This Day in Mercer XC History -- Sep 23rd 1997
& Petrillo wins for HV
Published 9/23/2026
Twenty nine years ago on September 23, 1997, Todd Henderson broke the Notre Dame course record en route to leading his Irish Cross Country Team to victory in a dual against Hopewell Valley.
Henderson finished in 1st place with a time of 16:20 while covering the 3.1 mile course in Lawrence NJ by over a minute faster than his 2nd place teammate Brian Kotch.
Henderson's new mark beat the old course record of 16:22 which had been set by ND's Eric Wills.
In the boys team standings ND's pack nearly swept the meet. Only Oliver Hannay cracked the top 5 for Hopewell. The final score was Notre Dame 18 and Hopewell 44.
In the girls race, Hopewell's Laura Petrillo took top honors with a time of 20:24 as HV beat out Notre Dame by a score of 20 to 41.
The final results of the boys and girls competitions were as follows:
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