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