Montclair girls cross country team and Montclair Kimberley senior Maggie Horn made it back-to-back championships when the dust cleared at the Super Essex Conference American Division meet on Tuesday at Branch Brook Park in Newark.
The Mounties were 10 points ahead of second-place Millburn, 52-62 (low score wins,) while Horn finished with a time of 18:55.53, more than 30 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher Columbia’s Mae Dowling (19:25.72).
Montclair senior Avery McAdams led the way for division winners with a third-place finish at 19:36.44. Mounties junior Corinne Stewart and senior Madeline Duncan finished in the top 10 with sixth place (20:39.55) and ninth place (21:39.48) finishes, respectively. Montclair Kimberley girls team came in fourth in the team standings with a score of 95, ahead of Livingston and Caldwell.
For McAdams, winning back-to-back seasons in taking the American Division championship was a satisfying feeling.
“It feels great, and we worked so hard,” said McAdam, who was also part of the 2022 team winning the SEC American title. “We are so proud of winning it. We pretty much are the same team as last year.”
On the boys’ side, Montclair, who won the American title in 2022, could not repeat as American champions as the Mounties came in fifth place. A young Montclair Kimberley boys squad grabbed ninth place in the team standings.Â
Individually, senior Sean Overton was the best Montclair finisher with fourth place (17:17.44). In contrast, senior Stephen Hatfield finished with the best mark for Montclair Kimberley on 18th at 18:00.08.
Overton pushed hard in the final stretch to overtake Columbia’s Asa Glassman even near the finish line. But Glassman had just enough to take third place, a little more than a second faster than Overton. Last season, Overton came in eighth place in the same race.
“I’m not unhappy with my place,” said Overton, whose goal is to get below 17 minutes by the end of the season. “I wish I could have been top three, but I’ll take it. He pulled ahead of me at the very end. I could not keep pace with him and wanted to save it until the end.”
For Horn, it was the first race she had run this season and ankle and knee injuries kept her away from the course.
“I couldn’t walk a couple of weeks ago,” said Horn about rehabbing, but added it pushed her to run faster. “Yes, it was frustrating. But those things inspire you to do a fast time. Even though it sucks, it made me do better.”
She added that in the SEC American race on Tuesday, she stayed with the top pack and then made her move with about a mile remaining in the race. “You are kind of seeing everything and not being heavily involved,” said Horn about the start of the race.
For Horn and Overton, the next stop will be the Essex County Championships on Oct. 20 at Brookdale Park in Bloomfield. Last season, the county championships were held back at Branch Brook as a result of construction at Brookdale.
The entire SEC cross-country championship meet results can be found here.