Cross-country: Highlights from the Passaic County championships

Cross-country: West Milford Girls and Wayne Valley boys end long drought at Passaic County Championships

The West Milford girls finished third a year ago at the Passaic County cross-country championships and with four of the Highlanders' top six graduating, things didn't look promising for the team to end a title drought that extended back to 2006.

Then sophomore Ciara Clinton, Passaic's best freshman distance runner last winter and spring decided to give up soccer and run cross-country. A second sophomore, Brenna Traverso traded in a field hockey stick for full year distance training. And Maddie Friedeman, one of the county's top jumpers and hurdlers added distance running to her resume.

Instant contender!

West Milford delivered on its promise Thursday at Garret Mountain, with Clinton winning the Highlanders' first individual title since Christina Valerio won her second straight in 2006, and West Milford dethroning three-time (including an unofficial 2020 title) champion Lakeland, 38-54.

Clinton broke away early in the race from a four girl pack and defeated Wayne Hills senior Kara Langbaum by about 100 meters in 2022, with fellow West Milford soph Amanda Harvey third.

Top returnee Lauren Frey and Traverso went 8-9 and Freideman was 17th as the Highlanders won comfortably.

"I had a feeling from the beginning of the year that this was a special team,'' said Andrea Jones. "Ciara brings such a great work ethic with her and when we went up to Warwick Valley (NY) which was a new couse for us and we did so well, I knew we had something.''

"Lauren has really come into her own this year and my daughter (senior No. 7)Annabeth Jones) and our sixth runner Abby Madara have helped the newcomers feel comfortable from the beginning.''

"Soccer was great and Brenna liked field hockey, but when we indoor and outdoor track together, we booth loved it and we decided to do cross-country together,'' said Clinton, whose other brother Colin runs at Siena, and whose older sister Cassidy was an all-Passaic runner in 2019. "This has been such a great season and we push each other every day. It's like a family.''

"I don't know if they realize how a good a season they're having,'' said coach Jones. "They're just having fun.''

Next up, a shot at West Milford's first sectional title ever on Oct. 28 at Garret and a chance to reach states for the first time since 2006.

TEAM SCORES: West Milford (WM) 38, Lakeland (L) 54, Clifton (CLI) 71, Wayne Hills (WH) 116, Passaic (P) 140, Passaic Valley (PV) 174, Pompton Lakes (PL) 201, Wayne Valley (WV) 204, Passaic Tech (PCT) 209, Hawthorne Christian 260, Mary Hel[p 287.

TOP INDIVIDUALS: 1. Ciara Clinton (WM), 20:23; 2. Kara Langbaum (WH), 20:44; 3. Amanda Harvey (WM), 20:46; 4. Kayla Barnhardt (L), 20:47; 5. Viktoria Green (CLI), 21:14; 6. Brianna Fahy (L), 21:16; 7. Olivia Green (CLI), 21:23; 8. Lauren Frey (WM), 21:33; 9. Brenna Traverso (WM), 21:36; 10. Grace Napoli (PCT), 21:45.

11. Alexa Goll (L), 21:47; 12. Pola Gospodarzec (PL), 22:00; 13. Alexis Smith (CLI), 22:12; 14. Catherine Wiley (L), 22:29; 15. Nour Salem (WH), 22:52; 16. Rebecca Machado (WV), 22:59; 17. Madison Freideman (WM), 23:01; 18. Gabriela Reyes (P), 23:07; 19. Rebekah Setti (L), 23:10; 20. Alayna Antonucci (PV), 23:20.

Wayne Valley rebuilds on the fly to win first title in 10 years

Just like the West Milford girls, the Wayne Valley boys faced a long drought since their last county title, in 2013. And just like the Highlanders, Wayne Valley graduated all but two runners from a third place team in 2022.

But unlike their female counterparts, the Indians knew that what they had coming back could take the final step to a long awaited county crown.

