Laura Gallo (MOC)

Laura Gallo has proven that a little modesty can take you a long way or in her case get you places very quickly. The Cranford High School sophomore who began the season with a modest goal of breaking twenty minutes and placing high in the conference, sectionals and county races wound up as champion in all three races and on Saturday became the fastest runner in Cranford girls’ history by smashing her previous personal best with a 19:19 effort in the Meet of Champions (MOC) in Holmdel Park.

Gallo, who broke Mary Beth Hogan’s 1980 record of 19:23, was not even aware of that achievement until reading it in the newspaper the following day. “Mr. (Cranford Coach Ray) White always says to race people and not the clock. I was not trying to break the record, but was just trying to do my best,” said Gallo.

“She ran very intelligently,” said White, who has coached the Cranford girls since 1978.
“Laura executed our race strategy perfectly. She didn’t chase after the fastest girls but stayed with girls she thought she could beat.”

“At the starting line I tried to look for runners that I recognized and runners that had a close time to mine. Mr. White kept telling me to run a smart race. He wanted me to get out in the top twenty, so I would not get trapped behind the pack. My strategy was to run a steady paced race,” said Gallo.

Feeling strong at the two and one half mile mark, Gallo began a punishing finishing kick that enabled her to pick off several runners and finish twenty first, which lopped twenty seven seconds off her previous best of 19:46, run just a week ago when she finished third in the Group II race also at Holmdel. Saturday, Gallo was the second Group II runner, finishing only behind the overall second place finisher, Vanessa Wright of Haddonfield.

Gallo was pleased to defeat fellow sophomore Alexis Weiner of Caldwell who had defeated her the week before.
“She thought she should have beaten her the week before but Laura wasn’t worried about particular runners, just executing our strategy,” said White.

Although she came into the season as the Cougar’s top runner with a previous best of 20:42, records and championships were the furthest thing from Gallo’s mind.

“My goals kept changing throughout the season. After winning those races and breaking twenty early on, my goals were to make it to the MOC and to run in the low 19s. My time kept steadily improving each race, just as I hoped it would. After every race, even if I got my best time, I always thought I could have gone faster. This drive to go faster helped me to reach my goals for the season and to run 19:19 at the MOC,” said Gallo.

“She’s with the big girls now,” said White.
“She’s a smart kid and a hard worker so she should be able to handle the increased expectations,” said White.

Gallo will be the leader of what should be a powerful Cranford girl’s team next fall. There were no seniors on the Cougars, who just missed making the Meet of Champions, finishing fourth in Group II, one place out of qualification. Although Gallo was the only Cranford Girls’ runner competing Saturday, that didn’t stop her teammates from cheering her on.

“The girls’ team is always they’re cheering for each other. I was so excited and grateful that they would go on the school bus at 7:30am.on a cold rainy day, just to cheer the boys and I on. Even though we missed going to the MOC as a team, our team spirit will help us in making it as a team to MOC next year,” said Gallo.

Cranford Boys MOC

After a season of non stop accomplishment where they accomplished all four of their major goals, the Cranford Boys Cross Country team was due for a letdown and that is precisely how veteran coach Ray White explained the Cougar’s less than stellar performance at Saturday’s Meet of Champions (MOC) at Holmdel Park.

“We won everything we could win as a team this year,” said White, who completed his thirty sixth year as Cranford mentor and won his third state championship. The Cougars were not expected to contend against perennial champion Christian Brothers Academy of Lincroft, which won its twelfth straight title, but their eleventh place finish was a surprise.

After defeating Westfield in a dual meet and in the Watchung Conference and Union County championships, the Blue Devils finally finished ahead of the Cougars. “They’re a good team and they have been improving the past few weeks,” said White.

“If we didn’t run our best they were a threat to pick us off. Luckily we ran better when we faced them earlier.”

Junior Kevin Brown, who had won the section championship in 16:33 and finished second in the Group championship in the identical time, came in nineteen seconds slower, a victim of a flawed race strategy. Brown and Cougar sophomore Joe McKenney led the race at the halfway mark before falling back.

“They ran with their emotions and not their heads in this race,” said White.
“This course punished those who go out too fast and although Kevin is a great hill runner, he and Joe just ran out of gas. It has been a long season with a lot of races for such young people.”

McKenney finished sixty fifth in 16:56, while Westfield’s top two of Jeffrey Perrella and Rob Broadbent both finished in the top twenty-five and that was too much for the Cougar’s tighter pack to make up.

