St. Joe’s junior Matt Hoffman from Ocean City led a large South Jersey contingent Friday at the Lehigh Invitational with an 8th-place finish among 129 finishers.

Hoffman covered 6,000 meters on Lehigh’s south campus in Bethlehem and Lower Saucon Township in 18:49 and was St. Joe’s 4th finisher. The Hawks’ 5th runner was senior Ian Romea from Haddonfield, who took 12th in 18:55.

Rutgers edged St. Joe’s 35-36 to win the team title.

Rutgers’ 4th finisher was senior Kyle Rakitis from Kingsway, who placed 13th in 19:00.

Host Lehigh’s 4th runner was junior Will Mrozinski Paul VI, who was 24th in 19:21.

St. Joe’s sophomore Christian Napoli of Paul VI placed 28th and ran 19:24, followed closely by Rowan’s top runner, senior Colin Patterson from Haddon Heights, 31st in 19:25.

Rutgers senior Ryan Smith from Rancocas Valley ran 19:32 and placed 36th, and Rutgers freshman Peter Simpson from Haddonfield ran 19:35 and took 39th in his first college race.

Lenape’s Audrey McCorkle place 2nd in the senior girls race Friday at the 31st annual Cherokee Challenge.

McCorkle ran 12:05, finishing just behind winner Sophee Estrems of Demarest, who won the race in 12:01.

Also in the top 10 were Paul VI’s Grace Gutowski [6th in 12:22], Seneca’s Jaden Eberman [7th in 12:25], Egg Harbor Township’s Meghan Johnson [8th in 12:27] and Maple Shade’s Juliana Catalani [10th in 12:57].

Washington Township’s Trevor Szilier became the first runner to break 10 minutes on the Cherokee two-mile course Friday when he won the boys junior race in 9:51.

Szilier finished 15 seconds ahead of Aron Zola of West Windsor-Plainsboro South, who was 2nd in 10:06.

Others in the top 10: Egg Harbor’s Liam Aspenberg [6th in 10:19], Egg Harbor’s Timothy Rooney [8th in 10:30] and Lenape’s Jayden Carn [10th in 10:34].

Paul VI’s Morgan Kuzma, Cherokee’s Erin Healy and Egg Harbor Township’s Molly Rooney all finished in the top 5 Friday in the junior girls race at the 31st annual Cherokee Challenge.

Kuzma placed 3rd in 12:20.78, Healy was 4th in 12:24 and Rooney 5th in 12:38. Siena Rivera of Hightstown won the race in 12:00.

Also in the top 10 were Peyton Blake of Paul VI [9th in 12:53] and Hazel Straight of Collingswood [10th in 12:54].

Chase Bernardini of St. Augustine won the sophomore boys race Friday at the 31st annual Cherokee Challenge.

Bernardini covered the two-mile course at Cherokee in 10:29, edging 2nd-place Richard Lorenz of Highland, who ran 10:33.

Also in the top 10 were Shawnee’s Devin Lloyd [3rd in 10:38], Camden Catholic’s Jim Rotaeche [4th in 10:40], Shepard Byrne from Gloucester County Tech [6th in 10:48], Camden Catholic’s Daniel Clewell [9th in 10:54] and Cherokee’s Colton Harbold [10th in 10:57].

Paul VI’s Isabella Suarez won the sophomore girls race Friday at the 31st annual Cherokee Challenge, finishing four seconds ahead of Kayla Peckens of Princeton Day School.

Suarez, who placed 8th as a freshman in the South Jersey parochial championships, ran two miles at Cherokee in 12:22, and Peckens ran 12:26. Cherokee’s Ava Guarini was 3rd in 12:28.

Also in the top 10 were Egg Harbor’s Corinne Conley [6th in 12:51], Delsea’s Brooke Mashburn [9th in 13:311] and Audubon’s Emma Camm [10th in 13:13].

James McKeon of Cinnaminson, Drew Burdette of Cherokee and Brody Bailey of Pleasantville all finished in the top 5 Friday in the boys freshman race at the 31st annul Cherokee Challenge.

McKeon ran 10:40, Burdette 10:49 and Bailey 10:57 over the two-mile course at Cherokee. Noah Smith of Council Rock South in Richboro, Bucks County, won the race in 10:16.

Also in the top-10: Shawnee’s Joseph Stapleton [6th in 11:10], Mainland’s Jameson Foreman [7th in 11:13], Haddon Township’s Ryan Luke [8th in 11:18] and Hammonton’s Ryan Wetzel [9th in 11:20].

