Competing at the state championships is an unforgettable experience.
Doing so with all of your teammates by your side makes it even more memorable.
The Bridgewater-Raritan High School girls’ cross-country team had the opportunity to share this core memory together over the weekend, when the Panthers took advantage of their ticket to the Group 4 state championship meet as a squad after they won their first state sectional title in 19 years.
To cap it off, two of the Panthers’ seven runners earned the chance to run together one last time.
On New Jersey’s biggest stage.
One week after the Panthers were crowned queens of their section for the first time since 2006, junior Kaitlyn Chu stood on the podium as a girls’ state medalist following an eighth-place time of 19:22 at the NJSIAA Group 4 Cross-Country Championships Saturday, November 8, at Holmdel Park in Holmdel.
Not only did this trigger an automatic individual bid to next weekend’s Meet of Champions out of the stacked girls’ Group 4 meet. Factoring in a team’s seven runners from each of the six team state champions and eight next best teams (wild cards) overall across all six groups, after the post-meet merger of all remaining runners across New Jersey, junior Sofia Daniels (20:19, 29th place) clinched an individual wild card bid to give Bridgewater-Raritan’s girls’ cross-country squad two Meet of Champions qualifiers for the first time in school history.
“It takes time, but when the kids get on board with the things that you try to do, great things can happen,” reflected of the process from start to finish by Bridgewater-Raritan Class of 2011 alum and girls’ cross-country head coach Adam Pyle. “I actually had a co-worker who told me it takes six to seven years from when you start for you to start to see the payoff. And guess where we are? Year six. It’s been a long road, but I could not have done it with my assistant coaches, my co-workers, all of our parents, and all of our kids.”
“Without our kids, I don’t have anyone to coach.”
Although Bridgewater-Raritan did not advance as a team to next weekend’s NJSIAA Meet of Champions, according to Pyle, its seventh-place finish (20:57 average, 208 points) was the program’s best since tying for seventh place in 2009.
The last time the Panthers had an individual state champion in the fall was in 2012, when then-senior Marisa Ruskan took home the gold medal at the Group 4 meet with a time of 18:22 according to archived results on MileSplit NJ. Before the 1992 East-West merger into the present-day Bridgewater-Raritan High School, Monal Chokski won three straight Group 4 state championships and three straight girls’ cross-country Meet of Champions titles at Bridgewater-Raritan High School West from 1989-91.
In addition to Chu and Daniels, senior Dahlia Adams (20:51, 42nd place), junior Lana Guelich (21:21, 61st place), and junior Sophia Rizarri (22:53, 107th place) rounded out the Panthers’ scoring results in what is arguably New Jersey’s most difficult group of public high schools.
Sophomores Anabela Mastropasqua (24:09, 128th place) and Gia Agrawal (24:40, 134th place) had the remaining results for Bridgewater-Raritan, which saw its team fall season come to an end.
But the Panthers will therefore be set up for a strong fall next year given a whopping six of their seven runners are slated to return, especially given the true difference a year made for Bridgewater-Raritan and the potential it has for continued improvement under the guidance of Pyle and his staff.
This weekend’s results also sealed top-10 finishes at the state championships in back-to-back years for Bridgewater-Raritan, but on this same course one year ago, Daniels led the way with a time of 20:37 and was the 36th runner to cross the finish line in her Group 4 race. Trimming off 18 seconds at a treacherous course like Holmdel Park alone takes time and practice, and this proved to be enough for Daniels to earn the 24th of 30 wild card spots that were available on the girls’ side amongst all of New Jersey’s remaining contestants.
Chu’s mark at this same course in last season’s state championship meet was 21:11: a 59th place finish. On the way to a podium spot on Saturday afternoon, she cut a whopping one minute and 49 seconds off from her time from 12 months ago at this same location to punctuate what has been a monumental surge to the summit for the Bridgewater-Raritan junior.
