After dominating the Greystone Invitational — a meet that the Rams decisively won in Morris County — OPXC had all the momentum rolling into the Union County Conference Championship on Tuesday, October 10th. Facing off against Scotch Plains-Fanwood, Governor Livingston, Dayton, Cranford and New Providence, their competition was present but it had been made clear all-season that the Rams would be the heavy favorites. In fact, the current seniors in the Class of 2024 made a promise to the coaching staff that a conference title would be coming home once again. This promise was made good on, as exemplified by OPXC putting all 5 scorers across the line before any other division opponent put 2. For context, points in cross country are based off of placement, with each individual placement of the top 5 runners being added up, and the lowest team sum being the winner. Thus, the lowest and best possible score for an xc race would be 15. With that in mind, it is remarkable that the Rams put up a mere 20 points en-route to an unbelievable 56 point blow out of 2nd place Scotch Plains.
The collective achievement would not have been made possible without the individual performances displayed by the varsity team. Essentially leading from start to finish, Senior Captain Tommy Hunt set a strategic pace that would best allow Oratory runners to sit and kick for top places rather then fast, physically enduring times. Hunt’s strategy went exactly according to plan, unleashing a lethal kick over the last 400 meters to be the first individual conference champion for OP since the legendary Maximus Russo in 2019. Although Hunt was the only sub-17 minute performance of the day, he was closely followed by Junior Declan Kelly who placed 2nd in 17:01, and Sophomore Connor Bassolino who placed 4th in 17:07. The Rams scorers were rounded out by Freshman Aidan Murphy and Sophomore James Nolan, placing 6th and 7th respectively. Just 5 seconds after Nolan came Junior Tim Callahan, who admirably battled for the team. The Varsity 7 was rounded out by Senior Bobby Bajkowski, who looks to improve upon his performance this Thursday at the Union County Conference Championship. Also worthy of mention is that this happens to be the 6th UCC Title for Coach McCrystal since 2012, another achievement to add to his detailed resume as Head Coach. OPXC will look to model their success at Warinanco Park, where the Rams will race against three top 10 ranked teams in the state, including US #20 Union Catholic and US #6 Westfield.
