Meya Ranges didn’t fully know what to expect nor did she have any goals for her first year of running cross country.
After Friday’s Essex County Championships, it’s fair to say the Nutley junior has exceeded all expectations.
Ranges ran a personal best 19:41.90 as she left Cedar Grove Park with a third place finish out of 110 runners. The third place finish was the highest by a Nutley girl since Ellie McCreesh in 2015.
“I honestly did not know what to expect,” said Ranges about her first fall of running cross country instead of playing soccer. “I trained a lot over the summer to get ready for the season, so I knew I wanted to do good. But I honestly did not know what the season was going to look like because I’ve never ran a 5K before in my life.”
Ranges was not a true newcomer to running, specializing in the 1,600 and 3,200 Meter Runs during the Indoor and Outdoor Track seasons.
With a goal of running in college, Ranges knew she’d have to make the difficult decision to run cross country this fall instead of playing soccer like she has since was a young girl.
“After spring track my times dropped tremendously and I realized that if I wanted to become a better track runner, cross country would be a good fit for me,” said Ranges, who in May’s Essex County Outdoor Track Championships took fourth in the 3,200 and seventh in the 1,600. “It was not an easy decision because all my good friends played soccer, but I knew doing cross country was the best decision for me.”
“She was a standout in track the last two years, so I figured she would catch on pretty easily,” Nutley cross country coach Kara McNish said.”But to kind of acclimate as well as she has, and she just keeps pushing herself to the next level. It’s pretty amazing to see.”
After some early struggles with pacing herself, Ranges felt she started to feel more comfortable with running three miles on a trail rather than four laps on a flat track.
“The first couple of races, I honestly did not run my best,” Ranges said. “Coach McNish told me you just need to calm down and focus, and you could do amazing things in the sport. Don’t let this being your first year get in your head and stop you from performing at your best.”
Ranges, who ran a 21:01.07 in her first meet on Sept. 17, broke 20 minutes for the first time at the Essex County Track Coaches Invitational on Oct. 19 when she ran a 19:44.90.
“Once she kind of got more comfortable, we spoke about moving towards that goal of breaking 20 minutes and she crushed it last week,” siad McNish. “Then she cut off a few more seconds on Friday and she wasn’t even really feeling that good. That was super impressive.”
Said Ranges, “I really tried to calm myself down and tell myself that I know that this is my first year and I played soccer all my life, that I could become a successful cross country runner.”
Now that potential has become a reality.
Learn more about the writer ...
Jason Bernstein | Observer Sports Writer
Jason Bernstein joined The Observer as its sports writer in March 2022, following the retirement of Jim Hague. He has a wealth of sports-writing experience, including for NJ Advance Media (nj.com, The Jersey Journal, The Star-Ledger.)