Northern Burlington junior Liliah Gordon cruised to her 2nd straight sectional cross country championship Saturday with a 1st-place finish in the Central Jersey Group 3 race in Jamesburg.
Gordon covered the 5,000-meter course at Thompson Park in 18:24.36, the fastest time in any sectional race at Thompson Park since Amanda Stone of Monmouth Regional ran 18:19 to win the 2019 Central Jersey Group 2 race.
Gordon ran 18:26.80 to win last year’s race by 150 meters over Allentown senior Meghan Rentner, who’s now at Bucknell.
She won this year’s race by 90 meters over Middletown South senior Rosemary Shay, the Meet of Champions 3,200 runner-up to Haddonfield’s Ava Thomas last spring.
Gordon has not lost to a New Jersey runner this year . She’ll aim for her 2nd straight state Group 3 title Saturday at Holmdel County Park. She won last year in 18:57.
The only other sectional champ in Northern Burlington history is Colleen Sunderland, who won South Jersey Group 2 in 1993 with a 19:01 at Kingsway.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 