MAPLEWOOD/SOUTH ORANGE — The Columbia High School boys and girls cross-country teams enjoyed good showings at the Super Essex Conference Championships on Tuesday, Oct. 13, at Cedar Grove Park in Cedar Grove. Both teams competed in the American Division races.
Senior Levi Taber-Kewene finished eighth overall out of 74 runners to lead the boys. He ran 17:18.70 on the 5,000-meter course.
Senior Abe Hoffmann took 18th place in 17:30.80, senior Julius Marshall was 22nd in 17:42.70, senior Evan Waller was 24th in 17:49.00, junior Thomas Walmsley was 27th in 17:53.40, junior Gabriel Fish was 29th in 17:58.40, and senior Jeremy Crawford was 49th in 18:51.10.
The CHS boys finished fifth in the team standings among the 11 schools.
On the girls’ side, junior Amalia Mullen took seventh place out of 71 runners in 21:218.37 to lead the Cougars. Sophomore Lucia Almedia was 11th in 21:52, freshman Clara Hoffmann was 15th in 22:17.86, senior Ameli Witherspoon was 17th in 22:24.60, sophomore Niko Reese was 23rd in 23:14.44, and sophomore Chloe Tarry was 49th in 24:37.89.
Columbia finished third overall in the team standings out of 11 schools. Millburn was first and Montclair Kimberley Academy was second.
The junior varsity boys team placed second out of 13 teams, with junior Samuel Berlin leading the charge. Berlin finished second overall out of 186 runners, leading the boys team with a time of 18:04.50. He was trailed by his teammates Ethan Nanscawen, a junior, with a third-place finishing time of 18:14.00 and junior Ethan Hart finishing fourth with a time of 18:21.60. Rounding out the top five scorers were junior Liam Teague running 18:53.90 and finishing in 11th place and sophomore Henry Scarfone placing 19th in a time of 19:09.80.
Sophomore Cecily Taber-Kewene led the CHS junior varsity girls to a first-place finish out of five teams. Taber-Kewene won the JV race in commanding fashion, leading from start to finish and running a personal best of 21:59.10. She was trailed by her teammate, junior Emily Tong finishing second in a season’s best of 22:48.20. Rounding out the top five scorers were freshman Elisa Preoteasa running a time of 23:58.50 and placing fifth, sophomore Antonia Trujillo-Gomez finishing in sixth place in a time of 24:14.20, and junior Penelope Song running 24:25.30 and placing eighth overall.
In the boys’ freshman race, Desmond Bennett took first place in 10:28.24 for CHS out of 83 runners in the 2-mile run. Edward Hartleib was fifth in 10:54.66, Ronen Gompers was 16th in 11:34.24, and Raphael Satlow was 41st in 13:20.53. Columbia was fourth in the team standings out of eight schools.
In the girls’ freshman race for CHS, Julia Wood was third in 13:52.41, Francesca Simonetti was fourth in 13:57.95, Madeline Campion was seventh in 14:38.54, and Beatrix Basner was eighth in 14:40.10.
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