“Between this year and past seasons, she’s really stepped into her own in the offseason,” praised Pyle about Chu, who also won a gold medal at the Somerset County Championships, a silver medal at the Skyland Conference Championships, and another silver medal to highlight her team’s victory at last weekend’s NJSIAA North New Jersey, Section 2, Group 4, Cross-Country Championships. “We give our girls an amazing foundation to set up to be able to continue this deep into the season. It’s not easy to run for this many weeks straight, and she’s really come into her own.”
“Eighth in Group 4 is a good way to hang our hat, and we’re really proud of her.”
Adams: the Panthers’ lone senior who completed her final cross-country race, was recognized with her fellow graduating members of the Class of 2026 prior to the start of the meet to a roaring ovation initiated via a first-class gesture by the meet’s officials.
“For her, it’s been an unusual journey,” Pyle went on to say of Adams. “Injuries happen every now and then, but for her to be able to go from not running at all to taking third place at sectionals and then coming here to race at Holmdel is no easy feat.”
After that moment, the starting gun was fired, and it was race time at Holmdel Park: one that was a familiar setting for a confident Chu and Daniels.
“It gave us a lot of confidence,” Chu explained immediately after the meet of running as a team. “I was really happy that we all got to run together and with Dahlia for the last time.”
“It’s so much better to run as a team at the starting line than as an individual.”
Back on October 4, Chu tallied a sixth-place finish (19:35) at this same course at the Shore Coaches Invitational to highlight a 12th-place team finish for the Bridgewater-Raritan girls’ cross-country team at Holmdel Park, which brings a literal meaning to the phrase “uphill battle”.
The entire first leg of the course is an elevated climb into narrow woods with no room to wiggle around fellow runners. Coupled with the pressure of a state-championship setting, in addition to natural hazards hidden by fallen leaves along the way, unpredictability of results across the board are plentiful on any given day.
On October 4, Daniels reached the finish line in 21:43, but she improved this by one minute and 34 seconds on Saturday afternoon on a day where it mattered the most. That fresh, prior knowledge of the course and intense preparation into state championship weekend proved to be the difference for both of the Panthers’ advancing runners, including a 14-second improvement for Chu in this span alone.
While Chu’s October 4 time would have been good for a top-15 finish at Saturday afternoon’s Group 4 meet, that would not have been enough for an outright berth out of Group 4 to next weekend’s Meet of Champions. This feat requires a top-10 individual finish for a runner in his or her group before wild cards are then selected via the best finishes after the aforementioned merger of all remaining runners across every one of New Jersey’s six groups: Group 1, Group 2, Group 3, Group 4, Non-Public A, and Non-Public B.
Although Chu still would have comfortably earned a wild-card berth with her October 4 time of 19:35, which was good enough for the second and third of 30 wild-card spots, knowing you are guaranteed a return ticket to Holmdel Park with multiple races still pending certainly has to be a relief while cooling down in your team’s tent.
“It gave me a lot of knowledge of what the course is like, how to treat each part of the course, and how to run it better,” Chu explained of taking her knowledge of the course from the Shore Coaches Invitational, to the Group 4 Championships, and then one more time with Daniels to next weekend’s Meet of Champions.
“I’m definitely going to work on my mental game a little bit and figure out how to pace the course – which parts to go, and which parts to conserve.”
Outright qualifiers standing on the podium with Chu out of the Group 4 meet were highlighted by gold medalist and senior Molly Domurat (18:33) of Hunterdon Central Regional High School, silver medalist and junior Katherine Keating (18:42) of Ridgewood High School, as well as bronze medalist and sophomore Addison Weiss (18:53) of Cherry Hill High School East.
Domurat won the aforementioned Skyland Conference Championships (18:14) over Chu by an impressive one minute and 14 seconds back on October 13 at the Phillipsburg Athletic Complex in Phillipsburg.
