Senior Madison McNiff ran 19:10 for 6th place and senior Kiley Walsh 19:35 for 9th, and the Cherry Hill East placed third among 17 teams in the Varsity A race Saturday at the Six Flags Wild Safari Invitational.

Cherry Hill East placed all five of its scorers in the top 35 and then had both of its non-scorers just a few spots back.

Senior Chloe Diamond placed 26th in 20:36 over the 5,000-meter course at Great Adventure in Jackson, junior Anna Kramer was five seconds back in 29th with a 20:41, and senior Michelle Barry finished 35th in 21:06.

East showed its depth with junior Alexis Tepper in 38th in 21:14 and senior Emily Volin 45th in 21:3.

Conestoga High of Berwyn, Pa., won the team title with 67 points and North Rockland of Thiells, N.Y., was second with 80 points. East scored 102 for third. Cherry Hill East’s five scorers averaged 20:13.

Cherry Hill East finished eighth out of 58 schools that fielded a full team in the various races in the overall merge.

Highland junior Grace Wassell matched McNiff with a 19:10 for the fastest time by a South Jersey girl at Great Adventure. Wassell placed 11th in the Varsity C race, and senior teammate Princess Nwoga was two spots back in 19:34.

Wassell and McNiff tied for 22nd-fastest time out of nearly 700 entrants in all the races.

Rider teammates Ben Woodard of Highland and Richie Castaneda of Camden Catholic finished 6th and 14th Saturday in the Jasper Fall Invitational Saturday.

Woodard, a junior, ran 25:48 and Castaneda, a sophomore, ran 26:17 over 8,000 meters at Twin Ponds on the Farm in Montgomery, Orange County, N.Y.

Woodard was Rider’s first finisher and Castaneda was fourth. Dakota Oyuela, a freshman from Burlington Township, finished 26th in 26:39, and sophomore Leo Zaccaria ran 27:05 for 37th.

Rider had a 40-second spread between Woodard, its first finisher, and freshman Jeremie Garcia, its fifth finisher.

Fordham edged Rider 47-61 for the team title. 

Juniors Helene Usher and Sabrina Miller and sophomore Anne Earp all placed among the top 13 runners, and Haddonfield edged New Milford by four points to win the team title Saturday at the Bowdoin XC Classic.

Usher placed 7th in 19:52, Miller ran 20:13 for 11th and Earp was 13th in 20:15 for Haddonfield, which averaged 20:27 for its five scorers on the hilly, challenging 5,000-meter course at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls, N.Y.

Sophomore Sarah Fetter placed 18th in 20:50 and soph Riley Slootsky ran 21:04 for 22nd for Haddonfield, which finished with a 71-75 edge over New Milford of Connecticut, with Corning High of third with 86 points.

Haddonfield, ranked No. 6 in New Jersey, also had senior Jess Goode just behind its lead pack. Goode placed 31st among over 120 runners in 21:37.

Seniors Chris Colavita and Sean Hice placed fourth and fifth with sub-16 times to lead Washington Township to the team title at the Osprey Invitational Friday.

Colavita ran 15:50 and Hice 15:52 over the flat, fast 5,000-meter course at Stockton University in Galloway Township, and Washington Township topped Brick Memorial 66-79 to win the team title.

The Minutemen placed six runners in the top 30. Their other scorers were senior Charles Lant [13th in 16:29], senior Nathaniel Kidwell [18th in 16:42] and freshman Hunter Bostwick [26th in 17:07]. Junior Tellus McDonald ran 17:17 for 30th. 

Camden Catholic senior Billy Clewell was the overall winner in  15:19, leading five runners under 16 minutes. Clewell ran two seconds off the course record of 15:16 set two years ago by Sebastien Reed of Pitman.

West Deptford senior Jacob Cobb ran 15:40 for 3rd place, Eastern sophomore Owen Karsch was 6th in 16:17, and Egg Harbor junior Ryan Taylor 8th in 16:20.

