Paige Sheppard's Kicks Into Overdrive To Win NXR NE Race, Boost Union Catholic; Byron Grevious Moves Up One Spot From Last Year To Win Boys Race; Brothers TC Earn 14th NXN Berth

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

John Nepolitan photos - BOYS | GIRLS

Paige Sheppard may be a freshman, but it doesn't mean she's not a savvy racer. 

The Union Catholic XC Club standout ran 2:07.97 last spring as an eighth grader and also won an AAU national cross country title a year ago. 

On Saturday at the NXR Northeast meet, Sheppard ran with the leaders and accelerated past Ella Woehlcke from Pennsylvania when she made a sweeping left turn and saw the finish line at Bowdoin Park. 

Sheppard won the race in 18:12.2 and helped her short-handed team win the team competition easily with 54 points. If the group can get Peyton Hollis back into the lineup in the coming week, UCXC is a top-five threat in Portland. 

And that would be a big improvement from last year when the first-time entrants to NXN finished last, in 22nd place.

"I had to do this for my team," Sheppard said of her final push. "We had to make it to NXN again to prove that, yes, we got last last year but we are an incredible team and we are ready to go up against the nation's best."

Courtney Kaiser finished seventh and her freshman sister, Cayleigh Kaiser, was 15th for UC. 

The NXR Northeast will send back both of last year's team representatives. Wexford Flats of Pennsylvania (North Allegheny) finished second with 82 points. 

Champlain Valley XC of Vermont finished third with 98 points. 

Wren Kucler, who has not race since suffering an injury in mid-September, finished fourth and Eva Kynaston was sixth to help lift the team back to nationals. 

Rosemary Shay from MHS Wild Bills (New Jersey) finished fourth, Rory Sullivan from Saints TC (Rhode Island) finished sixth, Katie Sobieraj from Shoveltown (Massachusetts) was eighth and Haley Kavanagh from Bobcat Track Club (New Hampshire) was ninth to earn individual qualifying spots to Nike Cross Nationals. 

Byron Grevious, Brothers TC Roll In Boys Championship

Stanford-bound Byron Grevious was in total command of the boys championship race and won it in 15:32.8. 

After a 12th-place finish last year in Portland, Grevious is on a short list of national championship contenders next weekend at Nike Cross Nationals. (He was preseason No. 2 in the DyeStat Top 100). 

Grevious was second at NXR Northeast last year by a couple seconds, losing to Devan Kipyego in the final kick. 

Grevious used a push near the top of the hilly section of the park and then extended the lead on the downhill descent. 

"Downhill I bombed it as hard as possible just to get around 30 yards, 40 yards and from there I just tried to stay as economized as possible," he said. 

Brothers TC of New Jersey may not have had their best day in the past month, but the group successfully qualified to NXN for the 14th time with 59 points. 

Westfield TC, also of New Jersey, managed to make it close and locked down the second automatic qualifying berth with 69 points. Westfield, ranked second in the region, put all five scorers in the top 28, led by Avery Keith's fourth-place finish overall.

Ridgefield of Connecticut was third with 123 points. Senior leader Steven Hergenrother will represent his team at NXN as a individual qualifier after placing third. 

James Wischusen made a strong comeback from a sore hamstring and worked the downhills at Bowdoin Park to place second in the race with 15:49.9. 

Luke Pash of Ridgewood XC (New Jersey) was fifth and Brendan McMahon of Valley Project (New Jersey) was eighth to gain the final NXN qualifying spots. 

Brothers TC put three in the top 10 with a 6-7-9 combination of Conor Clifford, Joe Barrett and Jack Falkowski. 

Recent performances at Holmdel Park in New Jersey helped elevate the team into the top three nationally. The group finished 18th at NXN last year and is looking for a much higher finish next weekend.