Julian Rich, a senior at Sicklerville Tech, ran an all-course PR and won the NJTAC Championship in Mannington Township.

The NJTAC is the New Jersey Technical Athletic Conference. The race was held on Salem County Tech’s 5,000-meter course

This is Rich’s 2nd consecutive title after placing 5th as a sophomore. He won last year in 17:28 on the same course.

Rich won last year’s title by two meters over Luke Damato of Medford Tech. He won this year’s race by three meters over Victor Melnik of Passaic County Tech. Melnik was 2nd in 16:41.

Rich’s previous all-course 5K PR was a 16:45 last month at the South Jersey Vo-Tech Championships at Westampton Tech.

Passaic County Tech won the team title 47-56 over Gloucester County Tech. Sicklerville Tech was 4th with 114.

Gloucester was led by seniors Connor Auge in 3rd in 16:53 and Owen DeLuca in 7th in 17:39. Other South Jersey runners in the top 20: Medford Tech senior Damato [11th in 17:58], Thomas Wodazak of Atlantic County Tech [12th in 18:01], Gloucester Tech sophomore Duke Snyder-Shellito [13th in 18:06], Gloucester Tech senior Gavin Kravchuk [15th in 18:09], Gloucester Tech senior Patrick Monaghan [18th in 18:25] and Sicklerville Tech senior Leo Vargas-Trinidad [19th in 18:29].

South Jersey girls in the top 10 in the girls race, Gloucester County Tech freshman Jordan Moczydlowski placed 4th in 21:43, Salem Tech senior Sarah Seiden 6th in 22:30, Gloucester County Tech sophomore Natalie Pandolfo 8th in 22:52 and Westampton Tech senior Janelle Sanabria 9th in 22:56.

Also in the top 20: Sicklerville Tech senior Sonai Castrillo [11th in 23:09], Atlantic County Tech senior Ashlyn Warker [12th in 23:17], Cape May County Tech junior Kirstyn McHale [14th in 23:31], Atlantic County Tech senior Saniah Robles [15th in 23:45], Gloucester County Tech senior Sydney Huang [16th in 23:46], Gloucester County senior Tech Keira Petro [18th in 23:57] and Gloucester County sophomore Tech Jonna Lisi [19th in 23:57].

Morris County Tech won the team title 37-58 over Gloucester, with Atlantic County Tech 4th [123] and Sicklerville Tech 5th [131].

In his 3rd race for Butler as a grad student, Cinnaminson’s Austin Gabay rolled a 23:36 at Wisconsin Pre-Nationals on the Thomas Zimmer Championship course in Madison.

Gabay was Butler’s 2nd finisher and matched his 8,000-meter PR, which he ran earlier this year in a meet at Sydney Marovitz Golf Course in Chicago.

During his three cross country seasons at Duke, Gabay’s fastest 8K was a 23:44 at the 2022 Paul Short Run on Lehigh’s south campus in Bethlehem and Lower Saucon Township.

Next for Gabay is his first Big East Championships, scheduled for Nov. 1 at Morven Park just outside Leesburg, Va., in Loudoun County.

UMBC sophomore Alexis Tepper from Cherry Hill East ran a 6K all-course PR Saturday and placed 10th out of more than 250 runners in the ECAC Championships in the Bronx.

Tepper ran 21:17 on the challenging Van Cortlandt Park course, lowering her 6,000-meter best from 21:20 from earlier this month at Paul Short on Lehigh’s south campus course in Bethlehem and Lower Saucon Township.

University of Maryland Baltimore County’s web site lists an all-time 6,000 performance list, and Tepper’s 21:17 would be 6th-fastest and fastest since 2015. But the list doesn’t include the course the performance was achieved on, so no way to tell if Tepper’s time is fastest at Vanny by a UMBC runner or where it ranks.

Her time equals 17:44 pace for 5,000 meters over 6,000 meters. Tepper’s 5,000 PR is 18:13 from her season opener in August in Emmittsburg, Md.

Tepper has raced four times this year and hasn’t finished outside the top 10. Next for UMBC is the America East Championships a week from Saturday over 5,000 meters at the Hard’ack Recreation Area in St. Albans, Vt.

Cherokee graduate Kerry O’Day, a freshman at Bucknell, also ran a PR, placing 32nd in 21:51. O’Day, the 6th freshman across the line, lowered her all-course 6K PR from 21:59 at Penn State last month. Another Bucknell freshman, Paul VI graduate Shaelan McNally, placed 39th in 21:59.

