Senior Aidan Groff ran 16:05, and Cherry Hill East packed its five scorers in 49 seconds to win the Olympic Conference American Division XC title Saturday.
Cherry Hill East finished with a 42-45 advantage over Cherokee at DREAM Park in Logan Township, and Washington Township was third with 59 points.
The 16:05 is an all-course 5K personal best for Groff, who ran 16:10 earlier this month at Buck Mill Park in Colts neck. His previous PR was 16:17, also earlier this month.
Groff moves up to No. 8 in course history and No. 2 in Cherry Hill East history, behind Oliver Adler’s 15:54 at last year’s Olympic Conference meet.
Senior Gabe Rodriguez was 5th in 16:23 and senior Aidan Eyre 10th in 16:37. East juniors Dylan Hagan [12th in 16:38] and Ethan Anderer [14th in 16:54] also scored, and 6th man sophomore Michael McCurdy was 15th in 16:55.
Seniors Nico Grillo and Brett Shea and sophomore Conor Jacob ran 2nd, 6th and 7th for Cherokee in 16:07, 16:24 and 16:33.
Dylan Odud and Patrick Ditmars rounded out Cherokee’s pack, Odud in 13th in 16:52 and Ditmars 17th in 17:00.
Jacob’s time was an all-course 5K PR by 28 seconds and Ditmars’ by 16 seconds.
Also in the top 10 were Washington Township senior Julian Lawson [3rd, 16:11, 18-second all-course PR], Shawnee senior John Ruona [4th, 16:14], Washington Township senior Cole Kolodziej [8th in 16:33] and Minuteman junior Chris Colavita [9th in 16:37, 22-second all-course PR].
Here’s what the all-time course top-10 should look like after the race:
15:12 … Ethan Wechsler [Cherokee], 2019
15:52 … Connor Melko [Bishop Eustace], 2018
15:53 … Brady Shute [Co-op Gateway/Woodbury], 2019
15:54 … Oliver Adler [Cherry Hill East], 2019
16:01 … Nico Grilli [Cherokee], 2020
16:01 … Chris Spisak [Cherokee], 2018
16:04 … Chase Miller [Cherokee], 2019
16:05 … Adan Groff [Cherry Hill East], 2020
16:07 … Tyler Jackson [Cherokee], 2019
16:10 … Jake Aylmer [Haddon Twp.], 2019
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 