Bishop Eustace’s Katy Storti opened her 2018 cross country with a rainy, muddy, sloppy 10-second win in the senior girls race at the 23rd annual Cherokee Challenge Saturday in Marlton.

Storti covered the 3,200-meter course in 12:14, finishing 40 meters ahead of Nia Goddard of Conestoga High in Chester County, Pa.

Storti became the first Eustace girl to ever win any class race at Cherokee. Holly Bischof placed second in the junior race in 2010 and the senior race in 2011. Storti was third last year in the junior race.

Storti last year placed third in the state Parochial A race at Holmdel and was the No. 3 finisher from South Jersey at the Meet of Champions.

Last time a South Jersey girl won the senior girls race at the Cherokee Challenge was 2010, when Megan Lacy of Cherokee ran 10:55 to edge Bischof by three seconds.

Complete Cherokee Challenge history can be found here.

Pitman graduate Hannah Vendetta, now a senior at Rowan, was first across the line Saturday in the 22nd annual Salisbury (Md.) Fall Classic.

Vendetta ran 23:28 over 6,000 meters on Salisbury’s home course on the school’s campus. She won by about 14 meters over Catie Cambron of Salisbury.

Vendetta was the NJAC mile champion indoors and 1,500 champ outdoors last spring.

Salisbury, ranked No. 5 in the NCAA Division 3 Region by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association, won the team title 31-26 over Rowan despite three Rowan runners in the top five.

Madison Edwards, a freshman from Cinnaminson, made her college debut with an impressive fourth-place finish in 23:37 and senior Jennifer Klavens of Washington Township was fifth in 23:53. Edwards was second last fall in the South Jersey Group 2 race, and Klavens was 12th in the NJAC XC race last fall.

Rounding out Rowan’s all-South Jersey top five were sophomore Alyssa Sanders of Pitman, 10th in 24:06, and Carly Tool of Seneca, 11th in 24:23.

Vendetta and Sanders were teammates on the 2013 Pitman team that won the state Group 1 title by 58 points.

 

Billy Mayhew of Delsea, Nick Falk of Cherokee and Pat Mulligan of Haddon Township, all running their first college cross country races for The College of New Jersey, swept the first three spots in the 2018 Blue/Gold Alumni Invitational.

The race was held over 4,000 meters at Green Lane Fields in Ewing.

Mayhew ran 13:57, Falk 13:59 and Mulligan 13:59. Mayhew and Mulligan are freshmen, and Falk is a red-shirt freshman.

The top alumni was Chris Curto, a 2003 graduate of TCNJ and a 1999 graduate of Rancocas Valley. Curto, who placed 10th overall in 14:12, was a teammate at R.V. and at TCNJ with current TCNJ assistant coach Mike Walker.

Two other South Jersey runners finished with 20 seconds of the winner: junior Mike Zurzolo of Cherokee [5th in 14:00] and freshman Jack Ennis of Shawnee [12th in 14:16].