Gillian Lovett became Mainland Regional’s first Cherokee Challenge winner in eight years Saturday when she won the senior race at the 26th annual Challenge on a hot, muggy morning that wasn’t conducive to fast times.

Lovett ran 11:38.5 over 3.2 kilometers, finishing just ahead of Cherokee’s Kerry O’Day, who was 2nd in 11:44.4.

The only other Cherokee Challenge winner in Cherokee history is Alyssa Aldridge, who won the freshman race in 11:58 in 2014 and the sophomore race in 11:34 in 2015.

Despite the difficult conditions, Lovett’s time was fastest in the Senior Race since 2019, when Maddy Kopec of Red Bank Catholic ran 11:34..

Lovett’s time was fastest by any South Jersey runner in any race since Aldridge’s 11:34 in 2015 and fastest in the senior race since Shelby Cain of Haddonfield ran 11:33 in 2013.

As a junior, Lovett placed 5th at the state Group 3 meet with a 19:27 at Holmdel County Park.

In addition to Lovett and O’Day, other South Jersey girls under 12 minutes Saturday included Ocean City’s Maeve Smith [3rd in Junior Race in 11:41.7], Mainland’s Sofia Day [4th in Junior Race in 11:53.6] and Williamstown’s Alyssa Boucher [6th in Senior Race in 11:57.3].

Mainland finished 2^nd in the overall girls team scoring competition and was the top South Jersey school with 53 points with top-10 finishers in three of the four races [Cecilia Foreman 9^th in freshman race, Day 4^th in junior race, Lovett 1^st in senior race]. Mainland’s top soph finisher was Macie Gannon.

Sadie Krueger of Northern Burlington Middle School won the Middle School race with a 8:06.4 over 2,400 meters, only eight seconds off the middle school record of 7:58 set by Haddonfield’s Briana Gess.

Cherokee’s Ethan Wechsler raced to a top-10 finish Friday at the Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational at Penn State.

Wechsler, a Syracuse junior, covered the 5.2-mile course in State College in 25:44.8, which is 24:45 pace for the more conventional five-mile or 8,000-meter course.

Wechsler was Syracuse’s seventh runner, and the Orangemen scored a near-perfect 16 points in winning the team title 16-59 over Pitt. The host Nittany Lions were 3rd with 71 points.

Syracuse packed its first seven runners in 13.7 seconds. Senior Perry Mackinson was the overall winner in 25:31.1.

Syracuse is ranked No. 11 in NCAA Division 1 by the USATFCCCA (USA Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association) and No. 1 in the Northeast Region.

Moorestown’s Kate Inglis, a junior at Catholic in Washington, D.C., placed 6th out of more than 50 runners Friday in the Mount St. Mary’s 5K Duals in Emmitsburg, Md.

Inglis ran 19:09.8 over the 5,000-meter course and was Catholic’s first runner across the finish line. That 19:09.8 is a collegiate 5K PR for Inglis, whose previous fastest all-course time over 5,000 meters was 19:57.0 in September 2021 in a meet at the Kernstown Battlefield in Winchester, Va.

Catholic placed 3rd with 84 points, behind George Washington (15) and Howard (79).

Inglis was the steeplechase champion and 1,500 runner-up this past spring at the Landmark Conference Championships at Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pa., and 3,000 runner-up at the indoor championships in Selinsgrove, Pa. She was 4th in the Landmark Conference XC meet last fall in Baltimore.

At Moorestown, Inglis was the South Jersey Group 3 sectional champ at 3,200 meters in 2021 at Delsea.

Freshman Donnie Jellig from Haddonfield was Franklin & Marshall’s 1st finisher and 2nd overall Saturday in the F&M Open.

Jellig ran 16:41.0 over the 5,000-meter course at Franklin & Marshall’s Baker Campus Fields in Mannheim Township, just outside Lancaster. He placed 2nd overall to F&M alum Mike Maglione, a 2023 graduate.

Jellig was the top finisher among 13 F&M runners in his first collegiate race.

At Haddonfield, Jellig placed 12th last fall in the state Group 2 cross country meet at Holmdel and was the Bulldogs’ 3rd finisher as they won their 20th state title.

Delsea’s Andrew Littlehales opened his season with a big race for Army Saturday at the Maine Black Bear Invitational.

Littlehales, a sophomore, placed 6th out of 65 runners, covering the 8,000-meter course at Penobscot Valley Country Club in Orono in 25:05.8.

Littlehales was Army’s No. 4 runner in a 26-56 win over New Hampshire, with Maine 3rd also with 56 points.

Last fall, Littlehales only raced twice for Army and had an 8,000 PR of 26:37.8 from a race in Van Cortlandt Park.

At Delsea, ran 4:17.71, 9:10.39 and 15:04.81 on the track and was 3rd at the state Group 3 XC meet at Holmdel in the fall of 2021.

