Overall winner Patrick Ditmars led four Cherokee runners in the top six and the Chiefs rolled to their eighth straight Burlington County Open XC title.

Ditmars, a junior, ran 16:25 over the 5,000-meter course at the Rancocas Valley athletic fields in Eastampton, finishing 65 meters ahead of Rancocas Valley junior Ryan Smith, who was second in 16:38. RV senior Andre Faigal placed third in 16:43.

Cherokee took the next three spots, with junior Conor Jacob, sophomore Robert Poplau and senior Joseph Natoli running 16:46, 16:54 and 16:59. Senior Bradley Popler was Cherokee’s 5th man in 9th with a 17:06.

Cherokee packed its five scorers in 41 seconds, averaged 16:50 and scored 25 points. 

Cinnaminson, despite missing its top two runners with injuries and racing with just five entrants, all junior, was second with 86 points.

Last time Cherokee did not win the County Open was 2014, when Northern Burlington went 1-2 with Chris Martin and Harrison Scott.

Other runners in the top 10 were Lenape senior Jake Buniva [7th in 17:06], Lenape junior Colin Hermack [8th 17:06] and Delran senior Anthony Guarino [10th 17:16].

Cinnaminson placed second without a runner in the top 10 by packing its five scorers – Matt McCarron, Derek Coceano, Tyler Schill, Dean Clark and Ryan Coceano – all between 11th place and 22nd place and between 17:23 and 18:15.

Junior Grace Wassell was the overall winner, and senior Princess Nwoga and senior Vanessa Marinero finished 2nd and 5th to lead the Highland girls to their first Camden County XC title in 13 years.

Wassell ran 20:26 over 5,000 meters at Timber Creek Park in Lindenwold and Gloucester Township, Nwoga took 2nd in 20:39 and Marinero placed 5th in 21:27.

Haddonfield, which won the last four team titles, did not compete this year.

Freshman Madison Goodman placed 18th in 24:26 and sophomore Arianna Laster 27th in 25:30 for Highland, which outscored 2nd-place Paul VI 50-64. Camden Catholic was one point back in third with 65 points.

The team title is Highland’s first since 2008, when Megan Venables, Jenn Rawls and Gabrielle Prendergast swept the top three spots.

Other runners in the top 10 were Paul VI sophomore Shaelan McNally [3rd in 21:02], Eastern senior Sophia Staiger [4th  21:12], Camden Catholic junior Casey Bednarek [6th 21:59], Camden Catholic freshman Nilaa Ponnappan [7th 22:17]], Winslow Township senior Victoria Campbell [8th 22:23], Eastern senior Lauren Kenselaar [9th 22:28] and Eastern junior Sophia Gambescia [10th 23:06].

Terrific race Thursday between Kingsway senior Kyle Rakitis and Woodbury sophomore Peyton Shute at the Gloucester County Championships.

Rakitis ran 15:44 and Shute 15:51 over 5,000 meters at West Deptford Park to win the county title. Last year, Rakitis placed second to Shute’s older brother Brady over the same course, Shute running 15:59 and Rakitis 16:16.

Three other runners – West Deptford senior Jacob Cobb (16:23), Williamstown junior Nicholas Kool (16:45) and Washington Township senior Chris Colavita (16:47) also broke 17 minutes.

Washington Township edged Kingsway by one spot to win the team title, 45-46, going 5-7-9-10-14. Kingsway had won nine straight team titles since Clearview won in 2011. The championship is the first for the Minutemen since 2009, when they beat Delsea 43-55  at Gloucester County College.

Seniors Nate Kidwell, Charles Lant and Sean Hice all joined Colavita finished in the top 10 for Township, Kidwell 7th in 17:21, Lant 9th in 17:34 and Nice 10th in 17:46. Township’s fifth scorer was junior Tells McDonald, who placed 15th in 18:09.

Also in the top 10 were Kingsway senior Ryan Allen (6th in 17:03) and Kingsway junior Cesar Pedro (8th in 17:25).

