In what appears to be his first collegiate race in more than seven years, Rutgers-Camden sophomore Jacob Dinerman of Haddon Township placed 3rd Saturday in the Philadelphia Cross Classic.

Dinerman ran 29:03 over 8,000 meters at Belmont Plateau in Fairmount Park. According to the Track and Field Results Reporting System, it was Dinerman’s first race since May 17, 2017, when he was a freshman at The College of New Jersey and ran an 800 PR of 1:55.73 at the Mideast Invitational at Widener University in Chester, Pa.

Also according to TFRRS, he never ran a cross country race while he was at TCNJ. It does appear he ran a road 5,000 in Edison in April 2021 and ran 14:39.76, but his last official XC race appears to be a Colonial Conference batch meet at Pennypacker Park in Haddonfield and Cherry Hill on Oct. 13, 2015.

On Saturday, Dinerman finished behind only John Ferry of Goldey-Beacom in Wilmington, Del., who won the race in 28:16, and Daniel Chinchilla of Felician in Rutherford, who was 2nd in 28:46.

Matt Martino, a Holy Family freshman from Hammonton, placed 14th out of 78 runners in 31:17 in his first collegiate race. C.J. Gilmore, a Rowan College-Gloucester County sophomore from Audubon, placed 20th in 31:56.

Maeve Smith became Ocean City’s 3rd individual winner of the day and ran the fastest time of the day Saturday when she won the senior class race at the 26th annual Cherokee Challenge.

Smith, 9th in the Meet of Champions last fall and 8th in the Meet of Champions 1,600 this past spring, ran 11:28 over two miles at Cherokee and won by 60 meters over Alli DeLisa of Penn Charter, who placed 2nd in 11:41.

Earlier, Riley Tolson of Ocean City won the freshman race in 12:07 and Carly Godfrey won the sophomore race in 11:57. Four of the eight-fastest times by South Jersey runners (four of 16 overall) were recorded by Ocean City runners. Ocean City’s 5th runner was Zoe Zammit, who plcae 16th in the senior race in 12:23, the 14th-fastest overall South Jersey performance.

In the senior race, the 2nd South Jersey finisher was Ocean City’s Chloe Care, who placed 4th in 11:46. Kaysie Luna of Sterling [5th in 11:53], Moorestown’s Gabrielle DeJoseph [6th in 11:53] and Cherokee’s Megan Niglio [10th in 12:07] also finished in the top 10.

There was no team scoring kept, but unofficially Ocean City would have won 58-110 over Pingry School of Bernards Township, Somerset County. Moorestown would have placed 4th with 187 and Cherokee 6th [229] out of 71 schools that fielded at least five runners in the four races.

Fastest South Jersey girls in the junior race were Julia Flanagan of Holy Cross [2nd in 11:55], Cherokee’s Madeline Meder [8th in 12:19], Williamstown’s Sophie Aldridge [9th in 12:22] and Collingswood’s Macie Straight [11th in 12:24].

In the sophomore race, Moorestown’s Sophia DiFiore placed 9th in 12:48, Egg Harbor’s Addison Lambert 10th in 12:53 and Lenape’s Audrey McCorkle 11th in 12:55.

Other than Tolson, the top South Jersey freshmen were Cherokee’s Erin Healy [6th in 12:31] and Moorestown teammates Hope Edwards [7th in 12:39] and Makayla Zell [8th in 12:42].

Here’s a look at every South Jersey girl that run 13:00 or faster in any of the four class races:

