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.