It is now a week before Thanksgiving, and the fall season for most teams in the WW-P school district are already over.
Regardless, both schools had their fair share of succes, specifically the North boys’ cross country team and the South tennis team.
When it comes to cross country, North’s Joe and Jim Rosa, as well as Jon Squeri, ensured the boys would be around for every last race this season and that the team’s reputation as one of the best in the state would be preserved. The Rosas and Squeri remained consistent on November 14, when North claimed its third straight NJSIAA Group III championship on November 14 at Holmdel Park behind Joe Rosa, who finished first with a time of 15:37, and his brother Jim, who finished a half-step behind him with the same time. Squeri finished fourth. Next up is the Meet of Champions on Saturday, November 21, at Holmdel Park.
Meanwhile, Caroline Kellner, a sophomore on South’s girls’ cross country team continued to follow in the footsteps of her older sister, Katie, by winning the Group IV title on November 14, with a time of 18:43. Her sister, now at Cornell, won the Group IV title in 18:18.4 last year.
Other notable performances came from North’s Emily Scott and South’s Sam Macaluso. Scott was the Central Jersey Group III champion and finished fourth at the group championships, while Macaluso finished second at the Central Jersey Group IV sectionals.
But South also earned more bragging rights this season: its girls’ tennis program’s continued dominance, especially among its Mercer County rivals. The team compiled a record of 15-1, claiming the Mercer County Tournament behind Lesley Norris at third singles and first and second doubles teams of Sahana Jayaraman and Larissa Lee Lum and Amanda Stanton and Mallory Wang. The team went on to claim the Group IV title, and reached the Group IV final, where it fell to Westfield, 3-2. Jayaraman and Lee Lum also won the state doubles title, after defeating Millburn in the quarterfinals, Moorestown in the semifinals, and then Haddonfield in the finals. It was the first time a South doubles team was in the finals.
Some teams had to come to terms with a season not on par with last year’s. South’s football team — which went 10-0 last year and fell to Sayreville in the Central Jersey Group IV semifinal — finished at .500 after falling to East Brunswick, 27-0, on a miserably rainy and windy night on November 13, ending its chances to advance further into the state tournament.
Meanwhile, North bounced back from a 2-8 season last fall. Finishing at 6-4, the team made the first round of the playoffs before falling to Middletown South, 43-6, on November 13. Running back Sean Reed was a stand-out for the Knights, breaking the 1,000-yard mark in October.
After claiming the Group III sectional title for two consecutive years and making it to the state semifinals last season, the Knights’ boys’ soccer team fell to Freehold Borough, 1-0, in the Group III Central semifinals this month, ending its two-year reign.
Rival South, meanwhile, improved upon its record from last year, going from 14-5-2 to 17-4-1. However, the team fell to North Brunswick for the second consecutive year, this time by a score of 3-2 on November 6 in the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group IV sectional quarterfinals.
North’s field hockey team finished with a solid 17-5 record, redeeming last season’s 6-8-2 finish. The team claimed the Colonial Division title and advanced to the state Group III semifinals behind Devin Brakel, who was the team’s top-scorer with 30 goals and 17 assists.
