Ali Agha placed fifth in the varsity 5K to lead the Livingston girls cross country team to fourth place at the Garret Mountain Invitational on Sept. 26.
Twelve Lancers competed across varsity, junior varsity and freshmen races at Garret Mountain in Woodland Park despite a Nor'easter that cancelled five other area meets that weekend. Gusting winds and steady light-to-medium rain greeted the runners, the West Essex Tribune reported, but conditions did not cause major problems on the course.
The Lancers ran through it.
Agha crossed the finish line in 22:21, averaging 7:12 per mile in a field of 58 runners. Mount Olive's Kendal Pizzirusso won the individual title in 20:28.
Avery Lau finished 19th in 23:20. Jodi Amadin placed 25th in 24:01, Tara Sarode 29th in 24:18 and Allison Zhou 36th in 24:45. Jordan Krentcil rounded out the varsity squad at 40th in 25:46. The five scoring runners averaged 23:49, according to MileSplit results.
Mount Olive won the varsity team title with 51 points. Morristown placed second with 56, Columbia third with 65 and Livingston fourth with 102.
JV and freshmen results
In the JV 5K, Peyton Kuet paced Livingston with a 12th-place finish in 24:54. Mahi Biswas (19th, 26:19), Kayla Greenfeld (20th, 26:27), Richelle Lederman (25th, 28:29) and Ioanna Mar Gliati (26th, 31:09) completed the JV lineup. The Lancers finished fourth with 89 points behind team winner Columbia (26 points).
Freshman Aditi Saha was Livingston's lone entry in the 3,200-meter race, finishing 33rd in 26:26. Morristown won the freshmen team title with 37 points.
Agha's 22:21 was 11 seconds off her season-opening 22:10 at the Lancer Invitational on Sept. 4, where she also finished fifth.
