Shawnee’s Madelyn Valasek placed 4th overall to lead the Stockton women over Rowan in the season-opening Stockton Invite on the Ospreys’ home course in Galloway Township.
Valasek, a sophomore, ran 20:14.5 over 5,000 meters and was Stockton’s No. 2 runner, behind overall winner Kayla Kass, who won the race in 19:42.5. Valasek ran 34 seconds faster Friday than she ran on the same course as a freshman last fall.
Stockton went 1-4-5-6-12 and edged Rowan 28-33 to win the team title. Stockton is ranked No. 3 in the Metro Region by the USTFCCCA behind only Widener and The College of New Jersey and Rowan is No. 7.
Anna Sasse, a junior from Williamstown, was Rowan’s top runner in 2nd place in 20:04, and freshman Allyson Wernick was the Profs’ second finisher in her first collegiate race, taking 8th overall out of 75 runners in 20:31. She was the top freshman in the race and teammate Mackenzie Saber of Williamstown was the 2nd freshman finisher in 17th overall in her first college XC race (she ran track last year but not XC). The 3rd freshman finisher was Holy Family’s Maya Harper from Pleasantville.
Seniors Amanda McNally from Seneca and Cameron Wright from Cherry Hill East placed 9th and 11th and were Rowan’s 4th and 5th finishers, McNally in 20:34 and Wright in 20:40.
Valasek, Wright and Saber finished 4th, 5th and 6th in the 5,000 last spring at the New Jersey Athletic Conference Championships at Ramapo in Mahwah.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 