"At the end of last cross-country season, we knew we just had Matt (Califf) and Milan (Mistry) back, but we also knew had the top five or so kids from the county JV race and that they were ready to prove they belonged on varsity,'' said Wayne Valley head coach Eric Schulman. "Milan was really motivated seeing how well (All Passaic stars) Matt and Sean (Matthews) had done last year.''

Califf was second, about 80 meters behind race winner Lamarr Olive of Clifton, who won in a Garret best of 16:32, and Mistry was fourth with a huge Garret PR. Clifton put two more runners in fifth and sixth places but after that the Indians' 3-4-5 runners shone.

Junior Aidan Magno was seventh running 50 seconds faster than he ever ran at Garret before, junior Daniel Haddad was ninth, also with a 50 second Garret PR and senior Michael Tomback was 13th, running faster than he ever ran on ANY course before and 70 seconds faster his previous Garret best.

The result was an easy 35-81 win over Clifton, which won the previous two county titles and the unofficial 2020 Lou Fraulo Invitational, which served as a de facto county championship during the COVID 19 racked fall of 2020.

"I got out on the course during the race and everyone was hitting their spots,'' said Schulman, who creditted a fine second place finish at the Essex Track Coaches Invitational a week ago, in the absence of both Califf and Mistry, both on college visits. "It helps when the third, fourth and fifth guys are getting a chance to run near the front of the race. It helps build their confidence.''

Olive gains confidence and a County title

Junior Lamarr Olive has run well at a Passaic County championship before. He was seventh in last year's vvarsity race and easily won the 2021 JV title as a freshman. But after training with an eye on the first place trophy all summer and with his chance before, he was a little apprehensive about Thursday's race.

"I was definitely a lot more nervous than I'd ever been running at Garret before, because I knew I'd be up against more competition than I've seen all season,'' said Olive, who had won four straight races after losing to Josh Tejada of Teaneck and Matt Califf of Wayne Valley at the Season Opener six weeks earlier.

"I knew Matt had a great kick and I had to get away and when no one picked up the pace 800 meters in, I made a move,'' he said.

The move turned out to be definitive and Olive went on to his fifth straight win, in a Garret Mountain best of 16:32, the fastest time run by anyone at the course so far this season.

There was one last concern for Olive as he raced up the final Garret hill, a route he estimated he's run 500 times between races and practices over the last three seasons.

"My legs were soooo dead,'' he laughed. "It took a lot out of me. But I was determined to get to that finish line.''

BOYS TEAM SCORES: Wayne Valley (WV) 35, Clifton (CLI) 81, Passaic Tech (PCT) 98, Wayne Hills (WH) 102, West Milford (WM) 111, Passaic Valley (PV) 151, Passaic (P) 170, Lakeland 191, Eastern Christian (EC) 236, Pompton Lakes 308, DePaul (DEP) 314, Paterson Charter 317, Passaic Arts & Science 340.

TOP INDIVIDUALS: 1. Lamarr Olive (CLI), 16:32; 2. Matt Califf (WV), 16:48; 3. Colin Menier (WM), 17:02; 4. Milan Mistry (WV), 17:11; 5. Patrick DuBois (CLI), 17:15; 6. Alexandro Ralli (CLI), 17:35; 7. Aidan Magno (WV), 17:50; 8. Brendan Carroll (WH), 17:51; 9. Daniel Haddad (WV), 17:51; 10. John Swaney (PCT), 18:13.

11. Michael McCloskey (WM), 18:20; 12. Basell Dahhan (PV), 18:25; 13. Michael Tomback (WV), 18:27; 14. Wilson Stansfield (WH), 18:28; 15. Alex Culp (EC), 18:28; 16. Jon Novembre (WH), 18:29; 17. Kevin Bornemann (DEP), 18:38; 18. Michael Coliente (P), 18:40; 19. Nathan Harris (PCT), 18:44; 20. Joshua DaSilva (PCT), 18:45.

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This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Passaic County cross-country championships highlights