Ocean City girls won the first two races at the 26th annual Cherokee Challenge Saturday morning, with Riley Tolson winning the freshman race and Carly Godfrey winning the sophomore race. It was the first varsity cross country race for both,.

Tolson began her varsity career by running 12:07 on the two-mile course at Cherokee, becoming the first Red Raider girl to win the freshman race at the Challenge. The best previous finish was a 2nd place by Christina Missar in 1996, the meet’s inaugural season. She placed 2nd to Rancocas Valley’s Sara Belinsky.

Godfrey ran 11:57 to win the sophomore race, showing great range after running 59.69 and 2:18.50 last spring. This is her first season of cross country. In fact, she had never run anything over 1,600 meters indoors or outdoors in track. She’s the second Ocean City girl to win the Challenge sophomore race, the first since Alexa Palmieri in 2018.

In his first varsity race, Cherokee’s Jack Tindall destroyed the freshman course record at the 28th annual Cherokee Challenge, covering the two-mile course in 9:53.24.

Tindall shattered the course record of 10:09 set in 2007 by Triton’s Robert Rawls and matched in 2009 by Matt Nelson of Barnegat.

His time was 3rd-fastest of all four races, fastest by a New Jersey runner and would have placed him 2nd in the junior and senior races and 1st in the sophomore race.

Tindall, who ran 4:14.98 in West Chester in May for a full mile as an 8th-grader, won by 49 seconds over Zaccheaus Harrigan of Haddon Heights, who was 2nd in 10:42.14.

That 9:53 is 20th-fastest in course history in any class. Tindall became the first Cherokee boy to win the freshman race at the traditional season-opening Cherokee Challenge in 20 years, since Alex Yersak ran 11:08 to win the 2004 race over a slightly different course.

West Deptford sophomore Taylor Sierzega opened her 2024 season by finishing a minute and a half ahead of the field in a Colonial Conference batch meet Wednesday.

Sierzega ran 21:57 over 5,000 meters at West Deptford Park in her first race since she placed 14th in the state Group 2 meet at Holmdel County Park as a freshman 10 months ago. She did not run indoor or outdoor track.

Last fall, Sierzega’s 20:29 was 2nd-fastest by a South Jersey freshman at Holmdel, behind only Eastern’s Theresa Albertson, who ran 20:26 at the state Group 4 meet the same day.

Also in the top five Wednesday were Lindenwold junior Daisy DelaRosa [23:31], Gloucester senior Cameron Harris [24:43], Audubon freshman Sophia Brassill [24:45] and Audubon sophomore Lydia Gravante [24:51].

Junior Riley Austin, No. 1 runner on Haddonfield’s state Group 2 championship team last fall, opened her 2024 season with a win at a Colonial Conference batch meet Tuesday at Pennypacker Park in Haddon Township and Cherry Hill.

Austin covered what is listed as 5,000-meter course but was likely a two-mile course in 12:04, finishing 175 meters clear of the field.

Austin placed 3rd in the state Group 2 meet last fall and ran 2:16.87 indoors for 800 meters. She didn’t run in the spring, so this was her first race since the indoor Meet of Champions at Ocean Breeze six months ago.

Austin led a 1-2-3-4 Haddonfield finish with teammates sophomore Madison Kelsey [2nd in 12:45], junior Tylin Regan [3rd in 12:54] and sophomore Molly Mills [4th in 12:54].

Gloucester junior Emma Dick placed 5th, also in 12:54, and senior Dylan Melcher [6th in 12:55] and sophomore Devon Gervasi [7th in 12:55] of Haddonfield also broke 13 minutes.

Juniors Marcus Flagg and Vincent Kelly and senior Trey Fitzpatrick from Gloucester swept the top three spots Tuesday in a season-opening Colonial Conference batch meet at Pennypacker Park in Haddonfield and Cherry Hill.

The results show the race over 5,000 meters, but considering Flagg, Kelly and Fitzpatrick ran 10:35.96, 10:44.35 and 11:10.32 we’re guessing it was a two-mile course.

Team scores weren’t kept, but unofficially Gloucester would have defeated Haddon Township 22-35. Paulsboro and Lindenwold also competed but didn’t field complete teams.

Flagg was a state Group 1 medalist in the 800 last spring and ran 1:58.94. He was the top sophomore Group 1 half-miler in the state.

For Kelly, this was his first-ever cross country race. He ran track last year but has never run XC previously.

Fitzpatrick was Gloucester’s No. 1 runner last fall when the Lions placed 2nd in the South Jersey Group 1 meet behind Haddon Township.