Other South Jersey runners in the top 20 were sophomore Ethan Mitnick [11th in 16:27], junior Elliott Post [14th in 16:32] and senior Vaughn Blanchet [15th in 16:33], all from Mainland, sophomore Jorge Cruz of Wildwood [19th in 16:51] and junior Joseph Wigginton [20th in 16:52] from Paul VI.

Cinnaminson graduate Mike Ungvarsky placed 29th out of nearly 200 runners Friday at the Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown.

Ungvarsky, a grad student at Duke, ran 25:01 over 8,000 meters at Franklin Park in Boston. He was sixth man for Duke, which placed third in team scoring with 80 points, behind only Arkansas [39] and Syracuse [60].

Ungvarsky ran only 12 seconds off his 8,000 all-course PR, which he set at Panorama Farms in Earlysville, Va., last year.

Arkansas is ranked No. 6 in the country in this week’s USTFCCCA national poll. Duke and Syracuse are both just under the top-30 in “others receiving votes.”

Mainland Regional freshman Sofia Day ran an eye-popping 18:15 over 5,000 meters Friday at the Osprey XC Invitational at Stockton University.

Day, who had only raced over 5,000 meters once this fall, finished second to 4:53 miler Cate DeSousa of Red Bank Catholic, who ran 17:29.

DeSousa broke the course record of 18:35 set by her former teammate, Maddy Kopek, at the same meet two years ago, and Day’s time is second-fastest in course history. 

Day’s only 5,000 was a batch meet against Hammonton, Bridgeton and Millville, where she ran an unpressed 20:31 at Hammonton as Mainland swept the top five spots.

Also under 20 minutes on the flat, fast course in Galloway Township were Egg Harbor sophomore Michaela Schlemo [5th in 19:15], Mainland sophomore Gillian Lovett [7th in 19:18], Wildwood freshman Macie McCracken [9th in 19:31], West Deptford senior Hope Siner [10th in 19:39], Atlantic City junior Madeline Dischert [13th in 19:43], Paul VI sophomore Shaelan McNally [13th in 19:52], Washington Township junior Allyson Wernik [14th in 19:55] and Eastern senior Lauren Kenselaar [15th in 19:59].

Toms River North won a very close three-way team battle with 64 points, with Red Bank Catholic second with 65 and Mainland third with 66.

Red Bank Catholic is ranked No. 8 in New Jersey, Mainland is No. 12 and Toms River North is unranked.

Washington Township [142], Cedar Creek [148] and Egg Harbor Township [150] placed fourth through sixth.

Nikki Clifford was the fastest runner from three class races and led Cherokee to the fastest average time of the day at the Battle @ Ocean County Park on Friday.

Clifford covered the 5,000-meter course in Lakewood in 18:30, her fastest time ever for any 5K cross country course. Her previous best was an 18:57 at the 2019 Burlington County Open at Mill Creek Park in Willingboro.

Cherokee, ranked No. 4 in the state and No. 1 in South Jersey, had three of the eight-fastest runners in the three class races. Olivia Parkinson won the sophomore race in 18:57, and Kelsey Niglio ran 19:11 for fourth in the junior race.

Kerry O’Day and Emma Parkinson placed fourth and fifth in the sophomore race in 20:25 and 20:37, which means Cherokee’s five scorers all placed in the top 10 in their races.

Senior Noelle Falzone (21:00) and sophomore Alaina Bromley (21:27) also ran sub-21:30 in their races.

Megan Niglio was sixth in the freshman race, which was contested over 3,200 meters. She ran 13:21.

There was no team scoring kept, but in a team merge Middletown South – ranked No. 3 in the state – edged Cherokee by eight points, 77-85, although Cherokee had the fastest average time of the day with its 19:32 average. Middletown South’s top five averaged 19:36.

Also under 20 minutes were Shawnee junior Kate Ruona [19:22 for fifth in the junior race], Cherry Hill East’s Madison McNiff [19:45 for sixth in the senior race]. Cherry Hill East senior Kiley Walsh [19:52 for 9th in the senior race].

