Nottingham’s Jon Torres, shown running to a fourth-place finish at this year’s Mercer County meet, is coming off a second-place showing in the CJ III meet as he eyes a berth in the Meet of Champions (Photo by John Blaine).
By Rich Fisher
Fish4scores.com
Nov. 10: While plenty of township eyes will be focused on home playoff football games for Nottingham and Steinert on Saturday, it is worth noting that cross country runners from the same two schools will also be trying to make their mark on the state of New Jersey.
Nottingham’s Jon Torres and Steinert’s Sam Woolf will both be competing in the NJSIAA Group III Championships at Holmdel Park tomorrow, after enjoying Top 5 finishes at the Central Jersey Group III meet this past Saturday.
Torres was outstanding at Thompson Park in Jamesburg, as he ran a 15:53 to finish second to Brick Township’s Damien Dilcher. Torres and Dilcher (15:32) were the only two runners in the race to finish under 16 minutes.
The senior’s time was a whopping 31 seconds faster than the 16:03 he ran in the Mercer County Championships at Thompson Park, in which he took fourth place.
Woolf continued her standout senior season by taking fifth place at Thompson Park in Jamesburg, running a time of 19:57.50. Woolf was one of just five girls to break 20 minutes in the race.
Sam’s 46-second drop in time was even bigger than Torres’ at Thompson, as Woolf ran a 10th-place clocking 20:43 in the Mercer County meet.
The Group III girls race begins at 10:30 a.m., followed by the boys’ race at 11:30. The top 10 finishers in each race advance to the Meet of Champions, along with wildcard finishers.