Senior Ava Thomas and sophomore Riley Austin finished 1-2 for the second straight year and Haddonfield placed seven runners in the top 10 over the weekend at the Colonial Conference Championships.
Haddonfield unofficially won its 21st consecutive Colonial Conference meet 18-52 over Sterling, with Haddon Township in 3rd with 72 points.
Thomas, the Meet of Champions 3,200 winner last spring, won the race in 18:23, with Austin a step behind in 18:24 over 5,000 meters at Pennypacker Park in Haddonfield.
Sterling junior Jonalee Adames broke 19 minutes for the first time on any course, taking 3rd place in 18:56. She’s now placed 4th or better in the South Jersey Shootout, Shore Coaches, South Jersey Open and Colonial Conference meet.
Three more Haddonfield girls were next across the line – senior Anna Stolarick [4th in 19:21], freshman Madison Kelsey [5th in 19:24 in her first varsity weekend race] and junior Katherine Asher [6th in 19:33].
Haddon Township senior Genevieve Gentlesk placed 7th in 19:43 and Sterling junior Kaysie Luna 8th in 19:44, her first race under 20 minutes.
Then it was two more Haddonfield runners rounding out the top 10: freshman Harper Benjamin ran an all-course PR 19:45 for 9th place and junior Dylan Melcher 19:49 for 10th place.
According to the results I found, this meet has included official team scoring some years and hasn’t other years. Some years it’s impossible to tell.
But Haddonfield has had the lowest score – officially or unofficially – every year since 1988. The meet wasn’t held from 1992 through 2004 or in 2020.
Since the meet was revived in 2005, Haddonfield has never scored more than 26 points and has been at 15 through 19 eight times. Results before 1990 are incomplete, but we have enough information to tell Haddonfield did – or would have – won the team title.
It appears very likely from the limited results that are available that Haddonfield would not have won the 1987 race, although there’s no way to tell who would have. Newspaper stories do not mention a team champion and the results are only 15 deep.
So at worst, Haddonfield hasn’t lost a Colonial Conference meet in at least 36 years.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 