New Jersey's All Time Greatest Female Distance Runner

 

  

  

MileSplit Article on Janet Smith

2025 Cross Country Schedule Version 9.0

 9/12  Fri  Time Trial          Home

 9/19  Fri  Team Scrimmage      Home 

 9/25  Thu  Sandburg            Away

 9/27  Sat  Gill St. Bernard's  Away

 9/30  Tue  No.Brunswick, Golda Och,

            Monroe & Salk       Away

10/4   Sat  Gill St. Bernard's  Home

10/7   Tue  Green Brook         Home

10/9   Thu  Pisc'way & Golda O. Home 

10/14  Tue  Sayreville          Away

10/16  Thu  Churchill & Golda O.Home

10/23  Thu  CrossRoads          Away

10/25  Sat  GMCs                Away

10/28  Tues Golda Och           Home

Fifty Years Later

Fifty years ago today, my running idol, Steve Prefontaine, was killed in an automobile crash near Eugene, Oregon.  He was 24 years old.  In the eulogy from one of the two film bios of Prefontaine's life, his Coach, Bill Bowerman (played by Donald Sutherland), explains Pre's philosophy on what the real purpose of running is.  Fifty years later, it still applies to what YOU do every fall!!

Final Individual Stats

 

  

  

Meet #8 - The GMCs

The season ended today with the most important meet of the year.  Twenty-one schools descended on Sayreville High School's track for the GMCs.  The Distance Squad was represented by 8 runners: 1 1600M runner, 1 400M runner, and six 800M runners.

One highlight of the day was Lexington's continued assault on her own PB in the 1600M Run.  After carving off an astounding 18 seconds at the Silver Spike, Lex took another swing today and 5 more seconds came off.  She is now down to 6:17.94.

Another highlight came in the 800M Run.  Although Shaina did not score a PB (about 2 seconds short), she caught and passed a Churchill Girl at the line (by .04 second) to get 6th place for 1 team point and a Medal.

Salk Middle School won the Girls Meet with 71 points.  W+H with Shaina's 1 point finished in a tie at 13th place.

South Plainfield won the Boys Meet with 66 points.  

Save The Date

Any Eighth Grader who wants to run for the Upper School Cross Country team this Fall should try and attend the pre-season meeting on Monday June 9.  The meeting is via Zoom, starts at 7 PM, and usually runs no more than 20 minutes.  

It will give you a quick glance of what to expect during the upcoming season.  Potential runners are strongly urged to attend but if you cannot and still want to run, contact Coach R to receive a recap.

Upper School Cross Country runners MUST be on board from Day 1.  Joining mid-season (September) deprives the runner of achieving their full potential as a runner and hinders the team's success as well.

Accumulated Stats After Seven Meets

 

    

    

   

Meet #7

May 8, 2025

At Waters Stadium, Perth Amboy

Versus Carteret and Perth Amboy Middle Schools

    

Today's group was made up of the "tired" Silver Spikers who had run just 24 hours earlier, and the B squad who was fresh and ready to race.  The Distance squad came away with five PBs, two by the Silver Spike crew and three by the rest of the team. 

Sanaya made her debut in the 400M and ran well.  And Shaina sliced a second off of her own school record.

  

 

    

   

 

Accumulated Stats After Six Meets

 

  

  

   

Top Ten Performances at the Silver Spike Invitational - Updated For 2025

    

Girls 1600M

1. Bronwyn   5:46.88   5/18/19

2. Bronwyn   6:20.51   5/3/17

3. Lexington   6:23.09   5/7/25

4. Bronwyn   6:29.00   5/4/16

5. Mimi   6:35.30   5/4/23

6. Phoebe   6:37.15   5/8/19

7. Shweta   6:37.20   5/4/23

8. Shreya   6:38.79   5/3/17

9. Tenajah   6:39.48   5/3/17

10. Lexington   6:48.19   5/2/24

Boys 1600M

1. Adam   5:40.36   5/14/21   CHAMPION

2. Matt   5:44.75   5/18/19

3. Andrew   6:02.68   5/8/19

4. Zayn   6:15.91   5/4/23

5. Rishi   6:34.29   5/7/25

6. Chiupong   6:55.09   5/8/19

7. Matt   7:04.00   5/3/17

8. Nicholas   7:10.00   5/3/17

Girls 800M

1. Charlotte   2:49.58   5/14/21

2. Shaina   2:51.35   5/7/25

3. Tenajah   2:59.00   5/4/16

4. Mimi   3:01.40   5/2/24

5. Duaa   3:01.50   5/4/23

6. Sabela   3:01.56   5/14/21

7. Sara   3:03.00   5/4/16

8. Julia   3:07.50   5/4/23

9. Anya   3:12.47   5/8/19

10. Shaina   3:12.48   5/2/24

   