Bucknell, ranked 8th in the NCAA Division 1 USTFCCCA Mid-Atlantic Region, scored 103 points and finished 2nd to Yale, which won with 53.

Also, Seton Hall senior Julia Smith from Schalick placed 47th in  22:12.

 

Cherokee graduate Nicole Clifford, a junior at Oklahoma, ran a huge 6,000 PR Saturday at the Arturo Barrios Invitational on Texas A&M’s course in College Station.

Clifford ran 21:17, dropping her 6K all-course PR 79 seconds from 22:36 in November 2022 at the University of Missouri’s Gans Creek Cross Country Course, which is in both Columbia and Rock Bridge, Mo.

Just behind Clifford, Shawnee graduate Isabella Turner, a junior at Georgia Tech, ran a 6K PR of 21:30. She had just set an all-course PR of 22:00 last month at Gans Creek.

Rowan mixed it up with some of the top-ranked NCAA Division 3 teams in the country Saturday and placed 4th at its own Border Battle in Logan Township.

Senior Joshua Cason from Camden County Vo-Tech in Sicklerville led Rowan in 9th place in 24:42 over 8,000 meters at DREAM Park and then grad student Miles Voenell from Santa Cruz, Calif., sophomore Colin Patterson from Haddon Heights, senior Caleb Clevenger from Haddonfield and junior Scott Hubbard from Audubon all finished from 30th to 39th between 25:29 and 25:42.

For Cason, this was his first time under 25 minutes for an 8K. His previous all-course best was 25:02 at Paul Short earlier this month at Lehigh’s south campus course in Bethlehem and Lower Saucon Township.

Also for the Profs, senior Matthew Conway from Haddon Township ran 25:44 for 44th and senior Giancarlo Vega from Timber Creek was 54th in 25:53.

Jacob Dinerman of Haddon Township, a sophomore at Rutgers-Camden, placed 14th in 24:57. Widener junior Thomas Flear from Clearview ran 25:26 for 29th. And Haddon Township grad Jake Aylmer of Stevens placed 60th in 26:00.

Three schools ranked in the top 20 in this week’s NCAA Division 3 USTCAAA poll took the top three spots – No. 16 Lynchburg (Va.) won with 49 and No. 23 Washington and Lee from Lexington, Va., took 2nd with 56 points on a 6th-runner tiebreaker with No. 6 Johns Hopkins of Baltimore.

Rowan was ranked as high as 24th earlier this year but isn’t currently in the top-25. The Profs are 3rd in the Metro Region, behind Moravian and Haverford, neither of which raced at the Border Battle.

Rowan will race next on Nov. 2 at the New Jersey Athletic Conference Championships at the Green Lane Fields in Ewing.

Williamstown’s Anna Sasse and Washington Township’s Ally Wernik helped the Rowan women record a convincing win over the top-ranked team in the Metro Region Saturday at the Profs’ own Border Battle in Logan Township.

Sasse, a senior, ran 22:11 over 6,000 meters at DREAM Park and placed 20th and Wernik, a sophomore, was 25th in 22:21, and Rowan finished 43 points ahead of Swarthmore in a showdown of the top two teams in the USTFCCCA NCAA Division 3 Metro Region.

John Hopkins, ranked No. 4 in Division 3, easily won with just 18 points on a 1-2-3-4-8 finish.

And the top South Jersey runner overall was Moorestown graduate Kate Inglis, a senior at Catholic University of Washington, D.C. Inglis placed 9th in 21:15, the fastest time ever record for 6,000 meters on any course by a Catholic cross country runner.

Swarthmore had a 26-30 lead after two runners, but Sasse finished six spots ahead of Swarthmore’s 3rd and Wernik nine spots ahead of Swarthmore’s 4th to put Rowan in command, and then the Profs’ 5th runner, Emily Zanni, finished 32 spots ahead of Swarthmore’s 5th to clinch 2nd place.

Rowan’s first two finishers were junior Gabriella Pagano of Pope John XXIII [14th in 22:01] and senior Mia Guerra from Hasbrouck Heights [16th in 22:02].

The next Metro Region rankings will be out Tuesday and Rowan presumably will be No. 1. Of the next three teams in the regi0n – The College of New Jersey, Widener and Moravian – only Widener raced at DREAM Park and they were 12th. TCNJ and Moravian placed 11th and 12th at the Mike Woods Invitational in Geneseo, N.Y.