Eric Reitinger, a 2002 Shawnee graduate, placed 224th out of more than 20,000 runners Monday in the 124th annual Boston Marathon.

Reitinger had a chip time of 2:38.56, a 6:04 per-mile average over the historic 26-mile, 385-yard course from Hopkinton to Boston.

Reitinger hit 5K in 18:46, 10K in 37:02, 15K in 55:04, 20K in 1:13.23, the halfway point in 1:17.18, 25K in 1:31.35, 30K in 1:50.11, 35K in 2:09.18 and 40K in 2:29.17.

As a senior at Shawnee, Reitinger placed 4th in the Burlington County Open XC race with a 16:38 at Mill Creek Park, 9th in the Group 4 sectionals at Williamstown in 16:19 and 23rd at states at Holmdel in 17:13.

Two decades later, he averaged 18:50 per 5K over the equivalent of about 8 1/2 5Ks.

Kingsway juniors Aubrey Pierontoni and Nicole Lipieta swept the top two places in the Varsity E race Saturday at the Manhattan Invitational.

Pierontoni ran 15:24 and Lipieta 15:59 over the historic and challenging 2 1/2-mile course at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, New York.

Kingsway scored 85 points and took second out of 18 teams, behind only East Islip, which scored 54.

Sophomore Cassidy Dunk, junior Shelby Dyer and Erin Tracey also scored for Kingsway, Dunk 25th in 17:27, Dyer 28th in 17:32 and Tracey 40th in 17:58. They were backed up by sophomore Kendall Cramer, who was 45th in 18:16.

Pennsville graduate Dan Wyshinski and Audubon grad Jason Hyland finished 11th and 12th of over 125 runners Saturday in the Jack St. Clair Memorial Invitational at Belmont Plateau in Fairmount Park.

Wyshinski, a freshman at Wilmington College in Delaware, ran 28:47 over the very challenging 8,000-meter course, and Hyland, a freshman at Rutgers-Camden, ran 28:57.

Wilmington placed 4th among 15 teams with 122 points, behind a post-collegiate club – Philadelphia Runner Track (20 points) – Lebanon Valley (80) and Jefferson of Philly (83).

Top runner for Chestnut Hill College of Philadelphia was Chris Nelson, a sophomore from Kingsway, and their fourth runner was Damir Kee, a freshman from Sterling.

In the women’s race, Kingsway grad Sydney Watts, a freshman at Chestnut Hill College, placed 15th in 25:56, and junior Kirstin Slater, a Haddon Heights graduate, was Rutgers-Camden’s top runner, placing 34th overall in 27:58.

Mainland freshman Sofia Day ran the fastest time of the day at the South Jersey Open, covering the 5,000-meter DREAM Park course in Logan Township in 18:32.

Day recorded her first invitational victory when she placed first in the Division 3 race, leading Mainland to the team title.

Day’s timer is No. 4 in course history. Here are the top 5 times, from the MileSplit venue leader board:

17:52 … Isabella Turner [Shawnee], 2018 South Jersey Shootout
18:22 … Kate Rathman [Cherokee], 2018 Olympic Conference
18:29 … Kate Ruona [Shawnee], 2020 Olympic Conference batch meet
18:32 … Sofia Day [Mainland Reg.], 2021 S.J. Open
18:37 … Sarah Naticchia [Haddonfield], 2020 S.J. Group 2 Sectionals

Her time matches the course record for freshmen./ Ruona ran 18:32 as a freshman in 2019 at the Olympic Conference Championships. They are the only freshmen to run under 19 minutes in the course’s short four-year history.

Day placed second in the freshman race at the Cherokee Challenge, second in the Osprey Invitational at Stockton and fifth in the Varsity B race at Shore Coaches.

Mainland went 1-2-5-9-13 overall and 1-2-4-6-7 in team scoring. Sophomore Gillian Lovett placed second in 19:20, sophomore Claudia Booth was 5th in 20:39, Sophomore Chloe Malone 9th in 21:19 and junior Sydney Luff 22:46 for 13th. They were backed up by senior 6th runner Madison O’Brien, who placed 16th in 24:11.

