Standing on the starting line, hearts pounding, and nerves running high, as the Point Boro Boys XC team waits for the gun. Everyone is focused, eyes fixed ahead, just waiting for the race to begin. Your months of hard work, early morning practices, and tough workouts have led to this moment… and BANG, you’re off!
The team is coming off of a great year after becoming B- South Champions and pulling ahead of rivals Lacey and Manchester. For the first time in school history, the Boys XC team placed first out of 15 teams at the NJSIAA Central Sectional championship, led by former team captains Huck Oaks and his bother Cleat Oaks. At the end of last season, the team lost three of its top seven runners in seniors Huck Oaks, Nick Pistolakis, and Ryan Brennan.
This year, the team looks to repeat the championship with the likes of Cleat Oaks (senior), Caden Gueci (junior), Brady Ballou (senior), Ryan Sabia (senior), Mikey Defrancesco (junior), Luke Peterson (senior), Michael Alfonso (junior), John Brennan (senior), Will Glenn (sophomore), Zane Merritt (sophomore), and Branden Mullen (senior) all returning, and Ryan Bador (freshman), Owen Brouder (senior), and Jaymes Ippolito (senior) all joining. The team is ready to compete and win.
Earlier this season, the XC Boys competed in the Thompson 2-mile and a dual meet vs. CBA and Southern. Both went very well, beating Southern and putting up good times in the two mile, with impressive times by seniors Cleat Oakes (10:25.70), Brady Ballou ( 10:52.80), Ryan Sabia ( 11:14.90), Luke Peterson ( 11:39.00), John Brennan ( 12:02.60), Owen Brouder (12:49.60), and Braden Mullen (13:20.20). The juniors also performed strong, with the following times: Caden Gueci ( 10:24.90), Michael DeFrancesco (11:04.10), and Michael Alfonso ( 12:30.10). Finally the underclassman, Zane Merritt (12:30.30), William Glenn (12:40.00), and freshman Ryan Bader (11:54.50), all clocked solid times… and this is just the beginning.
The team’s next race was in Rhode Island, so everyone packed up and took the four hour trip to Goddard Park. In the Varsity Division 2 Race, PPBS Boys XC were the overall champions, winning with 133 points and beating 2nd place finisher Walpole, Massachusetts by 55 points, with a total of 54 teams in the race.
The team was led by 3rd place finisher Cleatus Oakes (16:34.30), Caden Gueci was 6th (16:44.50), Brady Ballou was 26th (17:29.40), Ryan Sabia was 50th (17:54.50), Michael DeFrancesco was 51st (17:55.10), Luke Peterson placed 162nd (19:52.4), and Braden Mullen placed 255 (22:07.0) rounding out the top seven. In the Junior Division, the team placed 3rd overall with 95 points out of 40 teams. The team was led by John Brennan who placed 13th (19:25.00), Ryan Bader was 15th (19:29.10), Zane Merritt was 21st (19:41.5), Mike Alfonso was 22nd (19:43.2), William Glenn placed 33rd (20:26.6) and Jaymes Ippolito placed 97th (22:30.2).
The boys completed their B-South race on October 8th, 2024, and they ended up winning the B-South Championships, led by Cleat Oakes placing first in the division. They sent across five of the top eight finishers, as the Panthers ran away with back-to-back B-South titles. Boro has won 12 of the last 14 B-South titles. The times for the B South champions were: Cleatus Oakes (15:54.60) – 1st place, Caden Gueci (16:18.64) – 3rd place, Brady Ballou (16:44.86) – 5th place, Ryan Sabia (16:46.62) – 6th place, Michael DeFrancesco (17:06.41) – 8th place, Luke Peterson (18:12.94) – 15th place, John Brennan (18:39.43) – 21st place, Michael Alfonso (18:42.91), along with Zane Merritt (19:19.11), Braden Mullen (20:02.88), and Jaymes Ippolito (21:20.23).
So far, the season has been a huge success, but the PPBHS Boys XC team isn’t finished yet. The team has already come this far and they aren’t going to slow down now; it is all gas, no breaks for this team as they hope to win the Ocean County XC Championship at Ocean Country Park.
Their end goal is to repeat a win at the State Central Sectional Championship and that doesn’t look out of the picture for this strong team.