Rowan will race next on Nov. 2 at the New Jersey Athletic Conference Championships at the Green Lane Fields in Ewing.

Monmouth senior Sebastien Reed from Pitman ran a big 8,000 PR Saturday in West Windsor.

Reed ran 24:11 at the Princeton Fall Classic, trimming 55 seconds off his all-course best of 25:05 from last year’s Coastal Athletic Association Championships at Pole Green Park in Hanover County, Virginia, outside Mechanicsville.

Reed was Monmouth’s 2nd finisher, behind Declan McDonnell from Tatnall School in Wilmington, Del.

Penn junior Dennis Fortuna of Triton also ran an 8K PR. Fortuna was just behind Reed in 24:20. His previous all-course best was 24:45 earlier this month at Lehigh’s Paul Short Run in Bethlehem and Lower Saucon Township.

Peyton Shute, a freshman at Cornell, PR’d as well with a 24:32. That’s 19 seconds faster than his previous 8,000-meter best of 24:51 from a meet last month in Rochester, N.Y.

Rutgers teammates Kyle Rakitis, a junior from Kingsway, and Billy Clewell, a sophomore from Clearview, both ran under 25 minutes for the first time – 24:55 for Rakitis and 24:57 for Clewell. Rakitis’s prior all-course best was 25:16, also at Paul Short, and Clewell’s was 25:28 at the Fighting Illini Big Ten Preview in Savoy, Ill., last month.

Cherokee graduate Nick Kuenkel, a freshman at Monmouth, also dipped under 25 with a 25:57 just behind Clewell. He also ran his previous 8,000 PR at Paul Short – 25:24.

Zeb Hinker, a Rutgers junior from Lower Cape May, didn’t break 25 minutes, but he did run a season-best 25:01.

Junior Rex Takakjy became Cherry Hill West’s first winner in eight years, and Haddonfield won the team title without its top five runners at the Camden County Championships Friday in Gloucester Township.

Takakjy ran 17:06 at Timber Creek Park, edging Paul VI senior Sean Alemi and Haddonfield junior Brandon Stoner in a tight three-way race. Takakjy ran 17:07 and Alemi and Stoner 17:09.

Takakjy is Cherry Hill West’s first county champ in XC since Robert Abrams won the 2016 race in 16:56 on the same course.

Haddonfield edged Paul VI 49-55 for the team title. The Bulldogs put all seven runners in the top 20 and Stoner, sophomore Andrew Blum and senior Case Hurly 3rd, 6th and 8th. In addition to Stoner’s 17:09, Blum ran 17:25 and Hurly 17:30.

The Bulldogs’ other scorers were junior Michael Sinnes [14th in 17:58] and senior Leonardo DiCello [18th in 18:07] for a 58-second gap from one through five. Senior Linus Kucer [19th in 18:11] and junior John Leibrandt [20th in 18:13] also raced for Haddonfield.

Haddonfield, ranked No. 2 in the state, rested its top five of Luke Andresen, Bennett Wright, Peter Simpson, Benjamin Andrus and Ryan Gibson.

Also in the top 10 were Haddon Heights senior Reggie Hernandez [4th in 17:17], Winslow Township senior Dominic Bassey [5th in 17:24], Gloucester junior Marcus Flagg [7th in 17:28] and Paul VI sophomores Chase Cooley [9th in 17:30] and Max Long [10th in 17:43].

Others who ran sub-18: Winslow junior Vincent Perri [11th in 17:44], Camden County Vo-Tech / Sicklerville senior Julian Rich [12th in 17:45], Paul VI sophomore Caden Briggs [13th in 17:52] and Audubon junior Logan Camm [15th in 17:59].

Northern Burlington senior Liliah Gordon won her 3rd consecutive Burlington County Open title with the largest victory margin in meet history, and the Cherokee girls won their 8th team title and 5th in the last six years.

Gordon placed 2nd to Cherokee’s Nicole Clifford as a freshman, won the 2022 race in 18:31 and won last year in 18:25.

On Friday, Gordon ran 17:56 at Mill Creek Park in Willingboro on an amended course that circumvented the two trips up the hill, which isn’t in passable condition. She finished about 375 meters ahead of junior Madeline Meder and senior Megan Niglio of Cherokee, who finished 2nd and 3rd, both in 19:18.

