Shawnee junior Isabella Turner scorched the 5,000-meter course at Dream Park in Logan Township just outside Glassboro with a 17:52 Saturday to win the girls stud race at the South Jersey Shootout.
This is a new course so there’s nothing to compare her time with, but 17:52 on any 5,000-meter course is ridiculous, and that could stand for quite a while as the course record.
Turner and junior teammate Claire Hauser ran 1-2 for Shawnee in the girls stud race, which includes the No. 1, 2 and 3 runners for each team. Turner won by about 450 meters over Hauser, who finished about a minute and a half behind her teammate.
Only three other girls – sophomore Alexa Palmieri of Ocean City [19:34], senior Angela Bannan of Holy Spirit [19:46] and freshman Alyssa Turner of Mainland Regional [19:59] – broke 20 minutes.
Turner ran 5:02 and 10:55 last year, placing fifth at states in the 1,600 and eighth in the Meet of Champions in the 3,200.
Her fastest previous 5,000 time on record was an 18:22 on the super-charged flat Delsea course at Group 4 sectionals last year, which she won. She went on to place eighth at states with a Holmde career-best 19:17 and 24th at Meet of Champions in 19:20.
The meet was held in previous years on Rowan’s own 5,000-meter course, where the course record of 18:22 was set in 2015 by Mainland Regional’s Alyssa Aldridge.
Team scoring at the Shootout is determined by the overall place of each school’s top two runners in the 1-2-3 race and top three places in the 4-5-6-7 race. It’s a great way to measure depth over frontrunners, and Ocean City won Saturday by going 1-9-10 in the 4-5-6-7 race and 3-7 in the stud race for 30 points.
Palmieri and junior Casey McLees [20:15] went 3-7 in the stud race. Junior Rebecca Millar won the 4-5-6-7 girls race in 21:09, with sophomore Isabella Padula and junior Laney Guido in ninth and 10th in 22:40 and 22:43.
Official team scoring had Ocean City with 30, Mainland with 40, Shawnee at 49 and Seneca with 60. Scoring traditionally, Ocean City wins 63-67 over Mainland, with Shawnee [103] and Seneca [108] third and fourth.
Merged individual results are here. Team scoring is here. Full menu of results is here.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 