Juniors Abby McCully, Briana Hagerty and Grace Stiles all finished in the top 10, and Pitman won its eighth South Jersey Group 1 cross country title in the last 13 years Saturday.

McCully placed third in 20:37, Hagerty fifth in 20:47 and Stiles eighth in 21:08, and Pitman outscored Schalick 40-76. The 36-point victory is the largest margin of victory in SJ-1 since Pitman won 22-65 over Pennsville in 2013.

Seniors Paige McKenna and Sydni McKenna finished 12th and 15th for the Lady Panthers, both under 22 minutes.

The eight sectional team titles equal the fourth-most by any South Jersey girls program. Haddonfield has won 23, Shawnee 15 and Haddon Township 10. Ocean City, Brick Township and Toms River North have also won eight.

Pitman also won Group 1 sectional titles in 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2015.

Panthers girls coach Matt Elmuccio teaches math at Pitman but may be slightly better known as the guy who ran a 4:11.5 anchor on Westfield’s 1995 distance medley team that won the Penn Relays Championship of America in 10:14.08 and is also the only three-time Meet of Champions outdoor 1,600-meter run champ.

While Pitman was easily winning the team title, Schalick sophomore Marleigh Puglia was easily winning the South Jersey Group 1 individual race.

Puglia became the first sectional XC winner in Schalick history, covering the 5,000-meter course at Delsea in 20:01 and finishing 150 meters ahead of soph Darby Williamson of Haddon Township, who took second in 20:36.

The best previous finish by a Schalick girl at sectionals was second place by Nicole Vit in 2001 and Olivia Gerstenbacher’s in 2015.

Others in the top 10 were sophomore Hailey Carano of Buena [4th in 20:46], Sha ‘Lynn Clarke of Glassboro [6th in 21:01], Woodstown sophomore Olivia Monahon [7th in 21:02], Buena sophomore Alana Sasdelli [9th in 21:15] and Schalick freshman Julia Smith [10th in 21:19].

With the clock at 20:45, Ocean City had five finishers across the line, Seneca had six across the line and every other South Jersey Group 3 school combined had … five runners across the line.

This wasn’t a dual meet between the Ocean City and Seneca girls, but it sure felt like it!

Seneca placed all five of its scorers in the top 14 (and its sixth and seventh in 15th and 23rd) but Ocean City was even better, with its five in the top 12!

Ocean City won its ninth sectional title Saturday, 35-47, over Seneca. Toms River South, third with 68, was the only other team under 130 points.

Ocean City’s winning score is lowest in SJ-3 since the 2002 Moorestown team – which went on to win the Meet of Champions – scored 33. It’s fifth-lowest in meet history.

Senior Alexa Weber, freshman Alexa Palmieri, sophomore Casey McLees, senior Michaela Baker and junior Brook Farr ran 3-4-6-11-13 (with Baker and Farr scoring 10 and 12) for Ocean City,

Weber ran 18:49, Palmieri 19:01, McLees 19:27 and Baker and Farr just over 20 minutes.

Freshman Emma Klouchek led Seneca in fifth [19:15], followed by seniors Sydney Warner and Carley Tool [7th and 8th in 19:34 and 19:51] and then sophomores Morgan Hough and Chelsea Richards and junior Kayla Handt in 14th, 15th and 16, all between 20:30 and 20:42.

Seneca’s 47 points is a low enough score to have won South Jersey Group 3 exactly half the previous seasons — 21 of 42 races.

Since 2003, Ocean City and Seneca have combined to win 10 of the 15 South Jersey Group 3 titles, with Ocean City winning in 2003, 2004, 2013 and 2017 and Seneca winning in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2014 and 2015.

Both will advance to the state Group 3 meet at Holmdel next Saturday.

Mainland senior Alyssa Aldridge, in only her second race of the fall, easily won her third straight individual title, finishing in 18:13. Aldridge joins Monique Purcell of Holy Spirit [1976-78], Mindy Rowand of Sterling [1983-85], Brittany McCann of Delsea [1999-01], Brittany Sedberry of Ocean City [2002-04] and Kingsway’s Chelsea Ley [2007-09] as three-time winners in the South Jersey Group 3 race.

