Stephen Polefko and Luke Falzon
On Saturday, October 4, the Oratory Prep Rams Cross Country teams headed to Holmdel Park for the 50th Shore Coaches Invitational. Many refer to this meet as one of New Jersey’s biggest and most important races! Shore Coaches has some of the best teams in the state such as Union Catholic and Christian Brothers Academy (CBA). There also were out of state teams from Pennsylvania and upstate New York. Furthermore, it is at the infamous Holmdel Park, the hardest course in New Jersey. The course has the bowl and rollercoaster, but the Rams did not back away.
The day started off at 9 A.M. for the Rams with the JV race. 24 runners for OP lined up with 13 freshmen running their first 5k. Senior Matt Maloba led the way for the Rams running 18:54. This was his overall personal record (PR) by 22 seconds. To add on, he had a Holmdel PR by 2 minutes 14 seconds. Behind him, freshman Stephen Polefko ran 19:03 placing 18th. Then, Junior Raphael Fajolle ran 20:15 for a 2 minute and 9 second course PR. Other notable performances were Levi Barbanell who ran a PR for the second race in a row and Luke Falzon who mostly ran the race with one shoe. With all of these phenomenal performances the team received 5th out of 29 schools.
At 10 A.M. The varsity team raced, consisting of the Rams’ top seven runners. Leading the pack was senior captain and Richmond commit Connor Bassolino. He got 4th place with a time of 16:35, beating his Holmdel PR by 16 seconds. Behind him was senior Captain James Nolan getting 18 place with time of 17:22. Sophomore Will Timbie led the underclassmen pack in his first ever race at Holmdel running an 18:31. Behind him was sophomore Henry Salaki. Freshman Greyson Astle got 5th on the freshman record board by barely beating out a time from 1997. Chad Vassallo wrapped up the varsity crew setting a 1 min 34 sec course pr. The Varsity crew finished with 212 points and got 6th place out of 22 teams. An impressive showing and overall they placed 36 out of 188 and 31st in the state.
After a great day at Shore Coaches the future looks bright for the Rams. The team heads into the Conference Championship at Oak Ridge on October 14. There, they will contend with top teams such as Union Catholic and Westfield. They will also see their rival in the Summit. As good as this performance was they have to carry this into the championship season. Go Rams!
