Seniors Abigail Waddington and Abigail Kotran and junior Margaret Wisniewski all placed in the top 12 to lead the Clearview girls to their first state cross country championship in program history.
Waddington ran 19:10 at Holmdel County Park and placed 2nd in the state Group 3 meet to Northern Burlington’s Liliah Gordon, Kotran ran 19:32 and placed 6th and Wisniewski ran 20:01 to place 12th overall.
Gordon became Northern Burlington’s first state cross country champion in program history Saturday, winning in 18:57 over Holmdel’s hilly, winding 5,000-meter course. More on Gordon soon!
Clearview, ranked 4th in New Jersey, outscored 2nd-place North Hunterdon 57-82. The Pioneers became the first South Jersey school to win the state Group 3 title since Moorestown in 1999.
Clearview had never placed in the top 10 previously at the state XC championships. The Pioneers’ previous best finish was last year’s 11th place.
Waddington’s finish is the best by a Clearview girl at the state meet since 1990, when Carrie Thompson placed 5th in Group 3 in 21:32 at Holmdel.
Junior Allison Roes ran 20:40 and placed 24th and senior Aubrey Donahue ran 21:16 for 37th for Clearview, which averaged 20:07 at Holmdel and earned an automatic berth in next weekend’s Meet of Champions on the same course.
The 20:07 average is Clearview’s best ever at Holmdel. Their previous best was a 20:18 average at Shore Coaches in September.
Clearview is only the 3rd Gloucester County girls program to win a state XC title. Delsea won Group 2 in 2009 and Pitman won Group 1 in 2013.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 