Hebner and Highlands headed for huge season by Paul Schwartz of The Record
It’s only the beginning of October, but Monica Hebner and her Northern Highlands have already had quite a season. The Highlanders dominated the Season Opener, the Big North Freedom batch meet and last Saturday’s Garret Invitational.
Their five girl total of 99 minutes, 11 seconds was the 10th fastest time by a team in course history and the fastest in eight years on the classic course. Only the 1980, 1982 and 2014 Ridgewood teams have run faster at the Woodland Park course than the Highlanders among North Jersey teams.
Monica Hebner, who was a surprise second place finisher at last spring’s State Meet of Champions 3,200, has gotten even better this year, recording the fifth fastest time in Darlington history, running 17:54 at the batch meet and the 12th fastest time all-time at Garret when she ran 18:26. Her twin sister Isabel’s 18:23 at Darlington and 18:50 at Garret are among the top 30 times at both courses.
Highlands’ number 3, soph Daisy Lilejgren has also excelled with personal bests of 18:59 and 19:30, respectively, both top 100 Bergen County times at the two courses of record for North Jersey.
Near miss at Wild Safari
The Indian Hills boys team had never lost a race at the Wild Safari Invitational at Great Adventure in Jackson since the event started in 2010. On September 30, the streak ended at seven but not without a fight from the Braves.
Steve Fiumefreddo, Bobby Oehrlein and Chris Leymeister went 1-2-4 in the Boys Varsity C race, but Regis of Manhattan packed its five scorers between fifth and 18th to record a 48-75 win over the Braves. Fiumefreddo’s winning time of 16:21 was the second fastest on the day.
The sophomore Barney twins from Indian Hills went 1-2 in the Girls C race in identical times of 18:36 with Corinne getting the win over Madeline. Holy Angels’ Mackenzie Hughes was third in the race in 18:55. State power Voorhees won the race with 39 points, followed by Indian Hills with 64. Holy Angels was fourth with 73 points.
Samantha Green of Park Ridge/Emerson won the Girls D race in 19:11 and Kinnelon took sixth and eighth with Hannah Relovsky and Emma Kline and placed four other runners in the top 25 to take second in the team standings behind Mohonasen High School of upstate New York.
Other top finishers were Bergen Catholic, third in Boys B behind fourth place individual finisher Braedon Fiume, Jake Cooper of PRE second in boys D, Jesse Campoverde of Lakeland, seventh in boys D and Lily Flood and Maggie Scaglione of Ramsey seven and ninth in Girls D leading the Rams to a fourth place finish.
Hall of fame beckons
Howie Schuman has already been honored by having the Saddle Brook track named after him in 2014. But the dean of North Jersey track and cross-country coaches will get another lifetime honor from his current school when he is inducted into the Academy of Holy Angels Hall of Fame on Saturday, Nov. 4 at a dinner held at the school at 6 p.m.
Admission is $55 per person and reservations may be made by sending checks payable to the school c/o Athletic Director Patti Gorsuch, 315 Hillside Avenue, Demarest, NJ 07627.
State preview Saturday
Nearly 20 North Jersey schools will be part of the Shore Coaches Invitational Oct. 7 at the state course at Holmdel Park. Here’s the time schedule for ranked teams:
Boys G: Bergen Tech (No. 7), 10 a.m.; Boys E: NV/Demarest (No. 4) and River Dell (No. 16), 10:40 a.m.; Boys D: Bergen Catholic (No. 13), 1:50 p.m.; Boys C: Indian Hills (No. 2), Paramus (No. 9), Fair Lawn (No. 11), Northern Highlands (No. 17) and Wayne Hills (No. 20), 2:10 p.m.; Boys B: Ridgewood (No. 1), 2:30 p.m. and Boys A: North Bergen (No. 24), 2:50 p.m.
Girls F: Holy Angels (No. 3) and Bergen Tech (No. 12), 10:55 a.m.; Girls D: River Dell (No. 6), Ramsey (No. 14), Lakeland (No. 20), 11:35 a.m.; Girls C: Indian Hills (No. 2), Wayne Hills (No. 25), 3:10 p.m.; Girls B: Northern Highlands (No. 1), Fair Lawn (No. 9) and Hackensack (No. 15), 3:30 p.m. and Girls A: Ridgewood (No. 4), 3:50 p.m.
Also on Saturday at Darlington is the annual Brett Taylor Invitational, honoring the late Hackensack captain who passed away of cancer at the age of 28, in 1992.