Senior Nate Thompson finished his career with a strong 17:03, followed by junior Josh Hanke in 17:10 and senior Glenn Brown in 17:34. The senior Mahoney twins, Brian and Kevin, both running with injuries fought bravely to run 17:48 and 18:16 respectively.

There will be one more race for McKenney and Brown, as they will run the Foot Locker Invitational this weekend at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. “Kevin felt good today and I think it will be a good experience for them,” said White.

Cranford Boys Group II

Saturday was the capper for the Cranford High School Boys Cross Country team. Erasing last years’ disappointing
fifth place finish, the Cougars dominated the state Group II meet as they have at almost every other competition this season, easily outscoring Spotswood 58-124 to capture veteran coach Ray White’s third state title, the others in Group IV in 1975 and Group III in 2000.

“We’ll have to switch to Group I next year , “ joked White in his 36th year as Cranford coach.
Then he got more serious. “You have to win these when you can. They’re not easy to win ,” said White.
“I have had more than my share of close calls and second places so I’ll savor this one.”

Although they had gone undefeated in dual meets, and dominated their conference, county and sectional races, the season could not have been considered successful unless the Cougars finished first. Using the same formula they have employed all year, the Cougars got dominating performances from their big two, junior Kevin Brown and sophomore Joe McKenney and followed with a tight pack of runners three through seven, who all finished before any other team could score five runners.

Thomas Walsh of Matawan, who had been run down by McKenney and Brown at the sectional race on the same course two weeks ago, turned the tables and held off the late charging Brown to win by three seconds in 16:30.38.
Brown was second in 16:33.40 and McKenney suffering cramps, held on for seventh overall in 17:04.21.

“Both Joe and Kevin were in the top group of four coming up the bowl and Joe felt a cramp and just couldn't respond ,” said assistant coach and former Cougar star Tim Styler.
“Kevin let (Ben) Massam (of Chatham) and Walsh go at the top of the bowl and had to close a sixty meter gap in the last 3/4 of a mile. Walsh is a good runner and he knew what he had to do. In running, one mental lapse can cost you the race and that's what happened to Kevin but he made a valiant effort to strike back, just ran out of room.”

Senior Nate Thompson followed in fourteenth place in 17:22.20, Junior Josh Hanke was twentieth in 17:26.82 and
senior Glenn Brown was twenty-seventh in 17:46.74. The senior Mahoney twins, Brian and Kevin were thirtieth and thirty-third in 17:53.87 and 17:56.47 respectively..

The Cougars were actually ten seconds slower than two weeks earlier, owing to a combination of windy conditions and a course muddied from torrential rains as well as injuries.
” I still think we can improve upon our 17:03 average that we had at Sectionals. Joe and Kevin are both capable of running in the 16:20 range and Josh and Nate can dip under 17 minutes ,” said Styler.
“Glenn, Brian and Kevin are running well and Glenn is improving. The Mahoney twins have been touched with the injury bug but have run well despite being in the pool the majority of the time. That is why we start early training in case of instances like that. “

“We tried to limit their races this year to keep them fresher ,” said White, who was quick to give major credit to Styler for the teams’ success this year.. “Tim has been a huge help with the team the past couple of years ,” said White.
“We couldn’t have been as successful without him.”

White realizes that winning the final race of the year, tomorrow’s Meet of Champions is unrealistic with such powerful teams as Christian Brothers Academy, Old Bridge and Toms River North. “We hope to finish from fifth to seventh
to hold onto our state ranking ,” said White.

“We aren't expecting to win the MOC and that will take the pressure off but these boys are competitive and have a lot of pride and having Westfield in the race and going against the best in the state will be a motivator ,” said Styler.

Cranford girls Group II

Veteran Cranford Boys and Girls Cross Country coach Ray White, figures his girls team is where the boys were a year ago at this time and considering the boys won White his third state title Saturday, that should serve warning on the state for next year. The Cougar girls, entirely made up of underclassmen, just missed making it to the Meet of Champions finishing fourth in the Group II championships, one place out of qualifying.

“The girls were very relaxed this year just like the boys were last year ,” said White. “This year they got their feet wet
and now they know what it takes to reach the next level.”

Continuing her remarkable season, sophomore Laura Gallo once again led the Cougars with a third place finish in 19:46,.06, a thirteen second improvement on her section winning team of two weeks ago. Like everyone else, Gallo was well behind the winner Vanessa Wright of Haddonfield who ran 19:01.50.