Other South Jersey times under 21 minutes: Shawnee senior Kyra Birdsall [20:07], Shawnee senior Madelyn Valasek [20:08], Washington Township junior Allyson Wernik [20:21], Washington Township junior Sophia Bostwick [20:33], Shawnee junior Sydney Kiernan [20:36], Cherry Hill East junior Alexis Tepper [20:41] and Cherry Hill East senior Chloe Diamond [20:49].

Northern Burlington’s Liliah Gordon recorded her second straight invitational win Saturday when she won the freshman race at the Battle @ Ocean County Park.

Gordon covered the 3,200-meter course in Lakewood in 12:12, finishing about 115 meters ahead of second-place Logan Rettino of Rumson-Fair Haven, who ran 12:39.

Gordon’s time is fastest by a South Jersey runner over the 3,200-meter course at Ocean County Park since Grace Yoon of Cherry Hill East ran 11:59 to win the 2016 freshman race. 

A week earlier, in her high school XC debut, Gordon won the freshman race at the Cherokee Challenge in Marlton. 

Gordon has yet to race over 5,000 meters in an official high school race and won’t get that opportunity until the Shore Coaches Invitational at Holmdel County Park a week from Saturday.

This Saturday, Gordon will race over 2 1/2 miles in the freshman race at the Thompson Park Class Meet in Jamesburg.

Seth Clevenger was the overall winner and Haddonfield placed three runners in the top seven to win the team Challenge Boys team title Saturday at the Briarwood Invitational.

Clevenger covered the challenging 5,000-meter at Belmont Plateau in 16:41, winning by 225 meters over second-place Quinn O’Dell of Delaware Military Academy in Wilmington, Del., who ran 17:26.

There were more than 100 runners in the race.

It was the first XC invitational title for Clevenger, who did not run cross country last fall. As a sophomore, he placed 11th at Group 2 states and 48th in the Meet of Champions.

Clevenger’s time was third-fastest of the two boys races. Delsea’s Andrew Littlehales ran 16:12 and Drew Brill of LaSalle High in Springfield, Montgomery County, ran 16:29, both in the Championship Race.

Junior Ian Romea and senior Andrew Sullivan placed 5th and 7th for Haddonfield, Romea in 17:43 and Sullivan in 18:05. Sophomores Matt Sullivan [17th in 18:40] and soph Liam Dougherty [20th in 18:47] were the top 10th-graders in the race.

Haddonfield, ranked No. 5 in New Jersey, outscored second-place Holy Ghost Prep of Bensalem, Pa., 46-91, to win the team title. 

Also, Paul VI junior Joseph Wigginton placed 15th in 18:37.

In a team merge including both the Challenge and Championship races, Haddonfield placed fourth with 174 points, behind La Salle (44), Methcaton High of Eagleville, Worcester Township, Montgomery County (119) and Central Bucks West of Doylestown, Bucks County (169).

Cherokee’s Patrick Ditmars won the junior race and Nick Kuenkel won the sophomore race Saturday at the Battle @ Ocean County Park 2021.

It doesn’t appear team scoring was kept, but Cherokee runners produced five of the top 33 times (and six of the top 43). Scored unofficially, Ridge outscored Cherokee 73-109. Ridge is ranked No. 1 in New Jersey and No. 5 nationally. Cherokee is No. 7 in New Jersey.

Cherokee’s top five runners averaged 16:23 on the 5,000-meter course in Lakewood.

Ditmars ran 15:54 and won the junior race by 65 meters over Brian Theobald of St. Rose in Belmar, who was second in 16:07. 

Kuenkel ran 16:13 to win the sophomore race by 100 meters over Stephen Kyvelos of Manalapan, who was second in 16:32.

Also for Cherokee, Conor Jacob ran 16:33 for 9th place in the junior race and Robert Poplau ran 16:52 for fifth in the sophomore race. Bradley Popler (16:37) and Joseph Natoli (16:42) placed 18th and 19th in the senior race.