Matt Hogan was beginning to wonder if the McNair Academic boys’ cross country team would ever get the chance to get over the hump and win an NJSIAA state sectional championship.
Sure, Hogan’s girls had experienced their fair share of successes in the past and brought home a handful of state championship trophies over the years.
But the boys? The Cougars were the perennial bridesmaids – if such a thing could actually be written about a boys’ team.
“Hey, we were the bridesmaids,” Hogan laughed. “It’s the truth. We were never the brides.”
In the NJSIAA North Jersey Section 2, Group I sectional championships, held each year at Warinanco Park in Elizabeth, the results were staggering.
In 2008, the Cougars finished second to Verona, but were a distant runner-up. In 2009, McNair had to settle for second best, again to Verona, but this time, they fell short by only two points. A year ago, the Cougars fell short once again, this time by just three points to Lyndhurst.
“We were favored to win last year and it just didn’t happen,” Hogan said.
But when the Cougars stepped off the team bus last Saturday at Warinanco, they had the look of determination in their faces. An opposing coach noticed right away.
“That’s a hungry group right there,” he said, as he watched the Cougars make their way to their staging station. “They have the look of a champion.”
It didn’t hurt that the Cougars’ top runner, senior Kevin Ratigan, was coming off an impressive win at the Hudson County Track Coaches Association championships the week prior in the snow at Bayonne County Park.
“It was a good win,” Ratigan said. “I just wanted to keep winning.”
However, the Cougars didn’t exactly have a solid group outing at the HCTCA meet. While Ratigan impressed by winning, Hogan was not pleased with the performances of his other runners.
“Memorial put a good licking on us last week,” Hogan said. “We needed to have a little bit of a bounce back.”
So Hogan had a little bit of a heart-to-heart talk with his team prior to the state sectionals last Saturday.
“I told them to worry about their place, not the times,” Hogan said. “We needed to have a solid performance across the board. We needed the back end [of the team] to tighten up. We needed everyone to do well.”
“We just worked harder and ran together,” Ratigan said. “We knew that if we all worked together, we could win this for the first time.”
Sure enough, that’s exactly what happened. Ratigan continued his winning ways, adding a state sectional gold medal to his county title, crossing the line ahead of everyone in 16:55.95.
“I just went right out from the beginning,” Ratigan said. “I wanted to get out and set the pace for everyone else. If I went out a little slower, maybe someone might be able to pass me. So I just did what I had to do.”
Teammate Omar Lopez, a junior, was second overall, just two seconds behind Ratigan in 16:57.48.
Having your top two runners finish 1-2 is usually a good head start in a state sectional championship.
“Kevin ran just like he has all season and Omar displayed a fine kick today,” Hogan said.
Senior Kevin Conlin, who never ran cross country or track before this season, finished 11th overall in 18:23.34.
Conlin was a soccer player who is also a member of the McNair Academic swim team. He joined the cross country team this year, just wanting to chip in and aid in the team’s cause.
“He had hip surgery over the summer and wanted to avoid contact,” Hogan said. “So he came out for the team and saved our bacon. I call him ‘The Baconator,’ because he’s as tough as nails. He did the job for us all year.”
Indriss Zahidi is a freshman who became a key member of the team. He finished 13th overall in 18:33.36.
“He ran phenomenal,” Hogan said of Zahidi.
Sophomore Melvin Delvillar was 16th overall in 18:43.43, with sophomore Ruben Ordonez placing 19th in 18:50.46 and junior Nathaniel Okyere-Bour placing 20th in 18:54.70.
It meant that all seven of the Cougar runners placed among the top 20. It was the team effort that Hogan had been craving.
“Everyone did well, right across the board,” Hogan said. “I’m so proud of them.”
And Hogan and McNair had the state sectional title. It might have been a few years in the making and it might have taken a decade or two, but McNair Academic is the NJSIAA North Jersey Section 2, Group I state champs in cross country. It’s time for a new banner to hang in the school gymnasium.
“We had those three with the girls, but that was a few years ago,” Hogan said. “The boys had been waiting and waiting. It really had become this huge monkey around our necks. I knew that if we lost this one, it might have been unbearable. Now, the big monkey has been lifted off our backs.”
Hogan enjoyed the championship so much that he took the state championship trophy and fastened the seat belt of his car to the trophy for safe keeping back to Jersey City. It wasn’t going anywhere. It was a long time coming.
The Cougars will now head collectively to the NJSIAA Group I championships this weekend at Holmdel Park in Holmdel. There are no huge glories of grandeur about winning there. It’s all about competing and making a representative show for themselves.
But the Cougars will head to Holmdel as state sectional champions, something that has never happened before. Somehow, there’s a little more sense of pride going to Holmdel already as a champion.
Jim Hague can be reached at OGSMAR@aol.com.
You can also read Jim’s blog at www.jimhaguesports.blogspot.com.