Eight girls and seven boys from South Jersey have been added to the Meet of Champions fields as individual wild-cards along with the Cherokee and Cherry Hill East boys and girls as wild-card teams.
The 53rd annual Meet of Champions is scheduled for Saturday at historic Holmdel County Park, where the hilly 5,000-meter course has been used for every Meet of Champions ever held.
The Haddonfield and Bishop Eustace boys teams were auto qualifiers, Haddonfield by winning the Group 2 state title and Eustace by winning Parochial B. The Cherokee boys had the 2nd-lowest score (behind Ridgewood) and Cherry Hill East was 7th in a merge that didn’t include the six state champions, so they got the 2nd and 7th team wild card berths. (I apologize for omitting Cherry Hill East initially.)
Haddonfield’s girls were also an auto-qualifier as the state Group 2 champs, and the Cherokee girls were added to the field as the 4th-fastest non-winner in the girls merge.
South Jersey boys who made the Meet of Champions with top-10 finishes from teams that didn’t qualify:
Elijah Whitaker [Glassboro], 1st Group 1 [16:07]
Aiden Williams [Audubon], 2nd Group 1 [16:22]
Ty Blackman [Glassboro], 3rd Group 1 [16:37]
Elijah Forest [Collingswood], 3rd Group 2 [16:22]
Peyton Shute [Woodbury], 1st Group 3 [15:47]
Aziz Muhammad-Kane [Highland], 5th Group 3 [16:23]
Will Mrozinski [Paul VI], 8th Parochial A [16:18]
Isaac Linden [Moorestown Friends], 4th Parochial B [17:42]
And here are the South Jersey boys who qualified with one of the 30-fastest times among runners not on qualifying teams:
Dylan Saber [Williamstown], 16:14
Ryan Duffy [Kingsway], 16:19
Matt Hoffman [Ocean City], 16:43
Ethan Buck [Ocean City], 16:45
Mason Wassell [Highland], 16:46
Peter Simpson [Moorestown], 16:46
Dominic Burgio [Williamstown], 16:56
Here’s a look at all the South Jersey girls from non-qualifying teams who advanced to Saturday with top-10 finishes in one of the six state meets:
Jordan Hadfield [Schalick], 1st Group 1 [19:20]
Macie McCracken [Wildwood], 5th Group 1 [20:19]
Jonalee Adams [Sterling], 7th Group 2 [19:59]
Liliah Gordon [Northern Burlington], 1st Group 3 [18:14]
Maeve Smith [Ocean City], 3rd Group 3 [18:33]
Sofia Day [Mainland Regional], 4th Group 3 [19:01]
Gillian Lovett [Mainland Regional], 7th Group 3 [19:35]
Alyssa Boucher [Williamstown], 8th Group 4 [19:37]
Shaelan McNally [Paul VI], 5th Parochial A [19:17]
Anya Kazemi [Bishop Eustace], 2nd Parochial B [19:55]
And South Jersey girls who qualified with one of the top-30 times from teams that didn’t qualify:
Michaela Schlemo [Egg Harbor Twp.], 19:47
Nilaa Ponnappan [Camden Catholic], 20:07
Allison Roes [Clearview], 20:15
Sophia Aldridge [Williamstown], 20:18
Shaelea Conaway [Cherry Hill East], 20:19
Giovanna Mantuano [Paul VI], 20;20
Cate Feudtner [Cherry Hill East], 20:22
Anna Marino [Cinnaminson], 20:25
The girls race is scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday and the boys race at noon.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 