Bishop Eustace senior Arianna Cane recorded the first major XC championship of her career Saturday morning when she crossed the line first in the Division 1 race at the South Jersey Open.

Cane ran an all-course PR of 19:33 at DREAM Park in Logan Township, finishing 75 meters ahead of Haddon Township senior Meghan Lex, who was second in 19:51.

Cane won a state 1,600 title at the 2021 Parochial B meet in Neptune, but she hadn’t won a varsity XC title although she placed 2nd at states last fall at Holmdel, behind only St. Rose’s Tilly O’Connor.

Eustace placed four scorers in the top eight and all five scorers in the top 20 to win the team title. Official results haven’t bene posted yet, but unofficially it looks like 34-70 over Camden Catholic. (That score is now official.)

Senior Elena Cicchini was 3rd in 20:00 and junior Anya Kazemi 5th in 20:45, junior Amelia Ingersoll 8th in 21:58 and junior Cassidy Dunk 17th in 22:58. Eustace’s No. 6 and 7 runners both finished in the top 26, freshman Sophia Kaloustian 22nd and soph Donna Presenza 26th.

Also in the top 10 were Haddon Township junior Genevieve Gentlesk [4th in 20:25], Schalick sophomore Taylor Behrens [6th in 21:07], Camden Catholic sophomore Nilaa Ponnappan [7th in 21:21], Lower Cape May senior Kaitlyn Crouthamel [9th in 22:11] and Maple Shade junior Yaretzy Rodriguez-Parras [10th 22:12].

Ocean City packed its five scorers between 15th and 31st place and raced to its first Shore Coaches team title in 28 years on Saturday.

Sophomore Maeve Smith ran 20:43 for 15th place in the Group C race at Holmdel County Park, followed closely by sophomore Chloe Care, who ran 20:56 for 17th.

Freshman Gabrielle Henry and senior Cheryl Connell finished virtually together, Henry in 24th in 21:23 and Connell in 25th in 21:24. And just a few seconds later, junior Frankie Ritzel completed the Red Raiders’ scoring group in 31st with a 21:38.

That’s a 55-second gap from 1st to 5th. Northern Valley-Old Tappan and Allentown both had two finishers across the line before Ocean City’s 1st runner, but Ocean City had five across the line before Old Tappan’s 4th runner and five finishers before Allentown’s 3rd runner.

Ocean City, ranked No. 17 in the state, finished with a 90-120 margin of victory over Old Tappan, with Allentown 3rd with 131 points.

The team title was Ocean City’s first since 1994, when Shelly Solheim, Danielle Salvia, Janine Minehan, Jessica Talarico and Liz Lento led the Raiders to a 69-85 Group B win over the Kim Reynolds and Kathleen O’Malley-led Paul VI Eagles. Ocean City also won Group B in 1982 and 1993.

Also in the top 10 was Delsea senior Lilly Widmer, who ran 20:17 and placed 7th.

Abigail Kotran and Abigail Waddington went 1-2 and led the Clearview girls to their first Shore Coaches team title ever.

Kotran ran 19:04 and Waddington 19:06 – the two-fastest Holmdel times ever by Clearview girls – and the Pioneers, ranked No. 3 in New Jersey, outscored Northern Highlands 73-83 in the Group B race, with Ridgewood 3rd with 90 points.

It’s the first 1-2 sweep ever by South Jersey teammates in the 45-year history of the Shore Coaches Invitational.

Clearview placed all five scorers in the top 31. Margaret Wisniewski ran 20:15 for 15th and senior Aubrey Donahue and junior Allison Roes finished one spot apart, Donahue in 30th in 21:31 and Roes 31st in 21:38.

Kotran and Waddington recorded the fastest times by Gloucester County girls at Holmdel since 2016, when Rachel Vick of Kingsway ran 18:29 at the state Group 4 meet.

Mainland junior Gillian Lovett, Northern Burlington sophomore Liliah Gordon and Mainland sophomore Sofia Day all finished in the top 10, Lovett in 5th in 19:24, Gordon 6th in 19:26 and day 7th in 19:49. Mainland finished 4th in team scoring with 146 points.

Junior Nick Kuenkel was the overall winner and seniors Patrick Ditmars and Conor Jacob also finished in the top-10 and Cherokee upset New Jersey’s No. 2-ranked team to win its first Shore Coaches Invitational team title in 19 years.

Racing in cold and wet conditions, Kuenkel ran 15:56 and became the seventh Cherokee runner to break 16 minutes on the 5,000-meter course at historic Holmdel County Park, edging Westfield’s Avery Keith, a 9:12 two-miler, by three seconds. He’s Cherokee’s first individual winner at Shore Coaches in 20 years.

Ditmars ran 16:05 for 5th place, and Jacob placed 8th in 16:22. Junior Robert Poplau and sophomore Liam Tindall clinched the win, placing 31st and 35th in 17:19 and 17:24.

Cherokee, ranked 10th in the state, defeated Westfield 80-89 to win the Group A team title. Westfield went 2-9-21-23-34, so the big difference was with each team’s 3rd runner, Jacob gaining 13 places and 28 seconds ahead of Westfield’s.

Cherokee averaged 16:37, which is 2nd-fastest ever by a South Jersey school at Shore Coaches. Cherokee averaged 16:35 in 2019.

