Courtney O’Hara, a freshman at Rowan College Gloucester County from Gateway, placed 13th out of nearly 100 runners Saturday at the NJCAA National Championships.
O’Hara earned All-America honors, and the Roadrunners placed 5th in the final team standings with 146 points.
O’Hara ran 20:49.4 over 5,000 meters at John Hunt Park in Huntsville, Ala., earning All-America honors.
What makes her performance so interesting is that there’s barely any record of her running in high school.
O’Hara ran two batch meets for Gateway early in the 2021 season with a PR of 23:36, and she’s listed on MileSplit with two track races, both indoors – a 400 at the Bubble in January of 2019 and an 800 at the Bubble in January 2020.
If there are any additional performances leading up to her breakthrough freshman year at RCGC, I can’t find them.
O’Hara placed 2nd in the Region XIX Championships two weeks ago at Lancaster Central Park in West Lampeter Township, Pa.
Also scoring for RCGC Saturday were sophomore Mackenzie Cochrane of Washington Township [32nd, 22 team points], freshman Alexandra Campo from Woodbury [39th, 28 team points], freshman Madison O’Donnell of Williamstown [48th, 34 team points] and sophomore Susana Serrano of Woodbury [68th, 51 team points]. Sixth runner was Grace Wahl of Washington Township.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 