Sparta middle school race doubles in size since inception

The third annual Sparta Invitational for local middle school cross country teams was held at the end of October. While other middle school invitationals give awards to top runners in each race, in addition to awarding the top 10 runners in each race, the teams also compete for a team championship trophy in this event.

The 1.5 mile course starts behind Sparta High School and runs through Station Park. It's coordinated by Sparta middle and high school cross country and track coach, Robert Gilmartin, a social studies teacher at the school.

“I've been coaching for about 10 years, and this is the third year of the race and my third year coordinating this event,” he said. “The biggest challenge in coordinating the race is coordinating all the teams the day of the race. With so many different teams coming together at one time there are a ton of on the fly things to juggle pre-race.”

The Sparta varsity cross country teams volunteer at the race and spread out along the course to guide runners along the course.

“The coaches are a huge help at the race,” Gilmartin said. “Everyone steps in where they can to help out.”

This year, nine schools attended making it the largest event to date. There were 160 runners from Sparta Middle School, Sparta Helen Morgan School, Pope John, Montague, Sussex Middle School, Kittatinny, Hardyston, Hamburg and Vernon.

“We ran four different races, each with between 30-45 runners,” Gilmartin said.

The first two races were the Girls Championship Race, followed by the Boys Championship Race. Teams can run up to seven runners in each race (mostly seventh and eighth graders along with a few talented fifth or sixth graders). The winning team in each race earned the team trophy. The Pope John girls (55 Points) were the champions with the Sussex girls a close second (58 points). On the boys' side, the Sparta and Vernon boys tied with 36 points. Sparta won on a tie breaker using the sixth runner from each team.

The third and fourth races were the fifth/sixty grade girls and boys races.

“The biggest rewards that come from the race is the sense of sportsmanship during the afternoon,” Gilmartin said. “Anyone that has ever been to a cross country race or a community 5K has experienced that sense of energy and support that the crowd gives off. For young runners to experience that is awesome to see. Most towns don’t have a youth running program so it’s a great opportunity for middle schoolers to get involved in running.”

The race has almost doubled in size since its first year.