Boys 800M

1. Jeremiah   2:28.97   5/7/25

2. Josh   2:38.41   5/7/25

3. Luke   2:39.72   5/14/21   CHAMPION

4. Matt   2:44.00   5/2/18

5. Angel   2:47.81   5/4/23

6. Samyak   2:49.83   5/7/25

7. Adam   2:50.03   5/8/19

8. Josh   2:52.84   5/2/24

9. Harry   2:55.31   5/14/21

10. Varun   2:56.33    5/14/21

Meet #6 - The Silver Spike Invitational

The team traveled to Gill St. Bernard's for the annual Silver Spike Invitational today.  It seems the bigger the meet, the better the performances.  There were eleven distance runner participating in our three events.  The results were 8 PBs and a new Middle School record by Jeremiah (above).  He broke Luke's four year old record.  Overall a GREAT day for the distance squad.

 

Accumulated Stats After Five Meets

 

  

   

Meet #5

 April 30, 2025

At Green Brook Middle School

Versus Green Brook M.S. and Gill St. Bernard's

  

The Eighth Graders were in D.C. so ten Distance Runners made the trip on a beautiful day for racing.  And they brought home SIX PBs!!

Most noticeable were the 24 second reduction by Bibi for her PB and a 7 second reduction by Jeremiah which brought him to within 3 seconds of the Middle School record for the Boys 800m.

Speaking of Middle School records, the best was saved for last.  Shaina made history today when she broke Charlotte's three year old record with a time of 2:43.87.  Charlotte ran a 2:46.08 on Pennington's track back on 4/14/22.

Top Ten Performances at the Silver Spike Invitational

These performances go back to 2016 which is when I joined the Middle School Track's Coaching Staff.  Any results before 2016 are unknown.

There was no meet in 2020 (Covid) nor 2022 (renovation).  The 400M has been part of both the distance and the sprinting groups over the years so there is no accurate data.

   

Girls 1600M

1. Bronwyn   5:46.88   5/18/19

2. Bronwyn   6:20.51   5/3/17

3. Bronwyn   6:29.00   5/4/16

4. Mimi   6:35.30   5/4/23

5. Phoebe   6:37.15   5/8/19

6. Shweta   6:37.20   5/4/23

7. Shreya   6:38.79   5/3/17

8. Tenajah   6:39.48   5/3/17

9. Lexington   6:48.19   5/2/24

10. Shreya   6:57.00   5/2/18

Boys 1600M

1. Adam   5:40.36   5/14/21   CHAMPION

2. Matt   5:44.75   5/18/19

3. Andrew   6:02.68   5/8/19

4. Zayn   6:15.91   5/4/23

5. Chiupong   6:55.09   5/8/19

6. Matt   7:04.00   5/3/17

7. Nicholas   7:10.00   5/3/17

Girls 800M

1. Charlotte   2:49.58   5/14/21

2. Tenajah   2:59.00   5/4/16

3. Mimi   3:01.40   5/2/24

4. Duaa   3:01.50   5/4/23

5. Sabela   3:01.56   5/14/21

6. Sara   3:03.00   5/4/16

7. Julia   3:07.50   5/4/23

8. Anya   3:12.47   5/8/19

9. Shaina   3:12.48   5/2/24

10. Jeni   3:14.13   5/3/17

   

Boys 800M

1. Luke   2:39.72   5/14/21   CHAMPION

2. Matt   2:44.00   5/2/18

3. Angel   2:47.81   5/4/23

4. Adam   2:50.03   5/8/19

5. Josh   2:52.84   5/2/24

6. Harry   2:55.31   5/14/21

7. Varun   2:56.33    5/14/21

8. Andrew   3:00.00   5/2/18

9. Rohan   3:02.94   5/8/19

10. Andrew   3:08.00   5/3/17

Accumulated Stats After Four Meets

 

  

  

   

   

Meet #4

April 24, 2025

At Memorial Stadium in New Brunswick

Versus New Brunswick M.S.

  

The Distance Squad finally got some very warm weather to run in.  The result was another six PBs.

  

   

   

   

Accumulated Stats After Three Meets

 

Meet #3

April 15, 2025

At Waters Stadium in Perth Amboy

Versus Perth Amboy M.S.

  

It was a very unusual meet today.  The wind was at hurricane speeds.  We started 12 minutes early.  The distance squad was missing seven runners.  Neither W+H nor Perth Amboy had any milers so we skipped that entire event.  And we had four girls running the 400M, three of them from the distance squad.  But sadly we only recorded three PBs.