Paul VI’s Peyton Barger placed 2nd in the freshman girls race at the 31st annual Cherokee Challenge Friday in her high school cross country debut.

Barger ran 11:55 for two miles at Cherokee and finished behind only Addison Sheehy of Toms River East, who ran 11:40.

Also in the top 10 were Mainland’s Quinlan Smith [5th in 13:05] and Seneca’s Sofia Sparacio [7th in 13:14].

Barger ran 5:02.82 as a Washington Township Middle School 8th-grader last year, also at Cherokee.

In their first collegiate races, Julia Flanagan from Holy Cross and Riley Fayer from Audubon both placed in the top 10 at the Delaware Invitational Friday. They were Delaware’s 2^nd and 4^th finishers and 1^st and 3^rd among all freshmen in the race.

Flanagan placed 5^th in 18:50 over 5,000 meters at White Clay Creek State Park in New Castle County, Delaware, and Fayer was 8^th in 18:58. Also racing for Delaware were Eastern’s Kadence Dumas [19^th in 19:51], Leah Clear from Camden Catholic (21^st in 19:56] and Cherokee’s Madeline Meder [23^rd in 20:09]. There were 91 finishers in the race.

Delaware placed 2^nd to Maryland, 22-35.

In the men’s race over 6,000 meters, sophomore Julian Rich from Camden County Tech placed 16^th in 22:10.

The Rowan cross country roster has finally been posted on Rowan’s web site – one day before the first race of the season – and it includes four of the Profs’ top five runners from 2026, it includes some notable freshmen and it includes two runners actually named Rowan.

It does not include record-setting Seth Clevenger, the NCAA Division 3 3,000 and and 5,000 champion last indoor season and Division 3 indoor record holder in the mile [3:59.41], 3,000 [7:54.87] and 5,000 [13:32.09]. Clevenger, a Haddonfield graduate, is also No. 3 all-time in the 10,000 at 29:06.90.

After his historic indoor season, Clevenger only raced twice outdoors. It appears that his 14:06.23 at the Penn Relays will wind up as his final race as a Rowan Prof. Clevenger, a transfer from Iowa State, never ran XC for Rowan. His last XC race was the 2025 Nuttycombe Invitational in Madison, Wisc., where he ran a lifetime-best 23:37.9 for 8,000 meters. Clevenger only ran XC in 2022 and 2024 at Iowa State so he does have remaining eligibility.

Of Rowan’s top five finishers at last year’s NJAC XC meet, four are back – senior Colin Patterson of Haddon Township [4^th last year], senior Aidan Brad of Williamstown [20^th], sophomore Dylan Saber of Williamstown [22^nd] and junior Reid Gervasi of Haddonfield [25^th]. Not on the roster is Elijah Whitaker from Glassboro High, who placed 11^th at NJACs last year.

Among Rowan’s top incoming freshmen are Audubon’s Zach Fayer, who was 3^rd at the Group 1 state meet last year at Holmdel; Williamstown’s Dominic Burgio, who was 3^rd at the state Group 4 meet in the 1,600 both indoors and outdoors; Julian Canon from Memorial of West New York, who ran 9:32.56 for 3,200 meters last spring at Cherokee; Highland’s Andrew Dopkin, who ran 15:55 at DREAM Park; Michaelangelo Lepore of Mountain Lakes, 4^th in the state Group 1 XC meet last fall; Ryan Organek of Delaware Military Academy, who ran 9:32.42 last spring; and Matteo Pascucci of League City Clear Springs in Texas, who ran 1:55.86 and 4:17.87 as a high school senior;

Rowan also has two West Coast transfers named Rowan: Rowan Henige from Sequoia High in San Marcos, Calif., and Rowan Horner, from Franklin High in Portland, Ore. Henige ran a 9:29.64 steeplechase for San Jose State last year; Horner ran 15:53 in his last high school XC season, in the fall of 2023.

The Rowan women have their top five underclassmen from last year’s NJAC Championship team back – senior Shannon Stakelback of Toms River East [4^th last year], senior Jezena Aponte of Snyder High in Jersey City [10^th], sophomore Juliana Sieminski from Delsea [12^th], senior Allyson Wernik from Washington Township [14^th] and junior Zoey Dolling from Montgomery [20^th].

The only freshman listed on Rowan’s women’s roster is Kayla Romanoski from West Deptford, who ran 2:14.94 last spring.

The Rowan men and women open the season Friday at the Lehigh Invitational over 6,000 meters on Lehigh’s South Campus. The course is in both Bethlehem and Lower Saucon Township. Lehigh hosted the NCAA Division 1 Championships in 1979, 1983 and 1993.