Cinnaminson’s Austin Gabay edged Duke teammate Rory Cavan to win the Friday Night Lights Elon XC Opener Friday night at Elon’s home course.

Gabay ran 17:38.5 over 6,000 meters and finished 1-10th of a second ahead of Cavan, who ran 17:38.6. Duke packed its first five finishers within six seconds of each other and out-scored 2nd-place High Point (N.C.) 15-65, with East Carolina 3rd with 91 points.

This was Gabay’s first collegiate victory in any race.

Gabay’s previous all-course PR over a 6,000-meter course was 18:09.2 last September at the Virginia Invitational in Earlysville, Va.

Gabay has track PRs of 4:06.70 and 14:17.98.

Duke is ranked No. 5 in the NCAA Division 1 Southeast Region by the USTFCCCA, behind ACC schools North Carolina, Virginia and North Carolina State and Eastern Kentucky out of the Atlantic Cun Conference.

Senior Holly Chambers from Kingsway and freshman Payton Falkenstein from Burlington Townshop were East Stroudsburg’s 3rd and 4th runners Friday as the Warriors opened the season with a team championship at the Adelphi Panthers Invitational.

Chambers placed 7th overall in 19:42.9 and Falkenstein was 10th in 20:05.4 over the 5,000-meter course at Bethpage Park in Old Bethpage, N.Y.

East Stroudsburg outscored Kutztown 34-62 to win the team title, and host Adelphi was 3rd with 79. It was

It was the first race in an East Stroudsburg uniform for both South Jersey natives.

Chambers is a transfer from Ursinus, and this was her first race in track or XC in 10 months – since she was 12th for Ursinus at last year’s Centennial Conference Championships at Haverford.

Falkenstein didn’t run cross country at Burlington Township, so this was her first competitive XC race on any level anywhere. She ran track and placed 5th in the County Open at 3,200 meters last spring at Northern Burlington.

Haddon Township graduate Meghan Lex began her collegiate running career in outstanding fashion Friday evening, leading St. Bonaventure’s pack at the Little Three Cross Country Championships.

Lex, a Bonnies freshman, placed 5th overall out of 48 runners in 19:18.0 over 5,000 meters at Delaware Park in Buffalo. St. Bonaventure’s first seven runners included four freshmen and four sophomores.

Host Canisius won the team title with 18 points and St. Bonaventure was 2nd with 47. Lex’s time is 12th-fastest in St. Bonaventure history over any course at 5,000 meters.

Lex only ran faster than 19:18 once at Haddon Township – a 19:10.7 on the DREAM Park speedway in Logan Township when she won the South Jersey Group 1 title in October.

On Friday, we wrote about Seth Clevenger’s season opener for Iowa State, and now it’s time to give his brother some props.

Caleb Clevenger, a junior at Rowan, won the season-opening Stockton Invitational in Galloway Township Friday by two seconds over teammate Jacob Riley of North Warren High.

Clevenger covered Stockton’s 6,000-meter course in 18:41, and the Profs went 1-2-5-6-7 to win the team title by 21-60 over Stockton, with Georgian Court (86) and Ursinus (92) also in double figures.

Rowan is ranked No. 4 in the NCAA Division 3 Metro Region by the USTFCCCA and Stockton is No. 6. Haverford, Moravian and Swarthmore hold the top three spots, with The College of New Jersey 5th.

It was Clevenger’s first invitational win in track or cross country. His best previous finish in a major race was a 3rd place in the steeplechase at the NJAC championships last spring in Mahwah.

Also in Rowan’s scoring pack were senior Dario Epifania from South Brunswick [5th in 18:53], junior Giancarlo Vega of Timber Creek [6th in 18:53] and Shane Vostenak from Pennsauken [7th in 18:55]. Sophomore Matthew Conway from Haddon Township [11th in 19:07] and Washington Township’s Cole Kolodziej [12th in 19:11] were also in the Profs’ top seven, with sophomore Anthony Faust from Bishop Eustace 13th in 19:15.

Delsea’s Noah Deckert placed 4th overall and led St. Joe’s to the team title Friday at the Lehigh Invitational on the historic Goodman Cross Country Course in Bethlehem.

Deckert ran 18:13.4 over 6,000 meters and was St. Joe’s first finisher and second college finisher. Penn’s Dylan Throop won the race in 18:00.0 followed by two post-grads.

St. Joe’s edged Penn 33-37 and Lehigh was 3rd with 53 points. That’s something of an upset for the Hawks, who are ranked 11th in the Mid-Atlantic Region by the USTFCCCA, four spots below Penn.

(Something that probably only I care about: The Lehigh XC course is actually not entirely in Bethlehem. When the runners hit about 2 ½ miles on the 6K course (or at about 5 ½ miles on the 10K course) and and make a left turn just below I-78, that part of the course is in Lower Saucon Township. The course then goes down a hill parallel to Mountain Drive and turns left back into Bethlehem and toward Goodman Stadium and the finish line.)