Up until last week, Meya Ranges’ senior season has been about pacing and patience.
All offseason, Ranges worked on better pacing herself on the course so she could finish races stronger. Then, during the regular season, Ranges was held out of some of Nutley’s dual meets with bigger goals in mind – the Essex County and upcoming NJSIAA state and sectional championships.
On Friday at Cedar Grove Park, that training and approach paid off in a big way.
Ranges’ smashed her previous career-best when she ran a 19:09.07 to claim third place at the Essex County Championships.
Ranges’ medal winning performance makes her The Observer Athlete of the Week.
For Ranges, it is her second consecutive third place finish at the Essex County Championships. Last fall, she took third with a time of 19:41.50
“Going into Friday, I was really confident in myself and now I have more experience running a 5K,” Ranges said. “I knew how to pace it and I pretty much ran my own race.
“I definitely think I’m hitting my stride right now. I think a lot of the credit goes into my training and my coaches. At the beginning of the year, I didn’t run as many dual meets as I did and just to save my legs for the championship season. I’ve been doing a lot of tempo runs during the dual meets and that has definitely helped.”
“With Meya we kind of mapped out the whole season looking at invitationals and recovery time” said head coach Kara McNish. “I gave her certain days that she wasn’t going to race like the Essex County Invitational and certain dual meets. Last year we didn’t do that at all, which I think in the end weighed heavy on her legs. By the time we got to sectionals and groups, she was feeling it.”
For Ranges it wasn’t always easy sitting out those dual meets, admitting she felt a little bit of “FOMO” as she did her work on the side.
“I want to save my legs, but I want to be running. I want to be with them,” said Ranges, who also credited swimming and training for helping her get stronger heading into the season. “But I know it’s for the better because Cedar Grove is all concrete, so it’s definitely harsh on your legs.
“Saving my energy, going to the track and doing a tempo workout really did help. I felt really fresh on Friday.”
With her legs fresh and another year of experience under her belt, Ranges said she felt a lot more comfortable heading into this year’s county meet. Ten days earlier, at the Super Essex Conference Championships, Ranges set a then personal best with a time of 19:19.40 at Cedar Grove.
According to Ranges, she did start with the front pack in the field of 106 runners, instead making her way towards the front and using a strong kick at the end.
“I definitely wanted to go under 19:20, but I really had no idea what was going to happen because everybody in Essex County is so good, everyone’s improving,” Ranges said. “So I just wanted to stay up, run my own race, try to catch up to the lead pack and then kick at the end. That was my goal, and I executed it pretty well.”
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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.)