Our Lady of Sorrows cross-country runners make fine strides at meets

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — The Our Lady of Sorrows cross-country team gave tremendous efforts at two meets over the weekend.

On Friday, Oct. 18, the team competed at the Saint Elizabeth Invitational in Natirir Park in Peapack.

In a season of fluke injuries, errors and even mistaken dates, it was not surprising that the two OLS entries fell in the first 50 yards of the Boys Third and Fourth Grade race and were then flattened by three other competitors who fell on top of them. The surprise came when the fourth-grader Christopher Schmidt picked his way through a crowd of 50 to finish seventh, followed by third-grader Benjamin Bernard in 10th.

That must have rallied the troops because Isabel Sabnekar, in her most successful race of the season, took fourth, followed by Maudie Grace Lomuscio’s sixth in the Girls Fifth and Sixth Grade. Alsonso and Rafael Dunmeyer placed 11th and 15th  in the Boys Fifth and Sixth race. Emma Torres’ 12th and Halle Jules’ 15th finished the medal count in the Girls Seventh and Eighth.6 mile race.

Other OLS runners were Zoey Rooplal and Aryan Sabnekar. Nicholas Bernard represented OLS well in the Fun Run.

An even smaller OLS squad  that competed Friday took the field Sunday, Oct. 20, at the Holy Trinity Invitational at Oak Ridge Park in Clark. But when it was over, the team had racked up the two most successful meets of the year.

The opening race saw Christopher Schmidt take sixth in a field of 53 boys in the Third and Fourth Grade race. Benjamin Bernard took 10th place, the third-fastest performance among the third-graders.

Maudie Grace Lomuscio finished in fifth in the Girls Fifth and Sixth Grade race, which was not a surprise as she had finished from fifth to seventh in every race this season. Isabel Sabnekar completed her second shocking performance of the weekend, finishing sixth, a vast improvement over the 15th places in the first two meets.

Although finishing out of the scoring, Emma Torres took 12th at the Seventh and Eighth level. Aryan Sabnekar gave a strong performance in the boys race and Peter Dio ran his best race of the season in the Third and Fourth division.

In the Fun Run, OLS was represented by Anouk Lomuscio, Griffin McShane and Nicholas Bernard.