Sophomore twins Lindsay and Allison Colflesh placed second and third, and Haddonfield placed all seven of its runners in the top 20 Saturday to easily win its state-record 26th sectional XC title.
Lindsay Colfesh ran 20:17 for second and Allison Colflesh was four seconds back in third for Haddonfield in the South Jersey Group 2 race.
Sophomores Payton Weiner [6th in 20:46] and Olivia Stoner [11th in 21:34] and junior Evie Andrews [14th in 22:08] rounded out Haddonfield’s scoring group.
Junior Lilly Sirover [17th in 22:23] and sophomore Hailey Melcher [18th in 22:37], Haddonfield’s sixth and seventh runners, bumped the fourth and fifth runners from every other team.
Haddonfield finished with a 73-point margin of victory, outscoring second-place Pinelands Regional, 33-106.
That’s the largest winning margin in the S.J. Group 2 girls race in 21 years, since Point Plesasant Borough outscored Buena by 81 points [39-120] to win the 1997 title.
The title was Haddonfield’s ninth in a row 23rd in the last 29 years, including several in Group 1.
Delsea sophomore Carly Nicholson was the overall winner in 19:13, more than a minute ahead of the field. Nicholson’s time was third-fastest of the four public school races.
Nicholson is Delsea’s first individual champion in 13 years, since Amanda Goetschius won the 2005 Group 3 race. The only other Lady Crusader winner in sectional history is Brittany McCann in 1999, 2000.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 