Howell’s Forys runs his best at Meet of Champions

FARRAH MAFFAI Howell’s Matt Forys pushes hard at the end as he takes 15th place at Saturday’s Meet of Champions at Holmdel Park. Forys’ time of 16:27.7 was his personal best at Holmdel.

Matt Forys did have one more good race left in his legs after all.

One week after qualifying for the NJSIAA All-Groups Meet of Champions, the Rebel junior came up with the best race of his career.

Forys lowered his school and personal best at Holmdel Park’s 5,000-meter course to 16:27.7 on Saturday and finished 15th against the state’s very best cross country runners, giving himself a chance to earn all-state recognition. The first Howell male to qualify for the MOC could become its first all-state harrier.

At the Group IV state championships the week before, Forys, as an individual qualifier, found himself lined up on the extreme outside (to the left) for the first time ever, and as a result, he got caught in a traffic jam of runners slowing him for the first half-mile.

"I went out a little quicker so that I wasn’t in as much traffic," he pointed out. "Once we hit the trail, I pushed it harder than I have before.

"I was 30th at the mile, but by the tennis courts I had moved to 20th," he added. "I felt pretty good. There was a big pack of people there, and I just pushed it harder and passed a group of the them. I knew if I could keep pushing it in the back woods that I could make a good time."

Which he did, but even so, Forys was surprised by his 15-second improvement over his former pb at the park of 16:42.

It was an exceptionally fast day for all at Holmdel Park, producing the fastest overall MOC in history with six runners getting under 16:00, led by Cherokee’s Marc Pelerin, whose winning time of 15:43.7 makes him the seventh fastest in history.

Forys came a very long way this fall, from the runner who finished sixth in the Junior Division race at the Battle of Monmouth back in September and was viewed only as a contender for the Freehold District title, to one of the state’s best.

"The turning point was the Shore Coaches Invitational," Forys explained. "That was the first time I broke 17:00 at Holmdel. That’s when I thought if I could keep lowering my time I had a chance to do well."

Unlike many runners who compete in cross country out of necessity to get their mileage work in for track, Forys considers it his top sport.

"I love cross country, it’s my favorite," he pointed out. "I like the longer distance, it’s better for me. I don’t have the speed you need for the shorter track races. I also like training for cross country better."

Forys still has one race remaining, Saturday’s Foot Locker Northeast Qualifier at the famed Van Cortlandt Park course in the Bronx, New York City. The first eight runners there will qualify for the national championships in Orlando, Fla., on Dec. 8. But Forys isn’t thinking about that. He just wants to have one last run before the season is through, to test himself against the best from the Northeast without worrying about running a particular time or place. Then, it is on to indoor track where he is looking to improve on the 10:04 that he ran for 3,200 meters last year.