Rowan mixed it up with some of the top-ranked NCAA Division 3 teams in the country Saturday and placed 4th at its own Border Battle in Logan Township.
Senior Joshua Cason from Camden County Vo-Tech in Sicklerville led Rowan in 9th place in 24:42 over 8,000 meters at DREAM Park and then grad student Miles Voenell from Santa Cruz, Calif., sophomore Colin Patterson from Haddon Heights, senior Caleb Clevenger from Haddonfield and junior Scott Hubbard from Audubon all finished from 30th to 39th between 25:29 and 25:42.
For Cason, this was his first time under 25 minutes for an 8K. His previous all-course best was 25:02 at Paul Short earlier this month at Lehigh’s south campus course in Bethlehem and Lower Saucon Township.
Also for the Profs, senior Matthew Conway from Haddon Township ran 25:44 for 44th and senior Giancarlo Vega from Timber Creek was 54th in 25:53.
Jacob Dinerman of Haddon Township, a sophomore at Rutgers-Camden, placed 14th in 24:57. Widener junior Thomas Flear from Clearview ran 25:26 for 29th. And Haddon Township grad Jake Aylmer of Stevens placed 60th in 26:00.
Three schools ranked in the top 20 in this week’s NCAA Division 3 USTCAAA poll took the top three spots – No. 16 Lynchburg (Va.) won with 49 and No. 23 Washington and Lee from Lexington, Va., took 2nd with 56 points on a 6th-runner tiebreaker with No. 6 Johns Hopkins of Baltimore.
Rowan was ranked as high as 24th earlier this year but isn’t currently in the top-25. The Profs are 3rd in the Metro Region, behind Moravian and Haverford, neither of which raced at the Border Battle.
Rowan will race next on Nov. 2 at the New Jersey Athletic Conference Championships at the Green Lane Fields in Ewing.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 