South Jersey has runners headed to all three NCAA championship meets Saturday – the Division 1 meet in Madison, Wisc., the Division 2 meet in Sacramento, and the Division 3 meet in Terre Haute, Ind.
Division 3
We’ll start with the Rowan women, who qualified for the NCAA Division 3 Championships by winning the Metro Regional in Galloway Township last weekend for the first time in program history.
Senior Anna Sasse from Williamstown and sophomore Ally Wernik from Washington Township are among Rowan’s top runners. The Profs can only race seven women Saturday but their list of 10 entrants also includes senior Mackenzie Saber from Williamstown and junior Issy Smith from Ocean City.
Rowan also lists freshman Zoey Dolling (Montgomery), senior Mia Guerra (Hasbrouck Heights), sophomore Maggie Michelet (Hunterdon Central), junior Gabriella Pagano (Pope John XXIII), sophomore Shannon Stakelbeck (Toms River East) and sophomore Emily Zanni (Sherwood, Sandy Spring, Md.) on its official entry.
At Regionals, Rowan raced Sasse, Wernick, Guerra, Pagano, Zanni, Stakelbeck and Doelling.
This will be Rowan’s 4th trip to nationals. The 1994 team placed 11th at Lehigh and the Profs also placed 26th and 27th in 2011 and 2012.
The NCAA Division 3 nationals women’s race is scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday over 6,000 meters at the Laverne Gibson Championship Course in Grange Corner, Ind., outside Terre Haute.
Also racing at D-3 nationals is Moorestown graduate Kate Inglis from Catholic University in Washington, D.C., who earned an auto bid as an individual by placing 6th in the South Regional at Choctaw Trails in Clinton, Miss.
The Rowan men just missed qualifying as a team. after placing 2nd at Regionals but will still be represented by three individuals in Terre Haute. Juniors Joshua Cason of Sicklerville Tech and Matthew Conway of Haddon Township, who placed 2nd and 12th at Regionals, are in the Profs’ top gorup. Also making the trip for the Profs is grad transfer Miles Voenell from Pacific Collegiate High in Santa Cruz, Calif.
West Deptford graduate Jacob Cobb will also race at D-3 Nationals with the full MIT team. MIT, ranked 12th in the country, earned an auto bid by winning the East Regional in Contoocook, N.H.
Cobb missed qualifying for Division 3 Outdoor Nationals last spring by less than a second after running 9:00.17 in the steeplechase in a meet in Williamstown, Mass., in May.
Division 2
The only South Jersey runner I found who’s headed for D-2 Nationals is Burlington Township graduate Payton Falkenstein, a sophomore at East Stroudsburg.
Falkenstein placed 11th at D-2 Atlantic Regionals in Lock Haven last weekend to qualify for nationals. This will be her first trip to nationals in track or cross country.
Falkenstein is the kind of story we love. Her progression since high school is astonishing. She had a 1,600 PR of 5:25.43 and a 3,200 PR of 11:54.28 at Burlington Township, and now she’s headed to California for Division 2 Nationals.
She’ll race at 2:15 p.m. EST Saturday at Haggin Oaks Golf Complex in Sacramento.
Division 1
Butler junior Austin Gabay from Cinnaminson qualified for Division 1 nationals with his 8th-place finish at Great Lakes Regionals.
The men’s race over 10,000 meters at the Thomas Zimmer Course in Madison, Wisc., is scheduled for 11:10 a.m. Saturday. Coverage on ESPN2 starts at 9:30 a.m.
This will be Gabay’s first NCAA meet in track or cross. He ran 49th at 2022 Southeast Regionals and 32nd in 2023 while competing for Duke. He also ran the 1,500 at NCAA East Prelims in the spring of 2023 and 2024 for Duke.
Butler, ranked 21st in the country, qualified as an at-large team after placing 3rd at Great Lakes Regionals last weekend. This is the Bulldogs’ 5th straight trip to NCAAs. They placed 13th last year.
Cherokee grad Ethan Wechsler was 6th man when Syracuse won the Orangemen won Northeast Regionals in Contoocook, N.H., 75-97, over Harvard to clinch their 16th consecutive berth at Division 1 National, so he’ll join Gabay on the line in Madison Saturday. Syracuse has won regionals 12 of the last 15 years.. Syracuse is ranked 17th in D-1.
Iowa State sophomore Seth Clevenger from Haddonfield did not compete at Midwest Regionals last weekend in Peoria, Ill., but he is on the Cyclones’ NCAA Championship roster and eligible to race. Iowa State is ranked 4th in NCAA Division 1.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 