Sports
Maine Leads Tartans Into States
Steve Maine finished second in the Group II Sectional Championships, helping the Highland boys' cross-country team reach the state championships.
After missing several days of practice last week due to an illness, questions floated about what level of conditioning cross-country runner Steve Maine would be at for Saturday’s Sectional Championships.
Maine, the team’s leading runner, competed at far less than 100 percent during last week’s Tri-County Conference Meet and finished a disappointing 11th.
However, Maine was back to his dominant self on Saturday, leading the Tartans to a second-place finish in Group II that assured them a place in next week’s state championships.
Find out what's happening in Gloucester Townshipwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Maine finished second overall, crossing the line in 16 minutes, five seconds. Barnegat’s Matthew Nelson won the race at 15:52.
“We have been thinking about this day since we started summer training,” Maine said. “It was just a fight for the end line. I was thinking the whole time, ‘I got to step up for my team. I got four seniors who have been wanting this for a long time.’ I put so much work into this, we all put so much work into it. We put our whole heart and soul into this. My nerves were just going crazy the whole entire time.”
Find out what's happening in Gloucester Townshipwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Highland’s Stephen Lafferty took eighth at 16:26, while teammate Joseph Benckert was ninth at 16:36. Corry Constantine was 13th and Eric Glass was 24th to wrap up the scoring for the Tartans.
“(Lafferty) came up big for us,” Maine said. "He has had a crazy season. The whole team stepped up.”
Maine was able to stay near the front of the pack the entire race as fatigue never seemed to creep in.
“I’m used to fighting through pain, so the sickness really didn’t bother me too much,” Maine said. "I wasn’t really prepared for the last race. Everybody kept telling me ‘I hope you're ready,’ and I told them I would be there and I would be ready.”
By finishing second, the Tartans earned a place at the state championships next Saturday at Holmdel. Maine took great pride in the achievement and noted that it should be shared by the whole school, as Highland has endured a rough fall athletically.
“I’m so hyped for my team right now,” Maine said. They put in so much work. … Everybody deserves this, the whole Highland High School deserves this.”
In other action the Timber Creek boys’ placed 13th in Group III and the Triton boys’ finished in 15th.
On the girls' side, Highland was sixth in Group II and Timber Creek was 12th in Group III (Janel Shipotofsky was eighth overall).
