With 144 total points, the boys’ cross country team finished fifth at the Sectional Meet, earning a qualifying stop for the State Meet on Saturday. With an impressive record of 10-1 this season, the boys were also able to secure a second place spot in the Liberty division behind Northern Burlington.

Despite facing some challenges – such as losing 10 of their senior graduates from last season – new head coach Timothy Callinan is optimistic about the future of the team consisting of mostly underclassmen.

 “They are an extremely young team, so really the biggest challenge is just getting them into the rhythm of what training is and learning new strength and conditioning work that we do, and understanding the benefits of certain types of workouts and how they work,” Callinan said. “And the way to approach that is just do it little by little.”

Junior Ryan Malinowski  also reflected on the challenge of rebuilding the team after losing their previous seniors and how the current underclassmen are stepping up their role of leadership.

“This year is more like a rebuilding year for the team,” Malinowski said. “…over this year and next year we’re going to work on getting faster.”

Despite a recent loss of seniority, the team is performing to the best of their abilities and building team chemistry. They finished fifth out of 14 teams at the Burlington County Open race.

Sophomore Jacob Wickersham secured a top 10 spot at the Sectionals Meet, running a time of 17:14.89 while junior Brandon Smith followed with a 14th place spot, with a time of 17:34.60. 

Malinowski said his personal goals include improving his mental and physical abilities for track; by doing so, he emphasizes the importance of staying mentally strong throughout a race. 

“I think you’re physically in a race, but you’re mentally going to give up before you physically give up, so you need to work on your mindset,” Malinowski said.

The team will be competing in the Group II States Meet at Holmdel park on Saturday, November 4th.