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Schools

Tartans Cross Country Preps for Sectionals

The Highland boys' and girls' cross-country teams competed in the Tri-County Conference Championships Thursday.

All season long, Steve Maine has been a leading force for the Highland Regional High School boys' cross-country team. Maine helped the team to a Tri-County Conference title and then helped himself to a Camden County championship.

However, with Maine sick, the spotlight turned to fellow Tartan Steve Lafferty Thursday at the Tri-County Conference Championships. Lafferty stepped up to the the challenge and nearly led the Tartans to a title.

“I felt like I needed to get as close to the front as possible for the team to do as good as we wanted,” Lafferty said.

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Lafferty ran well, placing fourth and helping the Tartans to a second-place finish at Cumberland Regional High School.

Clearview won the team title, with 56 points. Highland was next, with 61 points, two points ahead of Kingsway, which finished third.

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After missing three days of school due to illness, Maine competed at far less than 100 percent and placed 11th. Lafferty admitted it was unusual not having Maine there to push him at the finish.

“It was different because me and Steve always try to work together,” said Lafferty. “I just tried to gather myself and do the best that I could to hang with the (leaders)."

“Lafferty has done a nice job for us all year,” said Highland boys cross-country coach Bob Wagner.

Wagner wasn’t as happy with the rest of his roster.

Despite his team winning its 20th conference title this year, Wagner was less than pleased with what he called a “poor” result.

“We haven’t run good as a team all year,” Wagner said. “We usually have three or four guys run good and the rest doesn’t run good. We can’t have that. We have to be consistent with all six or seven runners, and we haven’t done that yet. We’ve gotten away with it, but it catches up to you eventually. When we have a good consistent effort from each of the guys, we will be good. But when we don’t have that, we are not that good.”

Lafferty is confident the team will shine next week during the Sectional Championships.

“Ever since we started, we have been thinking about winning Sectionals,” Lafferty said. “We have our eyes focused on that. We can do it. I have every bit of confidence in the world in these guys.”

Delsea won the girls’ title Thursday.

On the girls' side, the Tartans were just happy to get a race in after nearly two weeks without competition.

“We need this race, because we haven’t had one in a while,” said Highland girls' cross-country coach Ed Casey. “It was good to get one in before Sectionals. We have had a decent season, so we will see what happens.”

Casey feels like his team is ready to compete for a top-five spot next weekend.

“I think so,” Casey said. "Senior Chrisi Bush has been running real well and Jessica Simber is also running well. Our goal all year has been top five in Sectionals, and I think we can still do that.”

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