca, Demarest 16:16. 14-Kevin Rogers, CBA 16:17. 15-Ben Massam, Chatham 16:18. 
16-Andrew Catalano, Roselle Catholic 16:20. 17-Thomas Walsh, Matawan 16:22. 18-Chris Pisano, Toms 
River North 16:23. 19-Greg Kremler, Ocean Twp 16:23. 20-Joe Ennis, West Windsor-Plainsboro South 16:24. 
21-Anthtony LaMastro, Pope John 16:24. 22-Greg Bredeck, Cherokee 16:26. 23-Brandon Rodkewitz, Morris 
Hills 16:28. 24-Joe Simpson, Southern Ocean Regional 16:29. 
25-Robert Broadbent, Westfield 16:29.

                                       GIRLS
      T-Roxbury 73, Msgr. Donovan 138, Morris Knolls 157, Jackson 171, Ridgewood 173. 1-Brittany Sedberry,
 Ocean City 18:12. 2-Vanessa Wright, Haddonfield 18:22. 3-Danielle Tauro, Southern Ocean Regional 18:33. 
4-Ali Caruana, Roxbury 18:34. 5-Leah Brogan, Msgr. Donovan 18:36. 6-Jen Clausen, Jackson 18;36. 7-Any 
VanAlstine, Midland Park 18:40. 8-Amanda Marino, Jackson 18:51. 9-Lisa Burkholder, Cherokee 18:53. 
10-Lara Heigis, Pope John 18:58. 11-Ashley Higginson, Colts Neck 19:00. 12-Katie Van Horn, Triton 19:01. 
13-Molly Kempton, Msgr. Donovan 19:02. 14-Jenn Ennis, Roxbury 19:03. 15-Kristen Stevens, Roxbury 19:03. 
16-Cheyenne Ogletree, Garfield 19:06. 17-Christina Nelson, Red Bank 19:13. 18-Lauren Gregory, Morris Knolls 
19:13. 19-Lindsay Pierret, Morristown 19:14. 20-Lauren Berard, Morris Knolls 19:15. 21-Laura Gallo, Cranford 
19:19. 22-Emily Sherrard, Hopewell Valley 19:21. 23-Amanda Smith, Pingry 19:22. 24-Meredith Jones, 
Ridgewood 19:23. 25-Kathy Henry, Ridge 19:25.