Aldridge hasn’t lost a XC race to a New Jersey girl since the 2014 Meet of Champions, where she finished second, two seconds behind Cape Atlantic rival Devin Grisbaum of Ocean City.

Aldridge is seeking her third straight Meet of Champions title and third straight Foot Locker berth.

When Cherokee senior Justin Kelly was disqualified after winning the South Jersey Group 4 XC title, it turned Kingsway senior Joe Grandizio into the sectional champion.

When Kelly was re-instated, one of the key guys who helped in the process was … Kingsway senior Joe Grandizio.

A truly inspiring story about sportsmanship and fair play came out of the South Jersey Group 4 race Saturday at Delsea!

Kelly and Grandizio finished 1-2 in the Group 4 race, Kelly in 15:46 and Grandizio in 15:50 – the No. 1 and No. 3 times of the day over the fast 5,000-meter course at Delsea.

Grandizio led a remarkable Kingsway pack – the Dragons went 2-3-4-8-9 to win their first sectional title since 2012 and outscored Cherokee 26-64. And Southern Regional was third with 111 points. So there was no question about who won the team title and who was second.

But soon after Kelly crossed the line, the Cherokee coaches learned he had been disqualified for allegedly cutting inside a flag on a remote part of the course at about the 2.3-mile mark, behind the high school near Fries Mill Road.

With or without Kelly, Cherokee would place second and advance to states next week. But a DQ meant Kelly would be disqualified from the “tournament,” which in this case meant states and the Meet of Champions, if Cherokee qualified.

But Kelly and all the runners around him were positive he didn’t run inside that flag and cut the course. This is an experienced senior who’s run numerous times at Delsea. He knows the course. He knows the rules.

Cherokee immediately appealed the DQ to meet referee Carl Rickershauser and in most cases these things aren’t reversed, but when the official who made the initial ruling suddenly became unsure who he saw cut the course there seemed to be hope for Kelly’s reinstatement.

Then it was up to the only witnesses to the alleged infraction to tell Rickershauser what they saw.

Who were the witnesses?

Grandizio and some of the other Kingsway runners!

Nobody runs a classier program than Kingsway coach Christian Lynch, and his kids didn’t hesitate to let Rickershauser know that Kelly had definitely NOT cut inside the flag on the course. Even though it meant Grandizio might lose his sectional title, he and his teammates urged meet officials to reinstate Kelly and restore his well-deserved sectional title.

And nobody was more sure that Kelly should be reinstated than Grandizio!

Eventually, Rickershauser correctly over-ruled the official and then it was up to the Cherokee coaches to find Kelly, who by then was on his cool-down run, and let him know he had his title back.

And everybody was happy. Turner got the title he earned, Kingsway got the team title they earned and everybody at Delsea saw once again that cross country is a sport of tremendous competitiveness but even more so one of unparalleled sportsmanship.

Kingsway, ranked No. 1 in South Jersey and No. 2 in the state, ran a monster race, with three runners under 16 minutes (!!!) and two others at 16:10. It came out to an insane 15:59 average.

Senior Jonathan Connor and junior Kieran Burns placed third and fourth for the Dragons, both in 15:53, and seniors Cade and Cole Hindley finished eighth and ninth in 16:10. Senior 6th man Brian Mangiaracina ran 13th in 16:20, beating the third runner from every other team.

Cherokee, ranked No. 3 in South Jersey, didn’t run badly, with six in the top 23, including three sophomores, and a 16:20 team average.

Sophomores Chris Spisak and Chase Miller placed sixth and 16th for the Chiefs in 16:08 and 16:29, and seniors Brandon Marks and Jonathan Conn ran 16:38 and 16:40 to place 20th and 21st. Another soph, Ethan Wechsler, placed 23rd overall in 16:41 and was Cherokee’s sixth man.

The top three sophomores in the race were all from Cherokee.

Kelly joins Marc Pelerin [2001], Alex Yersak [2005-07], Shawn Wilson [2012] and Jack Shea [2017] as individual sectional champs for Cherokee. The Chiefs now account for seven of the last 17 individual titles.

Kingsway won the race Saturday, but that wasn’t even its most impressive performance of the day!

