Senior Gabriella Pagano from Pope John XXIII placed 7th overall and junior Shannon Stakelbeck from Toms River East and junior Allyson Wernik from Washington Township both finished in the top 50 among nearly 300 runners Saturday and Rowan placed 3rd of 33 schools at the Border Battle in Logan Township.
Pagano ran 21:43 over 6,000 meters at DREAM Park. Stakelbeck ran 22:41 for 40th and Wernik 22:45 in 43rd.
Carnegie-Mellon of Pittsburgh had four of the first seven finishers and won the team title with 32 points with Johns Hopkins of Baltimore 2nd with 127 and Rowan 3rd with 231.
Carnegie-Mellon is 8th in the most recent USTFCCCA NCAA Division 3 poll and Johns Hopkins is 3rd. Rowan is ranked No. 1 in the Metro Region.
Rowan’s 4th and 5th runners were junior Jezena Aponte, a transfer from New Jersey City from Snyder High in Jersey City [83rd in 23:28] and freshman Juliana Sieminski from Delsea [85th in 23:29].
Stockton in 9th place was led by four-time 800 All-America senior Kayla Kass of Bayonne in 38th with a 22:39. Shawnee’s Madelyn Valasek ran 23:00 and was Stockton’s 3rd runner in 61st place.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 