Senior Manolo Foote [11:34.86] and junior Luke Wolfran [11:35.35] placed 4th and 5th for Haddon Township.

Moorestown graduate Will Inglis, a sophomore at Elizabethtown, placed 2nd in the Franklin & Marshall Invitational Friday, and teammates Jake Smith of Highland and Ethan Wence of Triton also placed among the top 13 finishers.

Inglis ran 9:56.0 over two miles, finishing 2nd to teammate Daniel Myers, who ran 9:50. Smith finished 11th in 10:31.6 and Wence was 13th in 10:33.3.

So three of E-town’s top nine runners were from South Jersey.

Franklin and Marshall is located in Lancaster, but the Baker Campus athletic fields that host the cross country course are in Mannheim Township.

Kingsway’s Kylie Anicic, in her first post-collegiate race, placed 13th Monday morning in the USATF 20K Championships in New Haven, Conn.

Anicic, who won 18 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference titles and was a six-time All-America in two years at Edinboro, covered the 20,000-kilometer course in 1:14.54.

The 24-year-old Anicic and former BYU All-America Aubrey Frenthaway – 14th in NCAA Division 1 XC last year in Charlottesville – were the two-youngest runners to finish in the top 20.

Anicic, who grew up in Mickleton, is now listed with a hometown of Kingwood, W. Va.

Anicic began her college athletic career playing soccer at Temple before briefly running for Towson and then blossoming at Edinboro, where she started for the 2022 indoor season.

Anicic on Monday finished just three spots out of prize money range.

Keira D’Amato, the U.S. half-marathon record holder, won the race in 1:06.25. She also won in 2022, setting the course record of 1:04.29, which is the U.S. 20K record.

Rancocas Valley’s Erika Kemp set the New Jersey 20K best in New Haven in 2021 when she placed won the race in 1:06.20. That’s No. 6 on the U.S. 20K all-time performance list.

The USATF 20K Championships are held concurrently with the 47th annual Saxon Law New Haven Road Races, which includes a 5K, 20K and half marathon. Over 5,000 runners participated in the various open races Monday morning.

 

Haddonfield’s Anna Stolarick recorded a top-10 finish out of 84 runners Saturday in her collegiate debut for Holy Cross at the Wheaton & Babson Season Opener.

Stolarick ran 12:00.68 over the hilly 3,000-meter course at Coogan Cross Country Course at Highland Park in Attleboro, Mass., and placed 10th overall and 4th among runners from Holy Cross, in Worcester, Mass.

Holy Cross went 2-4-7-10-14 and outscored 2nd-place Suffolk University of Boston, 32-57, to win the eight-team invitational.

Stolarick helped Haddonfield win the state Group 2 XC title in 2022 and 2023.

Seton Hall’s Julia Smith, a senior from Schalick, ran a 6,000-meter PR and placed 9th out of 116 runners Saturday at the 28th annual Salisbury (Md.) University Fall Classic.

Smith ran 21:43.7 over 6,000 meters at WinterPlace Park & Equestrian Center and was Seton Hall’s second finisher.

Her previous 6K PR for any course was 21:46.30 in November at the NCAA Division 1 Mid-Atlantic Championships at Lehigh’s course in Bethlehem (and briefly in Lower Saucon Township).

This was Smith’s first race in more than four months. She ran a 5K PR of 17:50.42 at Rider last April but didn’t race again last spring.

Seton Hall placed 3rd with 85 points, behind Maryland [24] and John Hopkins [53].

Lexi Tepper, a UMBC sophomore from Cherry Hill East, recorded her first collegiate win Friday at the Mount St. Mary’s Duals in Emmitsburg, Md.

Tepper ran 5,000 meters in 18:13.14, winning by about 85 meters over 2nd-place Joslyn Crosby of Howard University of Washington, D.C.

University of Maryland Baltimore County won 25-33 over Howard, with Catholic University of Washington 3rd with 86 points.

Tepper ran 20:42.7 on the same course last year, so she was nearly 2 ½ minutes faster this year. The 18:13.14 is her fastest time on any 5,000-meter course. She ran 18:15.54 at DREAM Park in Logan Township two years ago at South Jersey Group 4 sectionals

Sophomore Katelyn Deal, a sophomore from Woodstown, placed 9th in 19:41.72 for UMBC. That’s an all-course best for Deal as well. Her previous collegiate 5,000 PR was 20:13.7 from last year’s America East Championships in Orono, Maine. Deal did not run XC in high school.

Catholic’s 3rd finisher was Georgia Nussey, a senior from Haddonfield. She was 18th overall in 20:24.47.