Northern Burlington senior Liliah Gordon won her 3rd consecutive Burlington County Open title with the largest victory margin in meet history, and the Cherokee girls won their 8th team title and 5th in the last six years.
Gordon placed 2nd to Cherokee’s Nicole Clifford as a freshman, won the 2022 race in 18:31 and won last year in 18:25.
On Friday, Gordon ran 17:56 at Mill Creek Park in Willingboro on an amended course that circumvented the two trips up the hill, which isn’t in passable condition. She finished about 375 meters ahead of junior Madeline Meder and senior Megan Niglio of Cherokee, who finished 2nd and 3rd, both in 19:18.
Gordon’s margin of victory was a record 82 seconds. The largest previous margin came at the 1977 race – the first Burlington County girls championship race ever held -when Delran’s Janet Kimbleton won in 17:46 over three miles at Burlington County College in Pemberton, and Kennedy’s Kathy Sjolie took 2nd in 19:03 – a 77-second margin of victory.
The only other margin of victory of more than a miute came in 1985, when Shawnee’s Deanna Germano won by 67 seconds in 18:54 for 5K at Mill Creek over teammate Chris Danks.
Gordon became only the second three-time winner in the meet’s 47-year history. Liz Moore of Shawnee won in 1992 and 1993 at Mill Creek Park and 1994 at Cherokee.
Her time is 2nd-fastest ever at a County Open on any 5K course behind only Megan Lacy’s 17:53 on the full Mill Creek course in 2010.
Cherokee placed all five scorers in the top 12 to hold off Moorestown, which had all seven runners in the top 21. Cherokee won by a 31-49 score, with Northern Burlington 3rd with 64 points.
For Cherokee, Meder and Niglio were backed up by freshman Erin Healy [8th in 20:14], junior Maya Kumar [9th in 20:17] and senior Grace Wojciechowski [12th in 20:30] with sophomore Genisa John and junior Sofia Recinto also under 22 minuters, John in 23rd in 21:19 and Recinto 26th in 21:55.
Cherokee has won six of the last seven county titles – 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023 and 2024. The Chiefs also won in 2004, 2009 and 2010.
Junior Julia Flanagan of Holy Cross placed 4th in 19:20, the highest placing by a Holy Cross girl in 27 years, since Kathleen Porter ran 2nd in the 1997 race in 19:33 at Cherokee.
Moorestown was led by senior Gabrielle DeJoseph [5th in 20:04] and freshman Hope Edwards [7th in 20:12]. The rest of the Quaker scoring pack included senior Noelia Reyes [11th in 20:29], junior Lillian Stack Maya [14th in 20:41] and sophomore Sophia DiFiore [19th in 20:57], with freshman Makayla Zell [20th in 21:02] and junior Celia Frederico [21st in 21:02] giving Moorestown a 58-second gap from one through seven.
Also in the top 10 were Northern Burlington senior Kayla Leonhardt [6th in 20:09] and Shawnee senior Paige Cline [10th in 20:24].
Also running sub-21: Delran junior Ashley Doyle [13th in 20:34], Northern senior Zoe Chou [15th in 20:41], Lenape sophomore Audrey McCorkle [16th in 20:43], Maple Shade senior Crystal Benito [17th in 20:53] and Shawnee freshman Kelsey Beer [18th in 20:54].
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 