Senior Andrew Caccia finished second to lead three Pitman runners in the top 15 and deliver the Division E team title to the Panthers Saturday at the Six Flags Wild Safari Invitational in Jackson Township.

Caccia ran 16:32, finishing second only to Graham Rainsby of Packer Collegiate of Brooklyn, who ran 16:18.

He was backed up by freshman Sebastian Reed in 13th (17:56) and junior Cameron Merlino in 15th (18:00).

Junior Dane DeGeorge and senior Jacob Luta rounded out Pitman’s scoring group, with DeGeorge placing 23rd and Luta 34th in 18:14 and 18:41.

The Panthers outscored Upper Perkiomen of Hanover Township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, 79-93.

Senior Frank Jackson and junior Jonathan Sanders rounded out Pitman’s pack, placing 37th and 41st.

The Cherokee boys placed two of its runners in the top seven Saturday and placed second among some of the region’s top cross country teams in the Division 1 large-school race at the Bowdoin Park Classic in Wappinger’s Falls, N.Y.

Senior Jack Shea placed second overall in 16:14, six seconds behind Elliot Gindi of Ocean Township, and sophomore Justin Kelly was seventh in 16:43.

Christian Brothers Academy of Lincroft, ranked No. 1 in New Jersey, won the team title 31-107. Haddonfield was third with 158 points, giving South Jersey two of the top three teams in the race.

Cherokee, ranked seventh in New Jersey, averaged 17:11 for its top five and Haddonfield averaged 17:27.

Other scorers for Cherokee were junior Brandon Marks, 26th in 17:27; senior Nick Falk, 37th in 17:44; and senior Brendan Falzone, 40th in 17:46.

Haddonfield scorers were Derek Gess, 11th in 16:56; Griffin Weiner, 20th in 17:13; Greg Eisenhower, 21st in 17:13; Ethan Spellmeyer, 46th in 17:48; and Richie Glennon, 64th in 18:04.

All five Haddonfield scorers are underclassmen. The Bulldogs’ first four runners are sophomores and Glennon is a junior.

 

Shawnee senior Mark Miller, who didn’t even run cross country until his junior year, blew away the field in the Stud Race at the South Jersey Shootout Saturday, speeding his way to a 40-meter win and the fastest time of the day at Rowan College Gloucester County, the former Gloucester County College layout.

Miller covered the flat 5,000-meter course in 16:17, finishing eight seconds ahead of Daniel Do of Absegami, who ran 16:25.

The Stud Race includes the No. 1 and 2 runners from each school. There are separate races for each teams’ 3 & 4 runners and 5, 6 and 7 runners.

Miller, who ran 4:26 for 1,600 meters last spring, is Shawnee’s first South Jersey Shootout stud winner in at least 15 years. David Forward was second in 2009, finishing nine seconds behind Toms River North’s Joe Kotran.

Mainland Regional’s Alyssa Aldridge won the Girls Stud race by 34 seconds over Jade Tricomy of Toms River North.

Here’s a look at the top five in each race:

Girls
Stud [1-2]
Alyssa Aldridge [Mainland] 18:27
Jade Tricomy [T.R. North] 19:01
Katilyn Rauscher [Delsea] 19:19
Madyson Reilly [T.R. North] 19:22
Isabella Turner [Shawnee] 19:28

3-4
Claire Rankin [Shawnee] 20:15.87
Kerry George [T.R. North] 20:22
Lauren Murphy [T.R. North] 20:27
Isabella Miller [Haddonfield] 20:43
Olivia Shafer [Egg Harbor] 20:53

5-6-7
Lilly Minor [Haddonfield] 20:38
Grace Cocanower [T.R. North] 21:09
Sara Lowe [Cumberland Reg.] 21:12
Gabriella Baske-Somers [Clearview] 21:24
Grace Kearns [Shawnee] 21:44

Boys
Stud [1-2]
Mark Miller [Shawnee] 16:17
Daniel Do [Absegami] 16:25
Robert Abrams [Cherry Hill West] 16:28
George Denenberg [Delsea] 16:31
Kevin Fox [Moorestown] 16:32

3-4
Colin Kane [Delsea] 16:53
Nathan Senatore [Delsea] 17:07
Cade Hindley [Kingsway] 17:25
Cajan Ejianreh [Sterling] 17:25
Cole Hindley [Kingsway] 17:26

5-6-7
William Mayhew [Delsea] 17:13
Alex Zingani [Washington Twp.] 17:29
Evan Chu [Washington Twp.] 17:39
Christopher Reistle [Washington Twp.] 17:44
Bryce Magee [Kingsway] 17:56

We’ll have more on the team races later, but Delsea pitched a near-shutout, scoring 15 points – which in a normal meet is a shutout. But in this meet, seven would be a shutout [1-2, 1-2, 1]. Kingsway [34], Sterling [56], Egg Harbor [60], Peddie School [64] and Washington Township [75] all finished within 41 points of each either. In the girls race, Toms River North outscored Clearview, 12-29, with Shawnee third with 31 points. Haddonfield [41] and Mainland [43] also posted terrific scores.

Full results from the Shootout can be found here.

It had been 16 years since a Moorestown boy finished in the top three at the Cherokee Challenge, but Kevin Fox didn’t settle for top three. He became the first Quaker boy in meet history to win any race at the traditional South Jersey cross country season opener.

Fox won the two-mile Senior Boys race in 10:02 Saturday, leading a 1-2-3 South Jersey finish. Shawnee’s Mark Miller was second in 10:05 and Cherokee’s Nick Falk third in 10:08.

The best previous finish by a Moorestown boy at Cherokee came in 2000, when Joe Hanlon finished second in 10:09. Josh Joseph won the Senior Boys race that year in 10:02.

Fox’s 10:02 was the fastest time of the four boys class races. The only other years that nobody broke 10 minutes were 1996, 1997 and 2004. Fox was fifth in the junior race in 10:25 last year

Fox was ninth in the Central Jersey Group 3 sectionals last fall but focused on short stuff in the spring, placing second at states with a blazing 1:53.37 and also going sub-50 in the 400. He ranked fourth among all New Jersey half-milers last year and second among underclassmen.

That gives Fox plenty of wheels at the end of a 5,000-meter cross country course.

The only wins Moorestown previously recorded in the Cherokee Challenge came on the girls side. In 2001, Kelsey Rinehart won the senior race and Colleen Hughes won the junior race, and in 2006, Brianna Rodgers won the senior race.

For complete results, click here.

 

West Deptford graduate Dale Johnson, a College of New Jersey junior, covered the 5,000-meter course in 15:43 and led The College of New Jersey to a series of dual meet wins in a season-opening quad meet at Rosedale Park in Hopewell Township.

Johnson was the No. 3 runner on the West Deptford team that placed second to Haddonfield at the South Jersey Group 2 sectionals in 2013 and was fifth at states. Johnson finished second in the overall race to Danniel Belay of Rider in a meet that included College of New Jersey, Rider, St. Joe’s and Georgian Court.

There was no overall team scoring in the annual Blue-Gold Invitational. Instead, scoring was done as a series of dual meets, and TCNJ beat everybody it scored against, including Division 1 Rider by a 27-32 margin. Overall, College of New Jersey runners took three of the top 10 spots.

College of New Jersey assistant coach Mike Walker is a graduate of Rancocas Valley and TCNJ.

TCNJ’s next meet is the Rider Invitational on Sept. 16 on the same course.