Haddonfield confirmed their status as one of the top teams along the East Coast Sunday with a monster 2nd-place team finish in the Eastern States Championship race at the Manhattan Invitational.
The Haddonfield boys finished behind only the No. 2-ranked team in the country and beat 3rd-place Boston College High School of Dorchester, Mass., on a 6th-runner tiebreaker.
Junior Luke Andresen, senior Bennett Wright, junior Peter Simpson, junior Benjamin Andrus and junior Ryan Gibson packed from 13:09 to 13:30 – a 21-second gap on the historic 2 ½-mile course at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.
The Bulldogs averaged 13:22.6 and finished 2nd in a merge of 176 schools in the eight varsity races.
I believe the lowest team average by a South Jersey school on the 2 ½-mile course at Vanny is 13:20 by Haddonfield’s Greg Eisenhower, Martin Riddell, Derek Gess, Stephen Kasko and Griffin Weiner at the 2018 St. Regis Invitational.
There doesn’t appear to be an all-time Van Cortlandt Park team average list covering New Jersey or the course in general. Hard to believe nobody maintains a Vanny all-time team average list.
Anyway, Andresen ran 13:09 in 21st, Wright 13:16 in 30th, Simpson 13:18 in 31st, Andrus 13:30 in 44th and Gibson 13:38 in 57th.
Making the difference between 2nd and 3rd was junior Aaron Keith in 90th with a 14:03. He finished 41 spots and 29 seconds ahead of Boston College’s 6th runner.
Haddonfield, ranked No. 2 in New Jersey and No. 1 among public schools, is scheduled to race at the Camden County Championships at Timber Creek Park in Gloucester Township Friday and the Colonial Conference Championships at West Deptford Park a week from Thursday before racing at South Jersey Group 2 sectionals Nov. 2 at DREAM Park in Logan Township.
It’s possible their next full-effort race will be the Meet of Champions Nov. 16 at Holmdel Park.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 