 

When you lose your top runner and STILL get all your scorers in the top 10, average sub-16:10 and score just 23 points … you know you’ve got a strong program.

That’s exactly what happened to Haddonfield Saturday in the South Jersey Group 2 sectionals.

Junior Derek Gess, Haddonfield’s No. 1 runner and the third-place finisher at sectionals last year, was forced to drop out of the sectional race at Delsea at about the two-mile point. Gess has been sick and tried to race but was not himself. With his teammates running lights out, and the team title comfortably in the bag, there was no reason for him to continue.

His teammates sure picked him up in a big way!

Even without Gess, Haddonfield won by 55 points, 23-78, over Sterling. The team title is Haddonfield’s 14th in a row and 18th in the last 19 years. The Jon Anderson-led 2003 Cinnaminson team is the only one to beat Haddonfield at sectionals since 1999.

In all, Haddonfield has won 37 sectional titles. Since 1977, the Bulldogs have won 33 sectional championships in 41 years.

Sophomore Martin Riddell, who wasn’t even on Haddonfield’s varsity last year, won the race in 15:49, finishing about 40 meters ahead of junior teammate Greg Eisenhower in second.

The win was the first in any major XC race for Riddell, whose best previous finish was a second-place to Gess in the Colonial Conference All-Star race two weeks ago.

Junior Sean Campeggia, sophomore Stephen Kasko and junior Ethan Spellmeyer finished fourth, ninth and 10th, Campiglia in 16:04, Kasko in 16:27 and Spellmeyer in 16:31. Senior Richie Glennon ran 16:53 for 14th, rounding out Haddonfield’s lineup.

Scoring against every other school combined, Haddonfield — ranked No. 2  behind Kingsway in South Jersey and No. 9 in the state — wins 23-32. Scoring through six runners against the field, Haddonfield wins 36-43! That’s not easy to do!

 

 

South Jersey’s top two teams battled Saturday, and top-ranked Kingsway emerged with a riveting seven-point win in the South Jersey Group 4 girls race at Delsea.

More than half of the first 23 finishers across the line were from Kingsway or Shawnee, which is insane. Kingsway finished with a 42-49 margin of victory, and nobody else was within 85 points of either school.

How dominating were Kingsway and Shawnee? Either one could have rested its first two runners and still placed second in team scoring with their third through seventh girls.

This race featured six girls under 19 minutes and an incredible 28 girls under 20 minutes!!! Yeah, the course is fast, but 28 girls under 20 minutes is nuts!

Shawnee sophomore Isabella Turner was the individual winner with a swift 18:22, but junior Lauren Krott and senior Alexis Mullarkey went 2-3 in 18:43 and 18:49 for Kingsway. Shawnee sophomore Claire Hauser was Shawnee’s second across the line, sixth in 18:56.

Senior Kylie Anicic took eighth for Kingsway in 19:05, but Shawnee answered with senior Claire Rankin and junior Grace Kearns in 11th and 12th.

Kingsway’s fourth was freshman Ashlynn Burke, who ran 19:26, and was quickly followed by fifth runner Allie Pierontoni, a sophomore, who ran 19:29 for 16th.

Two more Shawnee runners quickly crossed — junior Lauren Tenet in 19:42 and senior Laura Mavracic in 19:44.

Kingsway’s sixth runner, freshman Sydney Watts, finished 23rd in 19:49 and beat the THIRD runner from every school other than Shawnee.

And Shawnee’s SEVENTH runner, senior Georgia Larzelere, ran 20:05 for 33rd and beat the fourth runner from every school other than Kingsway and Southern.

The team title was the third in a row for the Kingsway girls and eighth overall. The winning score of 42 is lowest since Shawnee won in 2001 with 35 points. And Kingsway’s average of 19:06 is the fastest in history on the Delsea course by a Group 4 school!

Incredibly, Shawnee’s scoring pack averaged 19:10, which is the fastest non-winning average time ever in Group 4!

The previous-fastest non-winning average time was Lenape’s 19:19 back in 2006. That came in a 58-60 loss to Cherry Hill East. The previous lowest non-winning score was Shawnee’s 53 points in 2002 behind Toms River East’s 46.

