Haddon Township seniors Jimmy Clauson and Shaun Maloney broke up a Haddonfield pack by placing 1st and 4th in a Colonial Conference batch meet Wednesday at Pennypacker Park in Haddonfield and Cherry Hill.
Haddonfield went 2-3-5-6-7-8-9-11-14-15-16-17, but Clauson was 1st across the line of 84 finishers in 16:44 and Maloney was 4th in 16:51.
It was Clauson’s first 5,000 on any course under 17 minutes. His previous all-course PR was a 17:19 in October 2023 on the same course. Maloney has run 16:47 – that was from DREAM Park in Logan Township last November, when he was 2nd in the South Jersey Group 1 race.
Seniors Peter Simpson and Ryan Gibson from No. 2-ranked Haddonfield placed 2nd and 3rd in 16:50.
In 5th through 9th for the Bulldogs were senior Michael Sinnes [16:53], junior Luke Patterson [17:16], senior Luke Andresen [17:17], senior Brandon Stoner [17:18] and junior Owen Snyder [17:19].
Also in the top 10 was Gloucester senior Vincent Kelly, 10th in 17:20.
Audubon senior Riley Fayer won the girls race in 19:50, followed by four Haddonfield runners: senior Sofia Conroy [20:24], junior Saya Sood [20:42], senior Elizabeth Pappas [20:45] and senior Chloe Rusc [21:22].
The rest of the top 10 looked like this: Haddon Township junior Tanner Lajoie [21:32], Haddonfield junior Grace McCool [21:42] and Audubon’s junior Lydia Gravante [21:52], junior Isabella Legatie [21:52] and freshman Emma Camm [21:52].
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 