Kingsway senior Kyle Rakitis ran 12:53 on the legendary Van Cortlandt Park 2 1/2-mile course and placed 3rd in the Varsity B race at the Manhattan Invitational Saturday.

Rakitis finished only 14 seconds behind overall winner Devan Kipyego of St. Raphael Academy of Pawtucket, R.I.

Kingsway placed 5th out of 22 schools in Varsity B with 134 points. Walt Whitman of Bethesda, Md., won the team title with 82 points.

Also for the Dragons, senior Ryan Allen placed 12th. Allen, a two-time national scholastic racewalk champion, ran 13:31.

Although Foot Locker East Regionals have always been run on the 5K course at Vanny, the 2 1/2-mile course has been used for every other meet since the mid-1960s.

Here are the five fastest South Jersey times on the Vanny 2 1/2-mile course:

12:20 … Jason DiJoseph [Paul VI], 1987
12:28 … Kevin Pumphrey [Highland], 1985
12:30 … Bill Stewart [Cherry Hill East], 1983
12:31 … Jim Smith [Haddonfield], 1979
12:32 … Ed Blakeley [Haddon Township], 1974

Junior Jack Bolling, senior Leonardus Kittles and junior Colin Patterson all placed among the top seven and led Haddon Heights to the team title in Division 2 at the South Jersey Open Saturday.

Bolling ran 16:19 at DREAM Park in Logan Township for 4th place, Kittles ran 16:26 for 6th and Kittles 16:26 for 6th.

They were backed up by junior Ryan Wells in 11th [17:10] and senior Zachary Rehn in 13th [17:20], with junior 6th man Jonathon Hastings 16th in 17:36.

Heights’ packed its five scorers in 61 seconds with a terrific 16:48 team average and outscored 2nd-place Manchester Township 36-51.

That 16:48 average is 10th-fastest ever run in the short four-year history of DREAM Park’s 5,000-meter course. Here’s a look at the top five:

16:00 … Cherokee, 2019 [Olympic Conference Championships]
16:14 … Cherokee, 2018 [Olympic Conference Championships]
16:23 … Cherry Hill East, 2019 [Olympic Conference Championships]
16:32 … Cherry Hill East, 2020 [Olympic Conference Championships]
16:35 … Cherokee, 2020 [Olympic Conference Championships]
16:38 … Cherry Hill East, 2020 [Olympic Conference Batch Meet]
16:42 … Washington Twp., 2020 [Olympic Conference Championships
16:43 … Cherokee, 2020 [Olympic Conference Batch Meet]
16:47 … Washington Twp., 2020 [Olympic Conference Batch Meet]
16:48 … Haddon Heights, 2021 [South Jersey Open]

Manchester’s Nick Loffredo was the overall winner in 15:40, with Woodbury soph Peyton Shute 2nd in 15:53, Timber Creek senior Cole Mylan 3rd in 16:18 and Mainland senior Linden Wineland 5th in 16:23.

Also in the top 10 for Mainland were senior Vaughn Blanchet [9th in 16:59] and junior Elliot Post [10th in 17:09].

Seniors Madison McNiff and Chloe Diamond and junior Anna Kramer finished in the top 10 to lead Cherry Hill East to a three-point win over Southern Regional in Division 3 of the South Jersey Open Saturday.

McNiff placed 2nd overall in 19:14, Diamond was 5th in 20:19 and Kramer 9th in 20:32 for East, which edged Southern 33-36 in team scoring.

Senior Emily Volin and senior Michelle Barry finished 12th and 13th in 20:48 and 20:50 for Cherry Hill East.

Clearview junior Abby Waddington was the overall winner in 18:53, and sophomore teammate Margaret Wisniewski ran 20:23 for 6th, one spot ahead of Williamstown junior Alexa Fisher in 20:30.