Gordon’s margin of victory was a record 82 seconds. The largest previous margin came at the 1977 race – the first Burlington County girls championship race ever held -when Delran’s Janet Kimbleton won in 17:46 over three miles at Burlington County College in Pemberton, and Kennedy’s Kathy Sjolie took 2nd in 19:03 – a 77-second margin of victory.

The only other margin of victory of more than a miute came in 1985, when Shawnee’s Deanna Germano won by 67 seconds in 18:54 for 5K at Mill Creek over teammate Chris Danks.

Gordon became only the second three-time winner in the meet’s 47-year history. Liz Moore of Shawnee won in 1992 and 1993 at Mill Creek Park and 1994 at Cherokee.

Her time is 2nd-fastest ever at a County Open on any 5K course behind only Megan Lacy’s 17:53 on the full Mill Creek course in 2010.

Cherokee placed all five scorers in the top 12 to hold off Moorestown, which had all seven runners in the top 21. Cherokee won by a 31-49 score, with Northern Burlington 3rd with 64 points.

For Cherokee, Meder and Niglio were backed up by freshman Erin Healy [8th in 20:14], junior Maya Kumar [9th in 20:17] and senior Grace Wojciechowski [12th in 20:30] with sophomore Genisa John and junior Sofia Recinto also under 22 minuters, John in 23rd in 21:19 and Recinto 26th in 21:55.

Cherokee has won six of the last seven county titles – 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023 and 2024. The Chiefs also won in 2004, 2009 and 2010.

Junior Julia Flanagan of Holy Cross placed 4th in 19:20, the highest placing by a Holy Cross girl in 27 years, since Kathleen Porter ran 2nd in the 1997 race in 19:33 at Cherokee.

Moorestown was led by senior Gabrielle DeJoseph [5th in 20:04] and freshman Hope Edwards [7th in 20:12]. The rest of the Quaker scoring pack included senior Noelia Reyes [11th in 20:29], junior Lillian Stack Maya [14th in 20:41] and sophomore Sophia DiFiore [19th in 20:57], with freshman Makayla Zell [20th in 21:02] and junior Celia Frederico [21st in 21:02] giving Moorestown a 58-second gap from one through seven.

Also in the top 10 were Northern Burlington senior Kayla Leonhardt [6th in 20:09] and Shawnee senior Paige Cline [10th in 20:24].

Also running sub-21: Delran junior Ashley Doyle [13th in 20:34], Northern senior Zoe Chou [15th in 20:41], Lenape sophomore Audrey McCorkle [16th in 20:43], Maple Shade senior Crystal Benito [17th in 20:53] and Shawnee freshman Kelsey Beer [18th in 20:54].

Jack Tindall became the first freshman ever to win a Burlington County Open, and Cherokee packed its five scorers in 13 seconds on the way to its 26th title and 12th in a row.

Cherokee, ranked 5th in New Jersey, went 1-3-4-5-6 for a score of points, tied for 2nd-lowest in meet history. Cherokee scored 15 last year. Cherokee scored 19 in 1999 and again in 2019.

Shawnee was 2nd with 68 points and Cinnaminson 3rd with 98.

Tindall ran 16:35 on a Mill Creek Course missing the two trips up the hill, which meet officials decided wasn’t safely navigable.

Sophomore Benjamin Realley, junior Logan Bromley and seniors Enzo Corona and Liam Tindall all ran between 16:41 and 16:48, and senior Benjamin Weiner and sophomore Sean Sooy backed up the Chiefs’ top 5 in 7th and 8th with 16:49 and 16:52. That’s five in 13 seconds and seven in 17 seconds.

Since 1995, Cherokee has won 24 of a possible 30 Open titles. The Chiefs also won in 1988, 1989, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.

A Cherokee sweep was broken up Cinnaminson junior Jacob Wickersham, who placed 2nd in 16:37.

Also in the top 10 were Shawnee seniors Noah Stapleton [9th in 17:02] and Simon Barnhardt [10th in 17:12].

Others under 17:30 were Northern Burlington senior Caleb Wiederholt [11th in 17:17], junior Yanni Ekatomatis [12th in 17:19], Rancocas Valley seniors Christian Rouzard [13th in 17:20] and Christopher Gray [14th in 17:21], Shawnee senior Elias Knoll [15th in 17:24] and Rancocas Valley junior Teddy Jones [16th in 17:27].