With a top seven comprised entirely of South Jersey high school graduates, Rowan recorded a team title Saturday in the Philadelphia Metropolitan Cross Country Championships at Fairmount Park’s Belmont Plateau in Philadelphia.
Sophomore Anthony Faust from Bishop Eustace and freshman Colin Patterson from Haddon Heights both placed in the top 10 for the Profs, who outscored 2nd-place Wilmington (Delaware) 49-63 for the team title. Stockton (82) and Georgian Court (93) placed 3rd and 4th in the 14-team competition.
Rowan is ranked 4th in the USATFCCC Metro Region and Stockton is 6th.
Faust ran 28:11.9 in hot, muggy conditions over five miles at Belmont to place 3rd and Patterson ran 28:22.4 to place 6th.
Also in Rowan’s top seven were freshman Joshua Jackson [14th in 28:54.7], sophomore Scott Hubbard [16th in 28:57.6], sophomore Joshua Cason [18th in 29:00], junior Sean Eisenhower [19th in 29:04.1] and sophomore Sean Hice [22nd in 29:15.5].
Sophomore Dalton Culleny of Cedar Creek was Stockton’s 5th runner and sophomore Tyler Wells from Audubon was the Ospreys’ 6th runner.
Wilmington was led by junior Dan Wyshinski from Pennsville in his first race since last year’s NCAA Division 2 East Regionals in Garden City, N.Y. Wyshinski placed 4th in 28:13.2. Freshman Joel Oquendo from Pennsauken, in his first collegiate race, was Wilmington’s 6th runner, taking 33rd overall in 29:39.
For Georgian Court of Lakewood, senior Xavier Seals of Woodstown placed 24th and was the Lions’ 3rd finisher.
Freshman Anas Bensaoud from Clearview, a transfer from SUNY Stony Brook, led Rowan College Gloucester County in 26th place overall in 29:22 in his first college XC meet. Bensaoud ran track last spring and was a double All-America at the NJCAA Division 3 Championships in Utica, N.Y.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 