Liliah Gordon has raced at New Egypt twice, she’s broken the course record twice and she’s led Northern Burlington to a conference championship twice.
On Wednesday, a year after Gordon led NBC to its first BCSL Liberty Division title in meet history with a course-record 18:03 as a freshman over New Egypt’s 5,000-meter course, Gordon ran 17:56 and led Northern to its second straight Liberty Division title.
Last year, Northern edged Moorestown, 35-39, ending Moorestown’s streak of 21 consecutive BCSL Liberty Division titles. This year, with Moorestown now in the Olympic Conference, the Greyhounds scored 29 points and finished ahead of Cinnaminson [50], Burlington Township [78] and Bordentown [79].
Gordon won by about 250 meters over Cinnaminson senior Stephanie Renouf, who ran 18:57. Renouf became the 7th girl to break 19 minutes on New Egypt’s course, which has been used since 2004.
All five Northern scorers finished in the top 10. Sophomore Zoe Chou placed 5th for Northern in 20:50, senior Paige Their ran 6th in 20:59, junior Abigail Duffy was 9th in 21:39 and sophomore Sofia Dileo placed 10th in 21:59.
For team scoring purposes, Northern went 1-5-6-8-9.
Northern is the first school other than Moorestown to win consecutive Liberty Division titles since Shawnee in 1989 and 1990. The meet wasn’t held from 1991 through 1998 of in 2000.
This was the first time Gordon had dipped under 18 minutes on any course. Her fastest previous 5,000 was that 18:03 in last year’s BCSL meet.
Others in the top 10 included Cinnaminson junior Anna Marino [3rd in 19:34], Burlington Township senior Maeve Timms [4th in 19:51], Burlington Township junior Angelina Beck and Delran freshman Ashley Doyle [8th in 21:20].
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 