By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
The Montgomery High boys’ cross-country team entered this year’s Somerset County Championship meet with a relatively different cast than the one that captured the county title a year ago.
Minus their top three finishers from a year ago, and with four new runners in the lineup, the Cougars ran to a second-place finish in this year’s meet that was run at Pleasant Valley Park in Basking Ridge.
“We were trying to repeat,” Montgomery coach Tim Bartholomew said. “They ran really well and I am excited they had an opportunity to be in it and compete like we did. We lost quite a few of our top runners from last year. Only three of our top five ran varsity last year. So we had decent depth with a bunch of young kids that stepped up and filled the gaps and helped give us chance.”
Harry Gould was the top finisher for the Cougars, when he placed fourth overall in 16:33. Jeffrey Meyer finished 14th, while Alex Tai came in at 16th. The rest of the Montgomery top five saw Austin Fan finish 18th and Nikhil Shukla place 20th. James Colagiuri  finished 21st and Adarsh Rao ended at 36th to finish off Montgomery’s results.
Hillsborough finished first with 64 points, while Montgomery and Ridge each posted 72 points. The Cougars earned second place by virtue of a better finish from their No. 6 runner.
“Harry definitely had a better finish place wise and time wise,” Bartholomew said of Gould, who finished 17th last year and ran 27 seconds faster at this year’s meet. “For Harry, it lets us know he is ahead of where he was last year and he is making a lot of gains from previous weeks. Every week he is a little better and a little faster.”
Tai, a junior, was running in his first county meet at the varsity level, as were Shukla (a freshman), Colagiuri (a junior), and Rao (a junior).
“We had a freshman (Shukla) who didn’t know he would run in the varsity race until the day of the meet,” said Bartholomew, whose team was scheduled to run in the Skyland Conference meet on Thursday at Natirar in Peapack. “We had a junior fighting through injury and decided it was best he didn’t run. So the freshman stepped up and ran 1:20 faster than his previous PR.
“I was excited because we said to the boys you have to run together as a team. Where every place matters, pack running is a key to victory.  When we have Harry we know he will be near the top. The rest of the boys ran well as a pack. Two miles into it they were all together.”
The Montgomery girls finished eighth as a team in the Somerset County meet. Senior Julia Hans was the top finisher for the Cougars, 13th overall, with a time of 19:58. Freshman Nainia Waghray finished 24th in 20:48, while sophomore Emma Noyelle was 48th (22:08), sophomore Ivy Zhao was 51st (22:11), and junior Sarah O’Shea was 52nd (22:12).