Kingsway, ranked No. 2 in the state, had a terrific 46-second span between Krott and Pierontoni.

Turner is the fifth individual winner in Shawnee history, joining Deanna Germano in 1985, Julia Goldstein in 1990, Liz Moore three straight years from 1992 through 1994 and Nina Benedixen in 2014.

Woodward and Kane were dead even in the lead — well clear of the field –  as they sprinted onto the Delsea track in the South Jersey Group 3 race. They raced stride-for-stride through the turn and were still together 50 meters short of the finish line.

Woodward finally edged into the lead with about 35 meters left and held the lead through the line, finishing one second ahead of Kane.

Woodward’s one-second victory is the smallest on record in the South Jersey Group 3 meet. Individual times for non-winners are only available back into the late 1960s.

Woodward became Highland’s fifth sectional champion. Jerry Andrews won the Group 4 race, Jay Wassail won in Group 4 in 1994 and 1995. Highlands’ Group 3 winners were Kavaliauskas in 2003 and 2004 and Josh Clark two years ago.

Highland also qualified for states as a team, placing third with 82 points, only 17 behind Delsea and 14 behind second-place Mainland.

Junior Yarayah Hawkins, junior Jeremiah Clark, junior Juan Palacios and junior Chris Corsaro rounded out Highland’s pack of five scorers, with Hawkins placing third in 16:09 and Clark also under 17 minutes in 17th place in 16:48.

Kane settled for second in the individual race but did lead Delsea to the team title. The Crusaders finished with a three-point win over Mainland, with four finishers in the top 12.

The team title is Delsea’s third and second in a row. The Crusaders also won the 1997 Group 3 title behind Steve Preite, Brian Thibault and Will Webekind.

After Kane, senior George Tenenberg took seventh in 16:25, senior William Mayhew was 10th in 16:31 and senior Dylan Senatore 12th in 16:38. Delsea’s final scorer was sophomore Alex Roman, who finished 34th in 17:25.

Also in the top 10 were senior Jesse Schmeizer of Ocean City [4th in 16:15], senior Justin Earley of Central Regional [5th in 16:21], sophomore Kevin Antczak of Mainland Regional [6th in 16:22], Cumberland Regional junior Miguel Vera [8th in 16:27] and Timber Creek freshman Michael Henry [9th in 16:29].

Moorestown graduate Natalie Cooper was the overall winner and led The College of New Jersey to its 31st team title Saturday at the New Jersey Athletic Conference Cross Country Championships.

Cooper, a junior, ran 21:44 over the 6,000-meter course at Stockton University in Galloway Township to win the race for a second consecutive year.

Cooper finished 70 meters ahead of second-place Alicia Belko of Stockton, a Rancocas Valley graduate. Belko ran 21:59. TCNJ junior Erin Holzbauer (Robbinsville) placed third, and TCNJ’s Madeleine Tattory, a junior from Delran, placed fourth in 22:57.

Cooper, Belko and Tattory gave the Burlington County Scholastic League three of the top four finishers.

TCNJ outscored Stockton 20-47 to win its fourth title in the last five years.

Also scoring for TCNJ were Gabriella DeVito of Monmouth Regional [5th in 23:01] and Abigail Faith of Freehold Township [7th in 23:21].

Others in the top 10 were Jennifer Polo of Ramapo of Cliffside Park [6th in 23:02], Stockton’s Christina Welsh from Hamilton West [8th in 23:42], Ramapo’s Alex Kyros of Ridge [9th in 23:44] and Caitlin Glynn of Stockton and Union Catholic [10th in 23:54].

The College of New Jersey has won 31 of the 37 women’s NJAC titles contested. As Trenton State, the Lions won every meet from 1981 through 1991, and after Glassboro State won three straight titles, the last two as Rowan, Trenton State won in 1995 and then won 15 more consecutive titles as The College of New Jersey. Rowan won in 2011 and 2012 and Stockton won in 2016.

Cooper is the first repeat winner since Jena Peacock of Rowan and Our Lady of Mercy, who won in 2009 and 2010. TCNJ’s last repeat winner was Beth Vesey, a Ramsey High graduate who won three straight from 2001 through 2003.