11:28.51 … Maeve Smith [Ocean City], 1st, senior race
11:46.29 … Chloe Care [Ocean City], 4th, senior race
11:53.13 … Kaysie Luna [Sterling], 5th, senior race
11:53.23 … Gabrielle DeJoseph [Moorestown], 6th, senior race
11:55.57 … Julia Flanagan [Holy Cross], 2nd, junior race
11:57.98 … Carly Godfrey [Ocean City], 1st, sophomore race
12:07.32 … Megan Niglio [Cherokee], 10th, senior race
12:07.36 … Riley Tolson [Ocean City], 1st, freshman race
12:09.17 … Nilaa Ponnappan [Camden Catholic], 11th, senior race
12:14.89 … Jonalee Adames [Sterling], 13th, senior race
12:15.50 … Lilliana Stack Maya [Moorestown], 6th, junior race
12:19.05 … Madeline Meder [Cherokee], 8th, junior race
12:22.82 … Sophie Aldridge [Williamstown], 9th, junior race
12:23.93 … Zoe Zammit [Ocean City], 16th, senior race
12:24.28 … Macie Straight [Collingswood], 11th, junior race
12:26..81 … Zoe Chou [Northern Burlington], 17th, senior race
12:31.59 … Erin Healy [Cherokee], 6th, freshman race
12:32.45 … Noelia Reyes [Moorestown], 22nd, senior race
12:34.60 … Juliana Sieminski [Delsea], 23rd, senior race
12:34.63 … Krystal Patel [Cherry Hill West], 24th, senior race
12:35.57 … Paige Pacquing [Egg Harbor Twp.], 16th, junior race
12:36.92 … Lilla Porter [Clearview], 27th, senior race
12:38.77 … Delaney Harbison [Williamstown], 29th, senior race
12:39.25 … Hope Edwards [Moorestown], 7th, freshman race
12:42.64 … Makayla Zell [Moorestown], 8th, freshman race
12:43.40 … Devyn Per [Egg Harbor Twp.], 17th, junior race
12:44.31 … Maya Kumar [Cherokee], 18th, junior race
12:44.59 … Sarah Brown [Moorestown], 32nd, senior race
12:45.53 … Kayla Leonhardt [Northern Burlington], 34th, senior race
12:47.54 … Ashley Doyle [Delran], 20th, junior race
12:48.11 … Sophia DiFiore [Moorestown], 9th, sophomore race
12:53.71 … Addison Lambert [Egg Harbor Twp.], 10th, sophomore race
12:55.95 … Audrey McCorkle [Lenape], 11th, sophomore race
12:58.74 … Natalie Clauhs [Hammonton], 37th, senior race

Ellie Goldberg, a West Chester junior from West Deptford, placed 3rd overall and helped the Golden Rams to a perfect score of 15 points Saturday at the West Chester Season Opener in East Marlborough Township, Chester County, Pa.

Goldberg ran a PR 15:56 over the 4,000-meter course at Unionville High School and finished behind only teammates Taylor Atkinson [15:26] and Kristina Tapia [15:30].

Goldberg did not run cross country at West Deptford. She ran track and had an 800 PR of 2:27.13 for 800 meters and 6:12.44 for the mile.

But she’s blossomed as a collegiate runner, and her progression at 4,000 meters shows her steady improvement in three years at WCU: 18:55 as a freshman in 2022, 17:01 and then 16:30 as a sophomore last fall and now 15:56, which is a 34-second PR.

Also in the top 10 was The College of New Jersey junior Noelle Falzone, a Cherokee graduate. Falzone was TCNJ’s second finisher, taking 7th overall in 16:37.

Georgian Court’s top finisher was senior Amirah Beasley from Washington Township.

After Jack Tindall smashed the freshman course record at the Cherokee Challenge in the first boys race of the day – click here for that story – Cherokee got a win and a 4th in the sophomore race from Benjamin Really [9:57] and Sean Sooy [10:13], a 2nd place in the junior race from Logan Bromley [9:59] and a 5th and a 9th in the senior race from Enzo Corona [10:01] and Benjamin Weiner [10:08].

Cherokee runners posted the 3rd-, 5th-, 7th-, 9th- and 15th-fastest times among the four class races and would have lost to the combioned field by just nine points – 21-30.

Cherokee runners had the five-fastest times among South Jersey boys and five of the 10-fastest times overall. And nine of the top 23 times.

Realley joins Mike Caputi [1997], Gregg Robinson [1999], Greg Bredeck [2003], Alex Yersak [2005], Chris Spisak [2017] and Nick Kuenkel [2021] as the seventh Cherokee runner to win the sophomore class race.

Logan Bromley took 2nd in the junior race behind only Justin Landis of North Penn, whose 9:43.12 was the fastest time of the day. Landis ran 4:15.82 for 1,600 meters last spring and placed 4th in the PIAA District 1 AAA Championships at Coatesville.

Corona and Weiner were the top two South Jersey runners in the senior race. Overall winner was another North Penn runner, Achilles Shui, who ran 9:48.71, 2nd-fastest time of the day. Corona’s 10:01 is 32 seconds faster than he ran last year, when he was 13th in the junior race, and Weiner’s 10:08 was 24 seconds faster than he ran last year in the same race.

