With South Jersey alums Caleb Clevenger, Scott Hubbard and Giancarlo Vega all in the top five, Rowan placed all five scorers in the top 30 and raced to a big win at its own Rowan Interregional Border Battle over the weekend.
The Profs averaged 25:24 over the 8,000-meter course at DREAM Park in Logan Township and outscored 2nd-place DeSales of Upper Saucon Township, Lehigh County, by 87-135, with Moravian 3rd with 144 points.
With that result, Rowan moved up from 3rd to 2nd in the USTFCCCA NCAA Division 3 Metro Region rankings, behind only Haverford. DeSales moved up from 5th to 4th and Moravian of neighboring Bethlehem from 6th to 5th. The College of New Jersey dropped from 2nd to 3rd.
Junior Jacob Riley from North Warren High of Blairstown and Haddonfield’s Clevenger from Haddonfield led the way for Rowan with top-10 finishes in a field of nearly 300 runners.
Riley ran 25:11.0 for 8th place and Clevenger, a junior, was 10th in 25:14.9. Audubon’s Hubbard, a sophomore, [19th in 25:28.5], senior Dario Epifania from South Brunswick [21st in 25:31.9] and junior Giancarlo Vega from Timber Creek [30th in 25:38.0] made it five finishers in the span of 27 seconds.
Four other runners broke 26 minutes: junior Cole Kolodziej from Washington Township [41st in 25:49.3], sophomore Anthony Faust from Bishop Eustace [42nd in 25:49.9], sophomore Joshua Cason from Camden County Vo-Tech [44th in 25:50.5] and freshman Johannes Rivera from Bergenfield [54th in 25:58.6].
Rowan also won the open race, with seven in the top 20 in a field of more than 150: sophomore Tyler Green from Ocean City [5th in 26:02.9], sophomore Cole Mylan from Timber Creek [9th in 26:32.4], junior Cameron DiTroia from Ocean City [10th in 26:33.6], sophomore Sean Hice from WashingtonTownship [12th in 26:39.0], freshman Joshua Jackson from Williamstown [14th in 26:46.2], freshman Aidan Brad from Williamstown [17th in 26:50.9] and freshman Hunter Hughes from Monroe Township in Middlesex County [19th in 27:04.8].
Also in the championship race, Haddon Township graduate Jake Aylmer, a junior at Stevens in Hoboken was 24th in 25:33.6 and his former high school teammate at Haddon Township, Ian McCauley a Ramapo senior, was 35th in 35th in 25:43.7.
Former Kingsway runner Thomas Cooke, running under the Kingsway Track Club banner, won the Open race in 25:19.7.
The first collegiate runner was Woodstown graduate Xavier Seals, a senior at Georgian Court. Seals ran 25:35.6 and led Georgian Court to 2nd place in team scoring.
Maple Shade graduate Forrest Miller, a sophomore at DeSales, placed 39th in 27:47.4.
For the Rowan women, junior Anna Sasse of Williamstown placed 9th in the championship race in 22:15.5, and Isabelle Smith from Ocean City was 5th in the open race in 24:49.8.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 