Northern Burlington senior Liliah Gordon became the fourth South Jersey girl to win three straight state cross country championships Saturday morning at Holmdel County Park.
Gordon joined Erin Donohue and Vanessa Wright of Haddonfield and Alyssa Aldridge of Mainland Regional as three-time winners when she won the state Group 3 race Saturday morning.
According to MileSplit, Gordon ran 17:58 and finished 125 meters ahead of 2nd-place Allison Lee of West Windsor-Plainsboro.
That 17:58 is a Holmdel PR for Gordon and makes her 8th-fastest South Jersey girl ever at Holmdel with the 12th-fastest time:
17:27.83 … Megan Venables [Highland Reg.], 2010
17:40 … Michelle Rowen [Washington Twp.], 1982
17:44 … Chelsea Ley [Kingsway], 2008
17:45 …….. Venables, 2010
17:45 … Briana Gess [Haddonfield], 2013
17:50 …….. Venables, 2010
17:52 … Chelsea Ley [Kingsway], 2010
17:52 …….. Ley [Kingsway], 2009
17:55 …….. Ley, 2009
17:55 … Megan Lacy [Cherokee], 2010
17:55 … Alyssa Aldridge [Mainland], 2016
17:58 …….. Ley, 2008
17:58 … Liliah Gordon [Northern Burlington], 2024
We don’t know Gordon’s winning time or who placed 2nd or any other information on the race and the timing company hired to provide live results hasn’t posted any results all day.
But Gordon bounced back Saturday after placing 2nd at Central Jersey Group 3 Sectionals, where she finished 125 meters behind Lee.
Goredon placed 2nd to Lilly Shapiro of Colts Neck as a freshman, then won Group 3 as a sophomore in 18:57 and a junior in 18:14.
Donohue won four straight state titles from 1997 through 2000 – the first two in Group 1, the next two in Group 2. Wright won Group 2 from 2002 through 2005 and Aldridge won Group 3 from 2015 through 2017.
Previous two-time winners from Burlington County were Kari Vigerstol of Holy Cross in Parochial A in 1993 and 1994 and Cherokee’s Megan Lacy in Group 4 in 2010 and 2011.
We’ll add more details as soon as we have them.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 