Here’s a look at every South Jersey runner who broke 11 minutes Saturday morning:

9:53.24 … Jack Tindall [Cherokee], 1st freshman race
9:57.82 … Ben Realley [Cherokee], 1st, sophomore race
9:59.13 … Logan Bromley [Cherokee], 2nd, junior race
10:01.89 … Enzo Corona [Cherokee], 5th, senior race
10:08.48 … Benjamin Weiner [Cherokee], 9th, senior race
10:08.48 … Jacob Wickersham [Cinnaminson], 3rd, junior race
10:09.23 … Mason Wassell [Highland], 10th, senior race
10:10.03 … Matthew Littlehales [Delsea], 4th, junior race
10:12.62 … Arjun Patel [Millville], 11th, senior race
10:13.85 … Sean Sooy [Cherokee], 4th, sophomore race
10:18.71 … Julian Rich [Camden County Tech – Sicklerville], 14th, senior race
10:19.98 … Sean Alemi [Paul VI], 15th, senior race
10:21.34 … Dominic Bassey [Winslow Twp.], 16th, senior race
10:23.63 … Reggie Hernandez [Haddon Heights], 17th, senior race
10:25.10 … Marcus Flagg [Gloucester], 12th, junior race
10:26.73 … Liam Tindall [Cherokee], 19th, senior race
10:27.98 … Tate Midora [Cherokee], 20th, senior race
10:28.29 … Caleb Widerholt [Northern Burlington], 21st, senior race
10:29.99 … Ethan Worst [Clearview], 25th, senior race
10:31.34 … Yanni Ekatomatis [Shawnee], 15th, junior race
10:34.00 … Melvin Lewis [Pleasantville], 26th, senior race
10:35.03 … Brody Dillich [Shawnee], 29th, senior race
10:35.67 … Anthony DiBattista [Cherokee], 30th, senior race
10:36.00 … Rex Takakjy [Cherry Hill West], 16th, junior race
10:36.23 … Christopher Gray [Rancocas Valley], 31st, senior race
10:36.93 … Ehtan Caprarola [Bishop Eustace], 32nd, senior race
10:37.52 … Simon Bernhardt [Shawnee], 34th, senior race
10:38.83 … Brandon Smith [Cinnaminson], 36th, senior race
10:40.65 … Noah Stapleton [Shawnee], 38th, senior race
10:42.14 … Zaccheus Harrigan [Haddon Heights]
10:42.90 … Max Long [Paul VI], 9th, sophomore race
10:45.30 … Vincent Perri [Winslow Twp.], 20th, junior race
10:46.53 … Blair Duckney-Furbert [Timber Creek], 21st, junior race
10:46.55 … Logan Pavelik [Williamstown], 22nd, junior race
10:46.88 … Matthew McDevitt [Egg Harbor Twp.], 23rd, junior race
10:48.53 … Matthew Reed [Egg Harbor Twp.], 24rd, junior race
10:49.19 … Owen James [Haddon Heights], 40th, senior race
10:50.00 … Luke Wolfram [Haddon Twp.], 27th, junior race
10:51.23 … Marquise Snead [Delsea], 30th, junior race
10:51.81 … Isaac Linden [Moorestown Friends], 45th, senior race
10:54.19 … Christian Rouzard [Rancocas Valley], 48th, senior race
10:54.26 … Christian Napoli [Paul VI], 49th, senior race
10:54.31 … Teddy Jones [Rancocas Valley], 31st, junior race
10:56.14 … Shaun Maloney [Haddon Twp.], 38th,junior race
10:56.41 … Ben Gettings [Egg Harbor Twp.], 15th, sophomore race
10:56.61 … Brady McKee [Rancocas Valley], 52nd, senior race
10:56.66 … Ryan Scaricaciottoli [Cinnaminson], 16th, sophomore race
10:57.15 … Noah Taylor [Northern Burlington], 53rd, senior race
10:58.17 … Chase Conley [Paul VI], 19th, sophomore race
10:58.58 … Tyler Galtman [Clearview], 41st, junior race
10:58.58 … Stephen Sluraski [Egg Harbor Twp.], 20th, sophomore race

Ocean City girls won the first two races at the 26th annual Cherokee Challenge Saturday morning, with Riley Tolson winning the freshman race and Carly Godfrey winning the sophomore race. It was the first varsity cross country race for both,.

Tolson began her varsity career by running 12:07 on the two-mile course at Cherokee, becoming the first Red Raider girl to win the freshman race at the Challenge. The best previous finish was a 2nd place by Christina Missar in 1996, the meet’s inaugural season. She placed 2nd to Rancocas Valley’s Sara Belinsky.

Godfrey ran 11:57 to win the sophomore race, showing great range after running 59.69 and 2:18.50 last spring. This is her first season of cross country. In fact, she had never run anything over 1,600 meters indoors or outdoors in track. She’s the second Ocean City girl to win the Challenge sophomore race, the first since Alexa Palmieri in 2018.