The remaining top-10 finishers were as follows: Ridgewood sophomore Natalie Knowles (19:07, fourth place), Manalapan High School senior Jessica Abbott (19:14, fifth place), Freehold Township High School junior Natalie Briggs (19:14, sixth place), Williamstown High School senior Sophia Aldridge (19:15, seventh place), Kingsway Regional High School junior Aubrey Bishop (19:24, ninth place), and junior Maeve Schoeler (19:27, 10th place).
Ridgewood High School was crowned girls’ Group 4 champion to advance to the Meet of Champions as a team with a score of 44 points, which was tallied via their top-five scoring results in Keating, Knowles, Schoeler, sophomore Penelope De Valence (19:28, 11th place), and sophomore Hunter Witham (20:18, 27th place).
With the merger now accounted for, Chu and Daniels are officially the first members of the Bridgewater-Raritan High School girls’ cross-country team to qualify for the Meet of Champions since 2022, when then-senior Lorena David qualified via a 20th place finish and a time of 20:31 at the Group 4 state championship meet.
“This was a hard-fought battle,” assessed by David, who is now an assistant coach for Bridgewater-Raritan. “We came in with high expectations and came out with quite a few victories. This season has been about overcoming doubt and continuing to believe in the cause. All of the girls proved this with their run.”
“This is a special group of fighters, and there is still more work to be done.”
Bridgewater-Raritan also was represented at Holmdel Park on the boys’ side by junior Zachary Urbanowicz, who completed the course in 17:23 for a finish of 46th place to end his productive fall season for the Panthers.
Urbanowicz advanced to the state championships as an individual out of the NJSIAA North New Jersey, Section 2, Group 4, Cross-Country Championships, where he tallied a 10th place result (16:38) in his section back on November 1 at Central Park of Morris County in Morris Plains. His appearance capped off a successful fall that also saw him finish sixth place at the Skyland Conference Championships and 10th place at the Somerset County Championships.
“I was really happy for him that he made it and was able to run this meet,” praised Bridgewater-Raritan boys’ cross-country head coach Dave Evans.
“He’s had some really good races this year, and it’s a big deal any time you get anybody to this meet.”
Manalapan High School won the boys’ Group 4 state title to move on to the Meet of Champions outright as a team, which delivered its scoring results from silver medalist and senior Clay Stevens (16:05), senior Michael Black (16:38, eighth place), senior Nicholas Borzomati (16:52, 17th place), junior Justin Volosin (17:03, 23rd place), and junior Matthew Butch (17:10, 32nd place).
In addition to Stevens and Black, the remaining outright individual qualifiers on the boys’ side were highlighted by gold medalist and Cherokee High School junior Jack Tindall (15:54) along with bronze medalist and Hackensack High School junior Michael McGinnity (16:13).
Cherry Hill East senior Milo Poerner (16:27, fourth place), Cherokee junior Benjamin Realley (16:32, fifth place), Ridge High School junior Owen James (16:34, sixth place), Watchung Hills Regional High School senior Omar Mohallim (16:38, seventh place), South Brunswick High School senior Vishnu Maharaj (16:41, ninth place), and Ridge senior Nicholas Alapatt (16:43, 10th place) were the remaining members of the boys’ Group 4 podium.
These runners will be amongst those representing their respective schools as New Jersey’s most elite at the NJSIAA Meet of Champions Saturday, November 15, at Holmdel Park in Holmdel. The girls’ race is scheduled for 11 a.m. prior to the 12 p.m. boys’ race to round off the doubleheader, which will conclude the fall cross-country season.
No matter what happens next Saturday, however, Bridgewater-Raritan and its fellow boys’ and girls’ squads throughout New Jersey will not be done for long if they continue to compete again this winter.
Just over two weeks after the cross-country Meet of Champions, the NJSIAA’s first day of practice for the indoor track and field season will be on Monday, December 1, with the earliest competition date being Monday, December 8.
“We had some great races from some of our veteran guys, along with some new guys and freshmen who had some really great seasons,” previewed Evans about what lies ahead heading into the winter. “We had some guys who were not on the team before who emerged this season.”
“We’re looking for big things this winter and to have the progress continue.”