The team title is Cherokee’s first at Shore Coaches since 2003, when the Chiefs outscored 2nd-place Hunterdon Central 65-96 with Sean McLaughlin, Greg Bredeck, Tom Yersak and James Maneval placing in the top 20. Cherokee also won Group A in 2000.

Kuenkel is Cherokee’s first individual champ at Shore Coaches since Keith Krieger won the 2002 Group A title in 16:15. A year earlier, Marc Pelerin ran 16:00 to win Group A.

His 15:56 matches the fastest Holmdel time by a South Jersey junior since 2015, when Cherokee’s Jack Shea ran 15:46 at the Meet of Champions.

Here’s a look at the 10-fastest Cherokee runners at Holmdel:

15:40 … Shawn Wilson, 2012
15:41 … Ethan Wechsler, 2019
15:43 … Marc Pelerin, 2001
15:45 … Keith Krieger, 2002
15:45 … Shawn Wilson, 2011
15:46 … Jack Shea, 2015
15:56 … Nick Kuenkel, 2022
16:05 … Patrick Ditmars, 2022
16:09 … Joe Halin, 1999
16:12 … Justin Kelly, 2016

Ryan Smith ran the fastest Holmdel time ever by a Rancocas Valley runner Saturday and placed 4th in the Group B race at the Shore Coaches Invitational.

In cold and wet conditions, Smith ran 16:31 on the historic 5,000-meter Holmdel County Park course and finished only 22 seconds behind winner David McKinnon, a senior at North Hunterdon.

The fastest previous R.V. time at Holmdel was a 16:37 just last year at the Meet of Champions by Andre Faigal. Drew Hodge ran 16:41 at the 2004 Shore Coaches, Jon Harris ran 16:50 at the 1993 state Group 4 meet and Mike Clayton ran 16:53 at the 1987 Group 4 meet.

Smith’s fastest previous time at Holmdel was a 17:44 at last year’s Shore Coaches, so he ran 73 seconds faster on Saturday.

Despite cold and rainy conditions, Peyton Shute on Saturday became Gloucester County’s fastest runner at Holmdel County Park in 12 years.

Shute, a junior at Woodbury, ran 16:01 to place 4th in the Group F race at the Shore Coaches Invitational. That’s fastest by a Gloucester County runner at Holmdel since Paul Szulewski of Williamstown ran 15:54 at the 2010 Meet of Champions. It’s a family best: Older brother Brady ran 16:09 in 2020 at the Holmdel Invitational.

The only other faster runners from Gloucester County at Holmdel are Mike Mantini of Gateway [15:54 in 1978] and Anthony Dentino of Washington Township [15:59 in 2010].

Also in the Group F race, Haddon Heights packed five scoreres in 72 seconds and placed 3rd in team scoring with 104 points behind only New Jersey No. 3 Union Catholic [24] and Delbarton [91]. Heights averaged 17:22 on a course that’s slow and challenging even in good conditions.

Senior Jack Bolling led the way for the Garnets in 8th place in 16:38, senior Colin Patterson was 15th in 17:01, senior Ryan Wells took 23rd in 17:25 and then junior Jayden Gonzalez and sophomore Reggie Hernandez finished in 17:53, with Gonzale officially in 32nd and Hernandez in 33rd .

Senior Alex Boyko joined a long and illustrious list of Cinnaminson runners to win Shore Coaches titles when he crossed the line first Saturday in the Group D race at Holmdel County Park.

Boyko ran 16:25 in cold and rainy conditions and led three Cinnaminson runners in the top 10. Senior Matt McCarron was 2nd in 16:41 and senior Patrick Storti 7th in 17:38.

Boyko and McCarron are the first South Jersey teammates to go 1-2 in a Shore Coaches race in eight years, since Luke Petela and Owen Long of Haddon Township finished 1^st and 2^nd in the Group F race in 2014

Boyko joins Bill Mason [Group E in 1998], Jon Anderson [Group E in 2002], Mike Ungvarsky [Group D in 2015, Group E in 2016] and Austin Gabay [Group A in 2018 and 2019] as Cinnaminson Shore Coaches winners.

Bernards edged Cinnaminson 67-78 to win the Group E team title.

Lower Cape May senior Jack Cura [3rd in 17:30] and Cedar Creek junior Matt Winterbottom [5th in 17:31] also finished in the top 10.

Paul VI packed all five of its scorers in the top 20 and won its 10th Shore Coaches team title Saturday in Holmdel.

Junior Will Mrozinski placed 4th in 17:03 to lead the way for PVI. Despite the poor conditions, the time is a 35-second Holmdel County Park PR for Mrozinski, who ran 17:38 at Parochial A states last year.

Senior Joseph Wigginton [12th in 17:45], senior Tyler Smith [15th in 17:56], senior Matthew Houch [17th in 18:08] and sophomore Christian Napoli [20th in 18:14] all finished within half a minute of each other for the Eagles.

Paul VI averaged 17:49 on the hilly, water-logged 5,000-meter state championship course at Holmdel County Park and outscored Kinnelon 68-90 to win its first title since 2017, when it beat Dunellen 78-125 to win Group G.

Paul VI also won Group B in 1981, 1993, 1994 and 2000, Group A in 1984 and 1989, Group C in 1995 and 1999 and Group G in 2017.

Audubon junior Aiden Williams and senior Joseph Gaspari placed 7th and 11th out of 131 runners, Williams in 17:20 and Gaspari in 17:39.