Depth Key for Boys' Cross Country

The foundation of expectations has been set for this season’s Summit boys’ cross country squad under head coach Neal Sharma after a historic 2008 campaign.

Last October, Summit (7-2) captured its first-ever Union County crown, defeating Westfield at Warinanco Park in Elizabeth, to end Westfield’s three county title win streak and ended an even longer streak of 19 years, in which either Westfield (11 titles) or Cranford (eight) had won the county title.

The Summit win avenged a 2007 single point loss to Westfield in the county championship.

The Hilltoppers rebounded from placing second to Chatham in the North Jersey, Section 2, Group 2 race to finish third at the state Group 2 meet (Chatham placed fourth) to earn a berth in the Meet of Champions for the first time ever, where they placed 14th out of 20 teams.

“Last year was a very solid season for us,” said Sharma, who has been at the helm for the past seven years. “As they are in every season, our goal is to win the county, conference and sectional titles and then qualify for the Meet of Champions in November.”

Lack of experience could be a minor question mark for Summit, ranked 18th in The Star-Ledger 2008 Final Top 20.

“We had two seniors move before the season started—Kiko Azevedo to Portugal and Wes Butler to Richmond, Virginia,” said Sharma. “As a result we are not as experienced as we have been in the past. The good news is we have depth throughout with a number of talented, able, and willing runners to compete for those top spots. We may be replacing five of our top seven runners from last year. Junior Thomas Chin is poised for a breakout season. Thomas has been one of the top runners for the past two years and he should be very successful this fall.”

With the NJSIAA athletic realignment plans being instituted this year, Summit will participate in the newly-formed Union County Conference.

“We are in the Mountain Division,” added Sharma. “It should be very competitive with teams like Cranford and Governor Livingston, which have had traditionally strong programs.”

Summit hits the road to face Rahway today and later looks to defend their Magee Class Meet title at Warinanco Park Saturday. Last year’s victory was Summit’s first-ever major invitational championship.

Competing against over 50 schools from the state, ranging from Group 4 to Group 1 and Non-Publics as well, the Hilltoppers edged Westfield and Ridge by 13 points to capture the crown.

2009 Summit Boys’ Cross Country Team Roster

• Freshmen (17): Sam Porter, Frank Evans, Matthew Casagrande, Adrian Chimal, John Persche, Joshua Golding, Peter Spangler, Michael Peck, Jack McDonough, Alexander Hitchon, Andrew Rupkey, Adam Vecchia, Kevin Fitzpatrick, Scott Meagher, Spencer Kiser, James Reach, Michael Berardi.
• Sophomores (12): Daniel Gunther, Umar Shafiq, Andrew Mandelbaum, Doug Angle, Sean Kennedy, Shea Paytas, Cameron Simko, Madrigal Sebastian, Frank Lawrence, William Bearden, Michael Santina, Alex Salazar.
• Juniors (10): Thomas Chin, Griffin Cooper, Jesse Taylor, Steven Smolyn, John Harkins, Peter Haas, Adrian Buczel, Matt Espy, Eric Hermann, Dan Gabber.
• Seniors (10): Alex Grillo, Christos Hantzaras, Samuel Raab, Ian Paytas, Erick Arce, Dan Vargas, Akhil Balraj, David Son, Andrew DePhillips, Jorge Ramirez.