The 2024 Hudson County Championships, one of the final regional championship meets of the season, were held Saturday at Stephen Gregg Park in Bayonne.

On the girls side, Weehawken made history with its first team title, while Memorial’s Lesile Munoz dominated the girls race to secure the school’s first individual district title in recent memory.

Weehawken’s historic victory

Weehawken’s historic district championship did not come without challenges.

Weehawken’s Nos. 4 and 5 runners — sophomore Nina Lantz and senior Kali McDonald — both entered this meet far from 100 percent healthy.

Barring any major setbacks, Weehawken’s star trio of Tarikwa Dunn, Astrid Taffarello and Nora Levy were likely to finish in the top four. But with Lantz and McDonald dealing with an injury and illness, respectively, it was difficult to plan how the rest of the race would shake out.

But what wasn’t mysterious was the trust the Weehawken had in each other to make history despite a few setbacks along the way. The program won its first-ever Hudson County Championship on Saturday, securing the team title with 41 points with a 2-3-4-16-19 result. Weehawken was able to hold off both Memorial (52) and McNair (53) in a matchup where all three teams had strong cases to win.

“These girls love this team and that’s why they’re (in this position),” Weehawken head coach Mercy Puma said. (Kali) had a fever yesterday and she could have said, ‘Coach, I’m not feeling well today, I’ll just stay home.’ But I was happy to see him here and help the team. He joined our team today.”

“(Lantz) also did what he had to do for the team today and I’m happy he did,” Puma added. “These girls continue to overcome everything and show up for our team.”

Weehawken’s all-star trio of Dunn, Taffarello and Levy also blew up the course with huge PRs. Dunn took second place (18:36), while Taffarello (18:52) and Levy (18:52) were right behind Dunn. Lantz took 16th place (21:16), while McDonald achieved a crucial 19th place (21:34).

Dunn and Taffarello were quick to defer credit to both Levy and McDonald.

“We just went out there and ran the race we were expected to run,” Dunn said. “The ones who ran better than expected were Kali and Nina. “They were actually the people who should have expedited this meeting, and they did.”

As of Saturday, it’s been a near-perfect season for Weehawken. They won their first invitational at Darlington Park on September 7, captured the NJIC league championship (Patriot Division) for the first time, and have now won both the South Hudson and overall Hudson County Championship.

“We didn’t really need to have anyone’s support,” Dunn said when asked about the team’s championship mentality. “I think it was very surprising for our team, our team has no weak links. Cross country is a mental sport and every girl on our roster is strong, confident and wants to win. After the first win at the (Season Opening) Tournament, everyone here is doing well for the team and for themselves.” We knew what he wanted, there were no pep talks, everyone was very motivated to do good things.”

Saturday’s victory is the culmination of a long journey for Weehawken’s girls cross country program, which is expected to be one of the top teams in next weekend’s North 2, Group 1 regional meet.

Taffarello, a senior, remembers Weehawken not even reaching a full varsity roster as a freshman. During the 2021 season, Weehawken had only three girls on its roster, and the following year there were only five girls.

“Being with this team for the last four years has been really special,” Taffarello said. I have seen it grow from a small group into a large group of talented young girls. It’s been so amazing getting to know everyone and seeing us all grow through this amazing team. “I’m proud of everyone and how deeply everyone has put in the effort to get this out today.”

Memorial senior dominates girls race

Memorial head coach Ashley DeFuria always knew a district title was ‘100 percent’ in senior Lesile Munoz’s cards.

The physical ability was always there. The important thing was to stay healthy and have more self-confidence.

And in the end, everything came together in the best possible way for Munoz. After setting the district record (18:14.50) at the North Bergen Championships, Munoz surpassed that mark once again with a time of 18:11 to win her first district championship. He won by 25 seconds with junior Tarikwa Dunn finishing second (18:36).

Munoz remained at the front throughout the entire race, and by the third mile the gap between him and the rest of the group widened significantly. Weehawken junior Tarikwa Dunn won by 25 seconds as she finished second (18:36).

“It’s incredible to me because I’ve been running cross country for three years now, I never expected to be a regional champion or run the race like I did today,” Munoz said. “I’m proud of myself, only I know what I’ve been through, only I know why I put myself in this situation. And while I feel accomplished, I know it wasn’t easy to be where I am now.

“I’m really proud of him because his biggest challenge in the past was competing with confidence,” Coach DeFuria said. “Last week he finally went out, ran his own race, didn’t worry about anyone else, stayed true to his own pace, and he’s done the same thing this week. It’s frustrating in district races when you know everyone expects you to show up at a certain time and get to a certain place. The whole district looks at it from time to time. Everyone knows what each other is running (in terms of time). There’s a lot of pressure on him and he’s handled it really well. “I’m really proud of him.”

This also marked the first season in which Munoz was truly healthy. In past seasons he always had to take a week or two off from racing due to some kind of glitch. He has managed to train consistently this season without any setbacks and has also added weight training to his regime.

At last year’s district meet, Munoz won the third place medal by running 20:52. His leap from 2023 to 2024 was crazy to watch.

He hadn’t broken 20 minutes until about a month ago (19:42 at the Thompson Park Class Meet) and hadn’t gone below 19 until last week’s North Hudson Championships.

“I am so grateful to be running in times like these,” Munoz said. “I know it’s thanks to my coach and my team, but I’m also grateful to the country I’m competing in. Everyone I’m competing against is really competitive and that pushes me a lot.”

Corey Annan can be reached at: [email protected]. Follow him or message him on Twitter/X @coreyannan360.

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