In his first varsity race, Cherokee’s Jack Tindall destroyed the freshman course record at the 28th annual Cherokee Challenge, covering the two-mile course in 9:53.24.

Tindall shattered the course record of 10:09 set in 2007 by Triton’s Robert Rawls and matched in 2009 by Matt Nelson of Barnegat.

His time was 3rd-fastest of all four races, fastest by a New Jersey runner and would have placed him 2nd in the junior and senior races and 1st in the sophomore race.

Tindall, who ran 4:14.98 in West Chester in May for a full mile as an 8th-grader, won by 49 seconds over Zaccheaus Harrigan of Haddon Heights, who was 2nd in 10:42.14.

That 9:53 is 20th-fastest in course history in any class. Tindall became the first Cherokee boy to win the freshman race at the traditional season-opening Cherokee Challenge in 20 years, since Alex Yersak ran 11:08 to win the 2004 race over a slightly different course.

West Deptford sophomore Taylor Sierzega opened her 2024 season by finishing a minute and a half ahead of the field in a Colonial Conference batch meet Wednesday.

Sierzega ran 21:57 over 5,000 meters at West Deptford Park in her first race since she placed 14th in the state Group 2 meet at Holmdel County Park as a freshman 10 months ago. She did not run indoor or outdoor track.

Last fall, Sierzega’s 20:29 was 2nd-fastest by a South Jersey freshman at Holmdel, behind only Eastern’s Theresa Albertson, who ran 20:26 at the state Group 4 meet the same day.

Also in the top five Wednesday were Lindenwold junior Daisy DelaRosa [23:31], Gloucester senior Cameron Harris [24:43], Audubon freshman Sophia Brassill [24:45] and Audubon sophomore Lydia Gravante [24:51].

Junior Riley Austin, No. 1 runner on Haddonfield’s state Group 2 championship team last fall, opened her 2024 season with a win at a Colonial Conference batch meet Tuesday at Pennypacker Park in Haddon Township and Cherry Hill.

Austin covered what is listed as 5,000-meter course but was likely a two-mile course in 12:04, finishing 175 meters clear of the field.

Austin placed 3rd in the state Group 2 meet last fall and ran 2:16.87 indoors for 800 meters. She didn’t run in the spring, so this was her first race since the indoor Meet of Champions at Ocean Breeze six months ago.

Austin led a 1-2-3-4 Haddonfield finish with teammates sophomore Madison Kelsey [2nd in 12:45], junior Tylin Regan [3rd in 12:54] and sophomore Molly Mills [4th in 12:54].

Gloucester junior Emma Dick placed 5th, also in 12:54, and senior Dylan Melcher [6th in 12:55] and sophomore Devon Gervasi [7th in 12:55] of Haddonfield also broke 13 minutes.

Juniors Marcus Flagg and Vincent Kelly and senior Trey Fitzpatrick from Gloucester swept the top three spots Tuesday in a season-opening Colonial Conference batch meet at Pennypacker Park in Haddonfield and Cherry Hill.

The results show the race over 5,000 meters, but considering Flagg, Kelly and Fitzpatrick ran 10:35.96, 10:44.35 and 11:10.32 we’re guessing it was a two-mile course.

Team scores weren’t kept, but unofficially Gloucester would have defeated Haddon Township 22-35. Paulsboro and Lindenwold also competed but didn’t field complete teams.

Flagg was a state Group 1 medalist in the 800 last spring and ran 1:58.94. He was the top sophomore Group 1 half-miler in the state.

For Kelly, this was his first-ever cross country race. He ran track last year but has never run XC previously.

Fitzpatrick was Gloucester’s No. 1 runner last fall when the Lions placed 2nd in the South Jersey Group 1 meet behind Haddon Township.

Senior Manolo Foote [11:34.86] and junior Luke Wolfran [11:35.35] placed 4th and 5th for Haddon Township.

Moorestown graduate Will Inglis, a sophomore at Elizabethtown, placed 2nd in the Franklin & Marshall Invitational Friday, and teammates Jake Smith of Highland and Ethan Wence of Triton also placed among the top 13 finishers.

Inglis ran 9:56.0 over two miles, finishing 2nd to teammate Daniel Myers, who ran 9:50. Smith finished 11th in 10:31.6 and Wence was 13th in 10:33.3.

So three of E-town’s top nine runners were from South Jersey.

Franklin and Marshall is located in Lancaster, but the Baker Campus athletic fields that host the cross country course are in Mannheim Township.