Haddonfield junior Ava Thomas, 50 meters back with a lap to go, reeled in the leader just before the finish line and won the 3,200 at the Meet of Champions Thursday at Franklin Township.
Thomas became only the 3rd Haddonfield girl ever to win a Meet of Champions title and the first South Jersey girl to win a MoC 3,200 in 13 years.
Thomas ran a very patient race and even when New Jersey No. 1 Tilly O’Connor of St. Rose built a huge lead, Thomas just ran her race, reeling off even splits between 80 and 82 per lap.
With a lap to go, O’Connor’s lead was still 30 meters, with Lakeland’s Morgan Uhlorn 2nd and Thomas 3rd, with Middletown South’s Rosemary Shay just behind Thomas.
Thomas moved past Uhlorn and into 2nd on the final backstretch and began closing seriously on O’Connor – a 10:18 two-miler – on the last turn.
O’Connor’s lead was down to about 12 meters coming off the turn, and Thomas passed her with about 30 meters to go, stopping the clock at 10:44.34. Shay moved into 2nd just before the line, running 10:45.76, and O’Connor held on for 3rd in 10:46.36.
The only other MoC winners in Haddonfield history are Olympic gold medalist Erin Donohue [1,600 in 1999, 2000 and 2001, 3,200 in 1998, 2000 and 2001] and Briana Gess [1,600 in 2014, 2015 and 2016].
Thomas ran her PR 10:43.86 Saturday at the state Group 2 meet at Delsea, where she finished 2nd to Uhlhorn by about half a second.
Northern sophomore Liliah Gordon placed 5th in 10:53.68.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 