2021 Cross Country Season Recap
Months of training, weeks of racing, and lots of hard work paid off for the cross country team, all of whom had a highly impressive season both as a team and individually. The cross country runners “have worked extremely hard for the last 5 months” according to head coach Christopher Monaco, and “their hard work has paid off in many personal records and accomplishments” as is evident by how far into the postseason the teams went.
The season started with flying colors in Warwick, NY where the freshman women took the win and the JV/Freshmen men took 3rd place. All teams continued to have strong seasons and in the beginning of October, at the Shore Coaches Invitational, there were eight top-30 finishers from Madison with the men’s varsity team placing 6th out of 23 teams and the women’s freshmen team placing 5th out of 15 teams.
Well into the postseason at the North 2 Group 2 State Section Championship(N2 G2), the Dodger men placed 5th out of 14 teams and qualified for the G2 State Championship, while the women nearly qualified, missing out by only one place and finishing 6th of 12 teams. The varsity men went on to place 13th of 20 teams, the highest the cross country team has placed in at least 10 years. Throughout the season, the runners continued to run well and work hard, but some individual runners began to stand out.
Senior Adam Angelone continued to excel, winning his third straight N2G2 State Championship in a time of 15:25 (for a 5k)! At the G2 State Championships, he placed 4th overall qualifying for the NJ State Meet of Champions where he placed 9th, the highest a student has placed at a state meet in MHS history. But not only seniors stepped up; freshman Leo London was the fastest freshman in the field at the N2 G2 State Section Championship meet and ran a personal record (PR) of 17:41 (5k).
The women also had an exceptional season with freshman Clotilde Monville leading as an individual. From the end of September to the beginning of November, Monville improved from a time of 22:39 to her being the third freshman in the field at N2G2 State Championship meet with a PR of 21:36 and was backed by a strong team of upper and underclassmen.
But the cross country Dodgers were not just running fast; senior Vivian Summerlin spoke to how “bonded [the team became] throughout the season… mak[ing] the best memories during meets, bus rides, and even tough workouts” and how “happy [she is] to have been a part of the cross country team for [her] four years in high school” highlighting that “no other group of people has pushed [her] harder or supported [her] as much as these teammates and coaches.”
Coach Christopher Monaco also affirmed that while “Winning and running fast are a nice outcome of hard work…learning how to work hard day in and day out is the only takeaway that truly matters.” Despite the lengthy season, he “can not wait to get back to work with them so [they] can all continue to improve.”