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.