From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank

Cherry Hill East had five girls place in the top 12 in one of the four class races Friday at the Battle at Ocean County Park in Lakewood.

There are no combined results available, but it looks like Cherry Hill East would have scored 61 points not counting the shorter freshman race.

Addison Weiss, 13th in the Meet of Champions both in XC and the 3,200 last year, ran 18:06 for 3^rd place in a junior class race won by Leah Starkey of Ocean Township, whose winning time of 16:03 is fastest ever by a New Jersey girl over 5,000 meters. Her time was 7^th-fastest among the three 5,000-meter races.

Ryleigh Budsock placed 8^th in the senior race in 19:05, and Kathryn Grottini was 12^th in the senior race with a 19:47. East also had Noelle Terry 12^th in the sophomore race in 21:22 and Rebecca Tibbetts 26^th in the senior race in 21:04.

Austyn Semar placed 5^th in the freshman race in 13:09 over two miles.

In the freshman race, Sofia Sparacio from Seneca ran 13:25 and placed 9^th, Eastern’s Ella Austino ran 13:39 for 13^th, Morgan Nicklaw from Eastern was 18^th in 13:54 and Zion Ebiske from Winslow placed 19^th in 13:5.

In the junior race, Winslow’s Annabella Cassidy ran 20:01 for 13^th place, and in the senior race Seneca’s Jaden Eberman placed 10^th in 19:43.