Once Christian Brothers Academy wrapped up its fifth straight NJSIAA Meet of Champions cross country championship, junior Jon Dooling said the celebration taking place in Holmdel County Park was for more than just coach Tom Heath and his seven runners.

SEE A MEET OF CHAMPIONS PHOTO GALLERY, HERE.

“Every time you put on this jersey, you run for the people before you,” Dooling said. “Whenever we come here, we have one goal and that’s to win. When we win, it’s not just for us, it’s for everybody that came through here.

“When you put on that jersey, it sounds corny, but you’re running for the name on that jersey. It’s all about tradition here. You’re running for the pride of the program and that means a lot.”

There’s certainly a lot to proud of, the Colts’ latest MOC title, which came on Nov. 22, was their 20th overall. During all that success, CBA, Lincroft, has had just two individual champions as the team is always more important than the single runner.

Junior Blaise Ferro, CBA’s top man, is a perfect example. He finished eighth in last year’s MOC and 18th this year in 16:13, but was hardly bummed out.

 “I’m not disappointed at all,” Ferro said. “As long as we win the team title, that’s what matters.”

Ferro was followed by juniors Nick Trigani (28th, 16:23), Sean Martinek (30th, 16:24), Brian Dengler (35th, 16:26) and Dooling (44th, 16:34), and seniors Jack Morris (45th, 16:35) and Thomas Dengler (54th, 16:42). The top five finishers are used in the team scoring.

CBA made a shambles of the team competition — where fewer points means faster runners — as its 82 points were 31 fewer than runner-up South Brunswick.

The Colts’ expected challenger, Don Bosco Prep, Ramsey, was a distant eighth with 200 points.

In the Non-Public A championship meet a week earlier, the two teams tied for first and the title had to be decided on a tie-breaker. It came down to whoever had the highest sixth-place finisher from the two teams and CBA eked out its fifth straight title.

“Last week Bosco was really good, a lot better than we had expected,” Trigani said. “It was a lot closer and there were a lot less guys in the race. It was basically a dual meet. We knew this week there would be a lot more guys in the race and we should have a bigger difference between them and us.”

It was a huge difference, as the Meet of Champions definitely lacked the drama of the Non –Public A meet, much to the delight of the Colts.

“We ran a better race, absolutely,” Ferro said. “Everyone did their jobs, everyone ran real quick. We had a talk last week and said we gotta go with Bosco if they go.”

Bosco never went, however.

“When we got to the two mile, I didn’t see any of the Bosco guys around and Heath told us ‘You guys are running great, we’re winning,’” Trigani said. “We all got really confident and the last mile we all just picked off as many guys as we could to try to extend the lead.”

Trigani felt the turning point came in Holmdel’s famed bowl, which is a stretch that features a long decline, followed by some level ground that turns into a steady incline.

“The first mile everybody was so spread out and we found each other in the bowl, and we ran as a pack in that middle mile,” Trigani said. “At the top of the bowl I was like’ All right boys, let’s go.” Blaise was way ahead, but I said to the rest of the guys ‘It’s time to run boys.’ I just went, they followed me and that’s what really did it.”

The victory put Ferro and Trigani in a position to make school history.

“Only one person at CBA (Brian Hoffman) has won it four years in a row and me and Nick are both en route so far to do that, so it meant a lot to win it today,” Ferro said. “It’s the best part of every season, winning the MOC.”

Notre Dame High School, Lawrenceville, qualified for the MOC for the first time since 1990 and finished 15th overall. Mike Gormley (81st, 17:00) and Matt Kamph (88th, 17:03) were the top Irish runners, followed by Mike Elliott (115th, 17:23), Evan Bush (129th, 17:43) and Jason Mays (132nd, 17:49).

St. Rose High School, Belmar, also made it as a team and finished 20th. Bobby Tuzzio led the way (125th, 17:38), followed by Angelo Cifelli (164th, 18:50), Timothy Theobald (166th, 18:54), Bobby Mahon (169th, 19:18), Jake Schnaak (171st, 19:30) and Drew Reilly (174^th, 20:56).

Mater Dei High School, Middletown, was represented by Tom Mongeau (139th, 17:57) and John Spinelli (147, 18:05).