Cross Country Teams End Seasons With Division Titles And Strong Showings at Sectionals

Olivia Rocks, Staff Writer

Winning division titles from both the boy’s and girl’s teams, the Cinnaminson Cross Country teams have had very successful seasons so far. The boys finished off their regular season with a 12-3 record, and the girls with 14-1, both runners and coaches have been extremely satisfied with the turnout.

The boys cross country team maintained almost the same amount of runners as last year; with the exception of a few newcomers, the group was pretty much ready to dominate the season. “We only gave away one loss to Northern Burlington, [because] we had run a whole lot of races in a row and had a big race coming up,” says coach Fourney. He explained that sometimes when there are bigger meets coming up, the team has to make a sacrifice of a loss to keep an eye on the bigger picture.

Fourney has been pleased with the team’s dedication this year regardless of the losses. The team came together by winning the division title with leading runners in junior Mike Ungvarsky, sophomores Max Adams and Justin Arnold and freshman Zack Walton.

“It was nice that they won the division title,” explains coach Fourney, “they ended up winning by just a point over Maple Shade. We needed everyone to run well that day, and they did.”

Unlike other coaches, coach Fourney allows the team to elect a captain among themselves. This year, junior captain Mike Ungvarsky decided to take matters into his own hands. He organized captain’s practices throughout the summer and prepared the team for the upcoming season. Commenting on Ungvarsky’s leadership Fourney noticed that, “He’s really stepped up as a great captain and kind of a co-coach. He got the kids together all summer long [and] he tells them what to do, he kinda leads by example.”

Ungvarsky is a very able leader, as he has been the number one runner for the team in almost every race.

As captain, Ungvarsky has seen much improvement out of his teammates since last year.

“From year to year you always look to see and make sure everyone is working hard. This year, everyone has been working really hard towards our goal of making it to states [and] winning the division (which we did),” Ungvarsky finished.

Ungvarsky feels that the key to accomplishing these goals is dedication throughout the program, “you want to make sure everyone is dedicated and that’s what our team is full of,” he shared.

Since the team is small it is important that hard work is put in, both coach Fourney and captain Ungvarsky agree on the improvement and hard work seen in sophomore Justin Arnold.

“He really has stepped up. He was a decent runner last year as a freshman, this year he has turned into a county caliber type runner, and next year hopefully he continues to improve,” explains coach Fourney.

Ungvarsky comments on Arnold’s progress by adding, “He’s definitely improved a lot since last year, he [really put] the work in all summer and has been really dedicated towards it.”

Overall, the boy’s season has been very successful.  The team finished just one place out of advancing to states as a team when they finished sixth at sectionals.  However, Ungvarsky finished second overall and Arnold finished ninth.  Max Adams may have run his best race of the year according to former boy’s coach Tim Callinan, but Max finished just .4 seconds out of moving onto the state championships for next week when he finished 11th.  Only the top 10 finishers move onto states.

Similarly the girls are striving towards the same goal, and have had just as successful of a season as the boys.

The girls cross country team has expanded from 14 to 24 runners since last year, which has greatly affected the group as a whole.  

“We have great depth this year,” Coach Jo Guscott explains, “we actually had competition on the team which was really really nice; that’s what every team wants.”

The team’s only loss was to Burlington County powerhouse Moorestown.

“It still kills me that we couldn’t beat Moorestown, it was our first meet [and some of] the girls weren’t ready. So many untested and so many unsure,” says coach Guscott.

Moorestown was the team’s biggest competition this year since they were the only team they couldn’t defeat, but they redeemed their one and only loss by conquering the rest of the season and ultimately winning the division. Besides winning the division, Guscott sheds light on the teams other accomplishments by explaining her satisfaction with “getting the Holy Cross Challenge Cup back,” as well as, “beating Northern and Rancocas Valley because they are so much bigger than we are and it was just satisfying.”

The team’s two chosen captains this year are seniors Katie O’Connor and Olivia Rocks. Both runners have been important assets to the team all season.

“I’m glad I picked both of my captains. I think both of them bring something different to the table, Olivia has brought her running and expertise and Katie brings her organizational skills, I think they complement one another very well,” describes coach Guscott.

The loss of seniors will affect the team but with the immense growth of runners each year they will be replaced.

The girl’s team has been led all season by sophomores Haley Adams, Madison Edwards and Devon Kaiser.

“Madison has improved a lot, and has really stepped up on the team. Her times have been drifting closer towards Haley’s which is good for both of the girls.”

The consistent top three was followed by the rest of the top seven which flip-flopped throughout the whole season due to the competition on the team. Amongst the herd of newcomers this season, Guscott reveals her gratitude towards the youngest members of the team.

“I’m proud of my two freshmen (Ashely Rafferty and Amelia Devone) they have really come along [and] they’ve learned a lot this season.”

Katie O’Connor one of the captains has been able to notice improvement and spot differences on the team by returning since last year.

“We’re definitely a lot younger this year, there’s a lot of new people who came out because they heard how fun it was and how it really got you in shape.”

By having such a flood of new runners this year along with the bunch of returning girls the team has been filled with girls passionate and knowledgeable about the sport.

“This year we’ve all run before, we knew what the races were like, we knew what to do, we knew what to practice so we knew what to expect when the season came,” O’Connor explains.

The captain agrees with coach Guscott when it comes to the disappointment in the loss of one race, but the pride in claiming the division title and their outstanding record makes up for it. O’Connor described how the close knitted team has reached almost every goal they set their minds too this season.

“As a team, we are all really good at motivating each other, we all motivated each other by taking it one step at a time. We knew first we had to get divisions, then we have to get sectionals, then we have to make it to states. We all have had these goals in mind and we work together in the season to accomplish them together,” O’Connor said. 

The girls cross country team has had an incredibly successful season so far, their only goal left is to qualify for the state championship meet. And on this past Saturday in Franklinville, NJ at Delsea High School, the girls did just that.  They finished all alone in third place, easily ahead of the fourth and fifth-place teams.  Haley Adams finished in ninth, Madison Edwards in 16th and Devon Kaiser finished in 25th place.

Both the boy’s qualifiers and the girl’s teams will move onto the famous Holmdel course this weekend for the Group 2 state championships.  For competitors to move onto the Meet of Champions the following weekend, they will have to place in the top 10 or receive a wild card from among all groups.  For a team to qualify, they must place in the top three at the state meet, or be a fourth or fifth-place team and whose top five runners have the two best total times of all 4th and 5th place teams from all the Group races.