“We didn’t want her to try and run with Wright ,” said White. “Laura ran her race and nearly finished second. It will be great for her to run in the Meet of Champions next week.”

By virtue of her top ten finish, Gallo will compete with the top runners in the state at tomorrow’s Meet of Champions. Her time ranked twenty-seventh overall.” Laura has had a very good season so far and as long as she continues to train the way she has been and with her gutsy style the future is very bright ,” said assistant coach and former Cougar star Tim Styler.

“Tim has been a huge help working with the girls this year ,” said White.
“It is so much easier to coach when you have someone like him helping you.”

Sophomore Jen Hanke, whose brother Josh ran on the champion boys team, was second girl as she has been all year, finishing nineteenth in 21:14.17 but the Cougars’ usual third runner, Nicole Cabrera struggled through an illness and was a non-scoring 79th in 23:16.51.

“Nicole shouldn’t have been running with the way she felt but she gutted it out ,” said White.
“With her normal performance we would have had a good chance for third.”

The scoring was completed by junior Kristen Ford, sophomore Allison Stolte and freshman Erin Hannen.
“The girls are young and a fourth place finish in that company is a great performance plus they are all young and coming back next fall ,” said Styler.

2004 Union County Boys Cross Country

As the weather gets colder, the rivalry between the Westfield and Cranford boys cross country teams and their star runners Joe McKenney and Kevin Brown of Cranford and Jeffrey Perrella of Westfield continues to heat up. Cranford ranked seventh in the state, needed its best performance of the year to outlast the twelfth ranked Blue Devils and annex their record tying eighth straight Union County championship November 3 at Warinanco Park by a 34-43 margin. Westfield has also twice won eight straight titles, most recently accomplishing the feat between 1989-1996, right before Cranford started its current streak.

Perrella and McKenney each ran their fastest time on the course and continue to bring out the best in each other which can also be said about their teams. Westfield senior Rob Broadbent continued his ascent with a personal best 16:34, fifth overall and was joined in the top ten by senior Mike Gorski, ninth in 16:52 and junior Kris Kagan tenth in 16:59 but Cranford took the next three places to clinch the title. Also helping the Cougar’s cause was a third from Kevin Brown, who was five seconds behind Perrella.

The race became a replay of their two previous contests as, McKenney out kicked Perrella over the final quarter-mile to win but Perrella was satisfied with his race strategy.
The runners had moved through the one-mile and two miles together with splits of 4:58 and 9:55 respectively with Brown and Andrew Catalano of Roselle Catholic also in contention.

“Brown and McKenney took the race out at a strong pace and I got out
to my fastest start this season. Then Catalano cruised up along side
me, and that is pretty much how the race ran until about the second
mile mark when Catalano broke ,” said Perrella.

Brown was separated from the two leaders in the third mile at the bottom of a hill nicknamed “the Alamo”. After that it was a duel between the two leaders until the final stretch.

“ I think getting off to the fast start took a lot out of my kick, because at the end, my legs felt very tired,” said Perrella.

“I wouldn't say McKenney has a very strong kick, it's more or less
the fact that I don't have much of a kick. I usually am able to throw
in a pretty strong burst at the end of a race, but I wouldn't call it
a kick ,” said Perrella.

“ I guess the best way to take the sting out of McKenney's kick
is if I kick earlier. I think I can drive to the finish longer than he can, but I don't know.”

The emergence of Broadbent as a force has made the Blue Devils a bigger threat in the Group IV championship tomorrow where they will face some of the top teams in the state.
“ Rob is running great times at meets and at practice. He is really
determined this year and he really wants to do well, which shows
through in some of his great performance. Same with Mike, one of our
best pole vaulters. He is showing magnificent strength out there. And
Kagan is Kagan. He keeps getting better and is turning in performance
after performance. ,” said Perrella.

The Blue Devils fifth and sixth runners, Ameer Rogers and Jay Hoban have switch back and forth as fifth and sixth runners.”
“ Everyone is running excellent and they are all improving beyond
anyone's wildest dreams. I think over the course of this year, they
have dropped at least a minute off their times. I wouldn't be surprised
if we see some big PR's at Groups, and maybe even a top three finish ,” said Perrella.

Cranford Boys Section

When you have been coaching as long as Cranford’s Ray White and have had the success he has enjoyed, it is usually a good idea to heed his pre-race strategy Cougar star runners Joe McKenney and Kevin Brown worked White’s plan to perfection last Saturday at the Group 2 Section 2 meet at Homdel and the results were a 1-2 finish and a dominating team effort. Cranford placed all seven of its runners in the top fifteen to win with 27 points to runner-up Spotswood’s 70. To accentuate how dominant the Cougars were, Spotswood was the only team to even have three runners in the top 15.

