With six of their top seven returning, the Oratory Cross Country team is in a truly exciting position for this year’s season. With a senior strong roster, the team has high expectations for this year. Head Coach McCrystal is very optimistic about the team because of all of the returning talent. Coach Maybe and Coach Crum are both starting their second year as assistant coaches and are also excited for the upcoming season.

Four year varsity runner and captain Michael Cantaluppi has a personal record of 16:44 for a 5K. This year he has high expectations for the team. He said, “let’s beat New Prov[idence] and Delbarton”, two of the team’s biggest rivals. New Providence and Oratory have gone back in forth in the past few years over the County Conference title. If the Rams win this year, it would be the first time they would win it two years in a row in many years. Delbarton is a big nonpublic rival that is definitely a beatable team.

So far the team has competed in three meets: one official meet in Warwick, NY and two county meets at Warinanco Park in Elizabeth, NJ and Tamaques Park in Westfield, NJ. At the first meet, Junior Fernando Aviles stepped up as the number one runner finishing with a 17:43. He was followed by Junior Eric Rhines (17:51), Senior Liam Watkins (18:05), Senior Addison Drone (18:07), Senior Jake Noss (18:30), Sophomore Aidan Watkins (18:31), and Senior Corey Vita (18:37).

The team displayed two good showings at the two unofficial dual meets and have their second official meet, the Bernie Magee Classic, this Saturday at the newly designed Greystone Park. They will race many of their country and private school rivals. With great senior leadership and ambitious goals, the team is in great shape for a season of success.