Oct. 24, 2014 MCT Boys Cross Country (Scroll to bottom...

Oct. 24, 2014 MCT Boys Cross Country (Scroll to bottom for complete township results)
They're off and running at the Mercer County Boys Cross Country Championship today, with Steinert's Dan Maida in the
immediate foreground. The junior would gain a medal for Hamilton Township with a 12th-place finish despite not being 100
percent (Photo by Wes "The Media Mogul" Kirkpatrick).
Steinert’s Maida medals with 12th-place finish despite case of shin splints
By Tony Piscotta
Fish4Scores.com
Oct. 24: Sometimes it all comes down to perspective.
Considering all that was going against Steinert today, the fact that junior Dan Maida was able to finish
12th overall in the Mercer County Boys Cross Country Meet and that the Spartans finished 12th out of
19 teams — was a more than acceptable result.
Already facing a pretty strong field, the Spartans top runner was battling a leg condition coming into
the race. Steinert's hope for a higher team finish took a hit when one of their top runners went home
sick from school earlier today.
The fact that today's meet gave the Spartans, Hamilton and Nottingham the opportunity to become
more familiar with the Thompson Park course, site of the Central Jersey Group III sectional meet in
two weeks, was a bonus.
"This was a tougher course. (than Veteran's Park)," Maida said, referring to the Spartans' home
course. ."This was only the second time I raced here so I wasn't as comfortable as I would be at Vets
but I just tried to stick with the pack and keep up with them."
Meraf Degaga, Nottingham's top finisher, liked running on the course.
“It was a pretty tough course I would say," Degaga said. "It was a little bit muddy like the Holmdel race
that we went to before but overall I really like this course. It's really good with the hills. It's not too
much flatland but it's both hills and it's all over the place basically."
Maida finished in a time of 17:12 well off the pace of the top three finishers. The West Windsor-
Plainsboro South tandem of Nikhil Pulimood
and Tim Bason finished 1-2 in 15:50 and 15:55
respectively while Allentown's Conor Murphy
was third in 16:02.
"They're really fast," Maida said. "They're
always going to be at the top."
Bothered by a shin splint condition in his right
leg the past few weeks Maida gutted out the
race before seeking medical attention after
finishing.
“I'm happy with what I got today because I'm
suffering with shin splints in my right leg and it
was irritating me the whole race," he said. "I'm
kind of happy with the time I got not knowing
the course too well. Yesterday it still hurt. I
knew it wasn't going to be 100 percent so I just
had to power through for one race."
“He never told me about that,” coach Ron
Yacyk said of the shin splints. “But he didn’t
look himself out there. He actually came in and
his leg was bothering him. But he’s a tough kid.
He toughed it out. Twelfth isn’t anything to be
Hamilton's Hesbon Isaboke comes up on the one-mile mark during
ashamed of.
today's meet (Photo by Wes "The Media Mogul" Kirkpatrick).
“I’m proud of the way he finished. Like I said, he didn’t look like himself so for him to finish twelfth he
should be proud. For this course his time is pretty good. He’s been running a 16:40 and today a 17:12
is not a bad time at all.”
The next finisher among the local contingent was Maida's teammate Michael Mangione, who ran an
18:18 to finish 47th.
"I didn't get to talk to him because I had to get back. I was in a lot of pain," said Maida when asked
about Mangione. "He always does good. He always races hard. He's a good runner."
Hunter Kwok, the Spartans number three runner, missed the meet after going home from school early
with an illness. Dylan Williams was the third Spartans runner to finish — placing 89th in a time of
20:22.
In the team standings West Windsor-Plainsboro South was first (53), Notre Dame second (69) and
Robbinsville (95) third. The Spartans finished with a team score of 357.
Degaga, a senior, was the next runner from a Hamilton school to finish — placing 72nd in a time of
19.28.
"Time-wise the last time I ran here I ran like a 19:02 and today I ran a 19:28 so it wasn't my fastest
race," he said. “But it felt good when I was running. I felt like I evenly paced myself throughout the
whole race."
“Meraf did very well,” Nottingham coach Melissa “Shop ‘N Bag” Foley said. “It wasn’t his personal
best on this course but it was pretty
close to it. He’s one who next week
will work to improve that time.”
Hamilton West's Ross Talbot finished
two spots behind Degaga in a time of
19:29 while Nottingham's Anthony
Martinez was 78th in 19:52.
"It's definitely tougher," Talbot said,
agreeing with Maida. "This course is
better but it's a tough hill emotionally
right there. You're going hard at the
beginning and then you're going to go
up. It's going to kill you."
Hamilton's second, third and fourth
Steinert's boys team gets ready to take to the starting line for today's MCT
runners finished four seconds apart — meet (Photo by Wes "The Media Mogul" Kirkpatrick).
Darius Colon (88th 20:21), Andrew Rockal (91st, 20:24), and Doug Talbot (92nd, 20:25) — allowing
West to edge Nottingham for 15th place (448 to 451).
The Stars' Arthur Johnson, one of the area's top sprinters who picked up the sport this year after
playing football for three years, finished 93rd in a time of 20:28.
"As a team I think we did pretty well," said Degaga. "A lot of guys PR'd so that's pretty much good for
the whole team."
“Anthony Martinez and Arthur Johnson both had strong finishes at the end,” Foley said. “They were
second and third for us. We had a lot of seniors run that race, it was good to have them all out there
pushing and no one ran a bad race. There’s times were consistent with what they’ve been doing.”
Rich Fisher contributed to this story
HAMILTON VARSITY
HAMILTON JV
HAMILTON FRESHMEN
Ross Talbot
19:39 Dimitri Drosos 22:02
Joshua Cleary 22:49
Andrew Rockal
20:24 Chris Burns 24:26
Doug Talbot
20:25 Vincent Nguyen 25:06
Hesbon Isaboke
20:55
Chris Neal
21:01
Dan Scenzi
24:37
NOTTINGHAM VARSITY NOTTINGHAM JV
Meraf Degaga
19:28 Jacob Burlaga 23:21
Anthony Martinez 19:52
Arthur Johnson
20:28
Logan Vaughan
20:41
Eric Gapco
21:26
Nick DeFilippo
21:30
Brian Munnelly
23:08
STEINERT VARSITY
STEINERT JV
STEINERT FRESHMEN
12) Dan Maida* 17:12
Pat Schornstaedt 19:58 Jason Moench 19:59
Michael Mangione18:18 Xavier Yandoli
20:49 Dylan McGettigan 20:42
Dylan Williams 20:22
Alexander Bajzath 21:51 Scott Soleimani 24:21
Joe Cerasi
20:39
Kyle Hamm
22:01 Dominic Ross 32:45
Matt Keelan
Bailey Savoy
*medal winner
21:29
23:04
Mark Marrone
22:12
Axel Delakowski 22:41
Jonathan Crow
23:28
Dominick Cifelli
24:23
Falcon Giddens
25:37
Michael Evans
26:02
Reliance Jacobsen 26:18
Kevin Walsh
26:56
Zachary Rodriguez 28:31