With the Union County championships looming in just four days, White thought it best for his top two runners to not burn each other out with their usual punishing pace. The result was a controlled race where the two were content to run behind two time defending section champion Thomas Walsh of Matawan. At the two and one half mile mark the Cranford runners caught and ran away from Walsh with Brown edging McKenney 16:33 to 16:34. Walsh finished 27 seconds back in 17:01.

“We knew he had only run 16:38 and Kevin and I knew we could run a lot faster,” said McKenney.
“Kevin Brown is for real .He is a very strong runner who is taking a very difficult academic load this year, which has hurt his results at times,” said White.
Last spring Brown chopped 28 seconds off his two mile time at the state finals, improving from 9:50 to 9:22

This was Cranford’s first year in Central Jersey after having always run in North Jersey Section II where the meet would have been at familiar Warinanco Park.

“We were a little disappointed when we first found out we had been moved ,” said White.
“Obviously Warinanco is a lot closer to here than Homdel, but once we got over the disappointment, we realized that
it would help us to run an extra race on the course where the state finals were.”

The early pack of runners also included Cougar runners Nate Thompson and Josh Hanke, who would wind up fifth and seventh in 17:09 and 17:22 respectively. “We wanted to run together as a team, because it will help us in the state meet ,” said McKenney.

The other three cougars were not far behind. Brian Mahoney was 12th in 17:40, Glenn Brown 14th in 17:45 followed by his Brian’s twin brother Kevin, 15th in 17:45.

Cranford’s main competition at the state championships, November 13, is expected be southern champ Haddonfield, which beat Cranford’s average time by less than a second.

But White said before the team thinks about the group finals, there is the Union County championships on November 3 at nearby Warinanco Park. McKenney and Kevin Brown will renew their rivalry with Jeffrey Perrella of Westfield and Andrew Catalano of Roselle Catholic. The Blue Devils, fresh off winning their section title in North Jersey Group IV section II were expected to give the Cougars their toughest test.


“We’re expecting it to be a very fast race ,” said McKenney.

Cranford Girls Sections

Cranford sophomore Laura Gallo and her teammates arrived three and one half hours before their scheduled 11:30 starting time on Saturday morning at Holmdel Park.
It was so early that veteran coach Ray White thought it best that they walk through the course to test how it was affected by the damp conditions. The walk proved worthwhile as Gallo perfectly timed her move away from the field and never looked back in cruising to an easy triumph in the Central Jersey Group II Section II race.

Gallo ran 19:59 to defeat Martine McGrath of Shore Regional by 45 seconds and led the Cougar Girls to a strong third place finish behind Rumson Fair-haven and Shore Regional, two highly rated teams that were running on their home course.. The team finish qualifies the Cougars for the state finals held November 13 at the same venue.

“We accomplished what we came here for,” said White, who also coached the boys to a section championship Saturday.. “The girls all stepped up and did an excellent job. I know they can run even better in the finals.” White expects the performance to launch the Cougars into the top ten of Group II teams.

Gallo took command of her race at just after the one mile mark and by the halfway point had already opened up a large lead. Afraid to turn around, Gallo kept her concentration until she saw White on the side of the course.


and I told her nobody was close,” said White. “She ran a very nice, relaxed race.” Gallo’s victory completed a strong two week period where she also had defeated Mary Shashaty of Scotch Plains to win the Watchung conference title at Warinanco Park.

Cranford Assistant Coach Timothy Styler, a state champion runner for the Cougars , sees some special championship qualities in Gallo.
“Laura has a desire to win all the time and that is what makes her a special athlete ,” said Styler.

Sophomore Jen Hanke continued her fine season with a 21:29 (6:55 per mile), good for 13th place and junior Nicole Cabrera, who has missed much of the season was the third cougar, 25th overall in 22:16

“It was great getting Nicole back. She’s one of the leaders of the team and everybody was
happy to have her competing again ,” said White.
Junior Kristen Ford in 32nd and sophomore Allison Stolte in completed the scoring runners.. Cranford’s other two competitors, freshman Erin Hannen (36th) and junior Jennifer Stolte (60th) completed an all underclassmen lineup that bodes well for the future.

But White also believes the present can also be pretty successful.
“We would have preferred Warinanco because it was so close but now that we’re at Holmdel we hope to use our experience to help us in the state finals.”