CBA: Finding Its Focus

Another passing storm made the waterlogged land surrounding the track and field clubhouse at Christian Brothers Academy, not far from the Garden State Parkway in Lincroft, a swampy mess. A scene that looked eerily similar to last year's national championships.

Soaked t-shirts. Mud-covered legs. Slimy sneakers. Singular thoughts.

But this time the runners from CBA weren't thinking about a race that got away or an opportunity lost. Fixed on the same thought that has taken residence in their brains since a fifth-place finished at Nike Cross Nationals last year, they want to win a national championship. Anything else is unacceptable.

"We're only going to be happy with a national championship," senior George Kelly said. "That's what we're going for."

CBA garnered a No.1 pre-season ranking in Marc Bloom's Super 25, a ranking the team believes they deserve. The team plans to wear the new bull's eye on it back like a badge of honor. CBA graduated its top runner, Mike Mazzacaro, who is returning from an Achilles injury to compete at Princeton, and Dan Mykityshyn, the No. 3, who committed to North Carolina. But the Colts return two seniors in Kelly and three experienced juniors with Conrad Lippert, Aaron Liberatore and Jack Boyle.

But graduation has never seemed to faze CBA or its longtime coach Tom Heath, who has 16 Meet of Champions titles in New Jersey and 22 state Parochial A championships. That 2010 team became that kind of legend when they trounced the five-man course record at Holmdel Park, averaging 16:05. Tradition is all around CBA. Heath has been the coach for 42 years. The team's clubhouse walls are covered in championship plaques and in one corner is a filing cabinet with every workout all of Heath's great teams have ever done.

Folks would say that last year's CBA was the best, but this season's squad looks at last year as only a plateau before the Colts reach the top. "We pretty much won everything last year except for nationals," Heath said. "There's just so much tradition here. You have to fight like hell just to stay afloat in being mentioned with the top groups that we've had here. I think that's what they are going to try to do."

Now most would have considered last year's CBA team the best in school history, even the best in New Jersey state history. But Kelly and his teammates believe this year's team may be even better. "This team is deeper," they almost said in unison when asked the difference between this fall's squad and last year's.

"God doesn't always give you the bodies," Heath said. "But right now we're blessed with just a whole gang of distance runners."

Kelly appears to be in the best shape of his high school career, coming off an outdoor season that saw him clock 4:14.72 for 1,600 meters and 9:19.82 for 3,200. Add in senior Tim Gorman. He wasn't a part of CBA's fifth-place finish at nationals but posted a 4:17.19 1,600 and 9:23.73 for 3,200 in the spring.

The major difference this season is that CBA expects to win. Last year the team admitted that it had been happy just to make the trip to Portland and race as a team, visiting the Nike headquarters and getting shoes and gear. That was before racing on the flooded horsetrack at Portland Meadows, struggling to the finish and then realizing they were 15 points away from placing third.

"We were just so happy to be there," Kelly said. "We weren't really focusing on saying we're going to come here and we're going to win. It was too much of us just being happy to be there. It's going to be different this year."

CBA brought 12 runners to NXN last year. Those who didn't race, like Gorman, saw all the ways a runner can be distracted by the high-profile event. This year the team has already decided that only the top seven will make the trip. This year's meet will be more of a business trip.

"We've been there," Gorman said. "Every guy on the top 10 has already been out there. It's nothing new. It's about winning now."