With three freshmen, a sophomore and a junior, the Northern Burlington girls advanced to the state Group 3 meet by the slimmest of margins.
The top five teams advance from sectionals to states, and Northern placed 5th at the Central Jersey Group meet at Thompson Park in Jamesburg Saturday with 160 points, two fewer than Brick Memorial.
The state Group 3 meet will be held Saturday at Holmdel County Park. This will be Northern’s first trip to states in 31 years, since 1994, when Colleen Sunderland, Meredith Bray and Debbie Winzinger led NBC to 5th in South Jersey Group 3 to qualify for states.
Sunderland, who went on to run for Rutgers, placed 2nd at both sectionals and states, and Northern placed 14th in Group 3 as a team.
Sophomore Kamiyah Vergo placed 20th for Northern in 21:04.56, with freshmen Abigail Leonhardt [28th in 21:46.94], Adelina Floyd [31st in 21:50.76] and Kelly Coughlin [46th in 23:06.11] followed by junior Abigail Matalie [49th in 23:30.16].
Northern only had five finishers, so in the event of a tie, Brick Memorial would have won.
The key for Northern was Vergo finishing four spots ahead of Brick’s 1st runner and Coughlin finishing six spots ahead of Brick’s third runner.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 