As we hit a little lull before indoor track really kicks into gear, I wanted to take a moment to look back at Haddonfield’s astonishing cross country season.
Is this the greatest XC team in South Jersey history?
They’re in the mix.
All the Bulldogs did was win sectionals by 63 points with only one of their usual top five, scored 27 points to win states, then score just 90 points at the Meet of Champions to finish 2nd behind only the No. 3 team in the country.
Then they took on the best teams in the Northeast at Nike Cross Regionals and placed 2nd to that same No. 3 team in the country to earn a berth at Nationals in Oregon, where they finished 9th in the entire freaking country.
That made them only the second New Jersey public school ever to finish in the top 10 at Nike Nationals. And the first since the legendary West Windsor-Plainsboro North team with the Rosa twins in 2009.
Haddonfield also placed 2nd in last year’s Meet of Champions – and actually had a slightly lower score – but finished 4th at Nike Cross Regionals and didn’t make it to Oregon.
And they did all this without their projected 5th man, senior Aaron Keith, the state 800 champ last year, who got hurt early in the season and didn’t run after a batch meet on Sept. 9.
There are about 30,000 high schools in the U.S. and eight finished ahead of Haddonfield.
There are plenty of terrific programs in South Jersey. Just this year, Haddonfield placed 2nd, Cherokee 5th, Cherry Hill East 7th, Ocean City 9th and Glassboro 12th out of Group 1 at the Meet of Champions.
Five of the top public schools in the state came from South Jersey.
A phenomenal coaching job by Matt Cieslik, who is assisted by former Haddonfield runner Andrew Gostovich.
There have been a ton of extremely successful XC teams in South Jersey history. Mainland Regional won the MoC in 2002 and 2003. Haddonfield won in 2001, placed 2nd three times and 3rd three other times. Cherokee has placed 2nd or 3rd five times. Holy Cross was second back in 1983, and Washington Township and Cherry Hill East have each had 3rd-place finishes as well. Then there were the great Paul VI teams, who from 1984 won four Meet of Champions, placed 2nd twice and 3rd three times.
Interesting to note that Cieslik ran on that 1988 Paul VI team, placing 14th at the Meet of Champions, he was an assistant to George Steinhoff on the 1994 team that beat CBA by 18 at the MoC and he coached the 2014 Cherry Hill East team that finished 3rd in the 2014 meet, behind only CBA and South Brunswick. He arrived at Haddonfield in 2023 as co-head coach with the late legendary Nick Baker before taking over the program.
If you had to pick a best team in South Jersey before this year, you’d probably pick one of those Paul VI teams, who were completely dominant. The 1988 team scored just 62 points in winning the MoC, the 1989 team scored just 50, and the 1994 team 63 points.
There’s no way to really compare or declare an all-time best because there were no Nationals until 2004.
But it is safe to say that if you lined up all the best teams in South Jersey history on the starting line together at Holmdel, it would be one hell of a race.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 