The Shawnee boys enjoyed their best day in nearly two decades at the state Group 3 meet Saturday at Holmdel.
It was the first time in 18 years that the Renegades placed in the top five at a state meet.
Led by senior Noah Stapleton in 16th place, the Renegades placed 5th in the state. It was their best finish since the 2006 team, led by then-freshman David Forward in 18th, placed 3rd.
Stapleton ran 16:48, a Holmdel PR. He ran 17:09 last year at Shore Coaches. His time is fastest by a Shawnee runner since Mark Miller ran 16:41 at the 2016 state Group 4 meet.
Also racing Saturday for Shawnee were senior Simon Bernhardt [30th in 17:04], junior Yanni Ekatomatis [41st in 17:12], senior Elias Knoll [58th in 17:31] and senior Jake Steelman [83rd in 17:59], with senior Finnegan Bracken just behind Steelman [88th in 18:05].
Shawnee’s 17:18 team average is their fastest since the 1998 state Group 4 meet, where they placed 4th with Dan Christensen [16:49], Adam Ambrus [17:02], Richard Stevenson [17:17], Adam Grant [17:20] and Will Peoples [17:44] averaging 17:14.
It was also 5th-fastest among all South Jersey schools on Saturday, behind only Haddonfield [16:21], Cherry Hill East [16:33], Cherokee [16:34] and Ocean City [16:45].
Shawnee came up a few spots shy of qualifying for Meet of Champions. In a merge of the 105 no non-winning teams, the Renegades ranked 15th. The top eight non-winning teams received at-large bids to the MoC.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 
Thank you for covering the team, and south jersey runners generally. The coaches and student athletes worked really hard to get to this point. Seeing their name in lights along with the other tremendous south jersey XC teams means a lot to many people.
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Thanks for the note, John! Really appreciate it! I go pretty far back with Shawnee XC – back to when Shak was coaching there – so really happy to see the program on the upswing! Happy Thanksgiving!
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