Sophomore Joe Saicic placed 2nd, sophomore Zacchaeus Harrigan 5th and senior Jaeden Wesley 7th as mighty Glassboro rolled to the 1st state championship in school history.
Glassboro, ranked 13th in the state – a rarity for a Group 1 – overwhelmed the field, finishing with a 70-109 edge on Metuchen. Woodstown, led by Jacob Marino in 9th in 17:15.87, placed 3rd with 140 points.
Glassboro’s previous best finish at states was 3rd last year.
Saicic ran 16:50.42, Harrigan 17:04.27 and Wesley 17:11.57. It was a 22-second Holmdel PR for Wesley.
Sophomore Aaron Johnson was Glassboro’s 4th runner in 14th place in 17:34.35, a five-second Holmdel PR for Johnson.
Sophomore Gavin Rakitis and senior Jason Martin ran 18:33.51 and 18:37.19 and placed 46th and 49th for the Bulldogs, who had only six finishers.
Glassboro is the 19th South Jersey school to win Group 1, a group that includes Haddon Township eight times, Haddonfield four times before they moved up to Group 2, Maple Shade twice, Pennsville once and most recently Audubon in 2021.
The only Group 1 with a lower winning score since 2011 is Haddon Township with 51 in 2013, 31 in 2014 and 53 in 2019.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 