Schalick junior Jordan Hadfield continued her historic season Saturday with an impressive win in the Group 1 race at the state cross country championships at Holmdel County Park.
Hadfield became Schalick’s first state XC champion ever and she recorded the fastest time at Holmdel County Park by a South Jersey Group 1 runner in 24 years.
Hadfield ran 19:20, the 17th-fastest time of the six state championship races Saturday and the fastest at Holmdel by any South Jersey Group 1 runner since Olympian Erin Donohue – during Haddonfield’s brief foray from Group 2 to Group 1 – ran 18:44 at the 1999 Meet of Champions. Haddonfield was back in Group 2 the next year.
The only other South Jersey Group 1 runners with faster times than Hadfield at Holmdel are Glassboro’s Ruth Lockbaum, who ran 19:12 when she placed 2nd in the 1984 state Group 1 meet behind only Karen Ahearn of Bernards; and Jamie Weisgerber of Woodstown, who ran 18:50 to win the state Group 1 race in 1994 in a 1-2 South Jersey finish with Northern Burlington’s Colleen Sunderland, who was 2nd in 19:20.
Hadfield won by 60 meters over Delena Einreinhofer of Walkill Valley, who placed 2nd in 19:34. The first seven finishers were all juniors. Among them was Wildwood’s Macie McCracken, who placed 5th in 20:19.
Next for Hadfield is the Meet of Champions back on the same course on Saturday.
As for Hadfield, a 1st-year cross country runner, she has now won five consecutive major meets since placing 6th at Shore Coaches, where she ran her previous Holmdel best of 20:18. That includes wins in the South Jersey Open, Salem County Championships, Tri-County Showcase, Group 1 sectionals and states.
Hadfield’s 19:20 is the fastest winning time in the state Group 1 meet since 2014, when Metuchen’s Rachel Suss ran 19:05.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 