N.J. boys cross country powerhouse shatters course record

Christian Brothers made one of the hardest courses in the nation look easy on Saturday.

The Colts rewrote the history books at the Bowdoin Park XC Classic, breaking the venue's course record (16:00), which was previously set by set by Fayeteville-Manilus of N.Y., who ran 16:02.4 at the 2013 Nike New York Regional. Bowdoin Park, which is located in Wappingers Falls, NY, will play host to Nike Northeast Regionals in November.

Christian Brothers' unreal performance was led by senior Joe Barrett, who ran the third-fastest time in course history (15:25), only trailing David Principe Jr. from La Salle (Rhode Island), who ran 15:18 and 15:23 in 2016.

Along with Barrett's historic time, the Colts depth paid dividends in helping this team break the course record and win its fourth straight team title at this competition. Christian Brothers posted an insane 1-3-4-5-7 finish with a 1-5 split of 0:54 to comfortably secure the Varsity II team championship with a team score of 20.

Luke Hnatt (16:01), Ryan Schmitt (16:05.7), Alex Mastroly (16:09.0), and Gavin Schmitt (16:20.3) rounded out the top five for Christian Brothers. At this meet last year, the Christian Brothers narrowly missed out on the course record after boasting a team average of 16:07.8.

NOTE:This story will be updated with more details and quotes later