Haddon Township graduate Meghan Lex began her collegiate running career in outstanding fashion Friday evening, leading St. Bonaventure’s pack at the Little Three Cross Country Championships.

Lex, a Bonnies freshman, placed 5th overall out of 48 runners in 19:18.0 over 5,000 meters at Delaware Park in Buffalo. St. Bonaventure’s first seven runners included four freshmen and four sophomores.

Host Canisius won the team title with 18 points and St. Bonaventure was 2nd with 47. Lex’s time is 12th-fastest in St. Bonaventure history over any course at 5,000 meters.

Lex only ran faster than 19:18 once at Haddon Township – a 19:10.7 on the DREAM Park speedway in Logan Township when she won the South Jersey Group 1 title in October.

On Friday, we wrote about Seth Clevenger’s season opener for Iowa State, and now it’s time to give his brother some props.

Caleb Clevenger, a junior at Rowan, won the season-opening Stockton Invitational in Galloway Township Friday by two seconds over teammate Jacob Riley of North Warren High.

Clevenger covered Stockton’s 6,000-meter course in 18:41, and the Profs went 1-2-5-6-7 to win the team title by 21-60 over Stockton, with Georgian Court (86) and Ursinus (92) also in double figures.

Rowan is ranked No. 4 in the NCAA Division 3 Metro Region by the USTFCCCA and Stockton is No. 6. Haverford, Moravian and Swarthmore hold the top three spots, with The College of New Jersey 5th.

It was Clevenger’s first invitational win in track or cross country. His best previous finish in a major race was a 3rd place in the steeplechase at the NJAC championships last spring in Mahwah.

Also in Rowan’s scoring pack were senior Dario Epifania from South Brunswick [5th in 18:53], junior Giancarlo Vega of Timber Creek [6th in 18:53] and Shane Vostenak from Pennsauken [7th in 18:55]. Sophomore Matthew Conway from Haddon Township [11th in 19:07] and Washington Township’s Cole Kolodziej [12th in 19:11] were also in the Profs’ top seven, with sophomore Anthony Faust from Bishop Eustace 13th in 19:15.

Delsea’s Noah Deckert placed 4th overall and led St. Joe’s to the team title Friday at the Lehigh Invitational on the historic Goodman Cross Country Course in Bethlehem.

Deckert ran 18:13.4 over 6,000 meters and was St. Joe’s first finisher and second college finisher. Penn’s Dylan Throop won the race in 18:00.0 followed by two post-grads.

St. Joe’s edged Penn 33-37 and Lehigh was 3rd with 53 points. That’s something of an upset for the Hawks, who are ranked 11th in the Mid-Atlantic Region by the USTFCCCA, four spots below Penn.

(Something that probably only I care about: The Lehigh XC course is actually not entirely in Bethlehem. When the runners hit about 2 ½ miles on the 6K course (or at about 5 ½ miles on the 10K course) and and make a left turn just below I-78, that part of the course is in Lower Saucon Township. The course then goes down a hill parallel to Mountain Drive and turns left back into Bethlehem and toward Goodman Stadium and the finish line.)

Shawnee’s Madelyn Valasek placed 4th overall to lead the Stockton women over Rowan in the season-opening Stockton Invite on the Ospreys’ home course in Galloway Township.

Valasek, a sophomore, ran 20:14.5 over 5,000 meters and was Stockton’s No. 2 runner, behind overall winner Kayla Kass, who won the race in 19:42.5. Valasek ran 34 seconds faster Friday than she ran on the same course as a freshman last fall.

Stockton went 1-4-5-6-12 and edged Rowan 28-33 to win the team title. Stockton is ranked No. 3 in the Metro Region by the USTFCCCA behind only Widener and The College of New Jersey and Rowan is No. 7.

Anna Sasse, a junior from Williamstown, was Rowan’s top runner in 2nd place in 20:04, and freshman Allyson Wernick was the Profs’ second finisher in her first collegiate race, taking 8th overall out of 75 runners in 20:31. She was the top freshman in the race and teammate Mackenzie Saber of Williamstown was the 2nd freshman finisher in 17th overall in her first college XC race (she ran track last year but not XC). The 3rd freshman finisher was Holy Family’s Maya Harper from Pleasantville.

Seniors Amanda McNally from Seneca and Cameron Wright from Cherry Hill East placed 9th and 11th and were Rowan’s 4th and 5th finishers, McNally in 20:34 and Wright in 20:40.

Valasek, Wright and Saber finished 4th, 5th and 6th in the 5,000 last spring at the New Jersey Athletic Conference Championships at Ramapo in Mahwah.

Haddonfield graduate Seth Clevenger, a sophomore at Iowa State, placed 5th overall Friday in the Cyclone Preview on the Cyclones’ home course in Ames.

Clevenger covered the 6,000-meter course in 18:22.8, which is 15:18 pace for 5,000 meters with another 1,000 at the same pace.

Clevenger raced unattached but was the fourth Iowa State runner overall, finishing 25 seconds behind overall winner Silas Winders, who ran 17:57.

Last spring, Clevenger ran 3:48.23 for 1,500 meters and 8:15.16 for 3,000 meters.

Haddonfield graduate Helene Usher opened her college career in style Friday, leading the La Salle pack at the season-opening Temple Invitational.

Usher ran 15:50.1 over the 4,000-meter course at Temple’s Ambler campus in Upper Dublin Township, Montgomery County. She placed 7th overall and was the first freshman across the finish line, five seconds ahead of teammate Amelia Artz from Monroe Township High.

Villanova sophomore Kinsey Pogue was the overall winner, crossing the line in 15:16.9.

La Salle, ranked 13th in the Mid-Atlantic Region by the USTFCCCA, finished 3rd with 49 points, behind Villanova (33) and Temple (42)

La Salle assistant women’s coach Meghan Malloy is a former Cinaminson and Haddonfield runner.

Monmouth’s Sebastien Reed, a junior from Pitman, broke up nationally ranked Princeton’s pack Friday at the New Jersey Jam at the Princeton XC Course in West Windsor.

Princeton, ranked No. 2 behind Villanova in the USTFCCCA Mid-Atlantic Region poll and No. 24 nationally in NCAA Division 1, went 1-2-3-4-6-7-8-9, with Reed placing 5th and just half a second out of 3rd place.

Reed covered the 5.6-kilometer course in 16:59.0, finishing less than 10 seconds behind winner Anthony Monte, an NCAA qualifier in both track at 10,000 meters and in cross country.

A 16:59 for 5.6K equals 15:09 pace for 5,000 meters.

Reed, who ran for former Westfield legend Matt Elmuccio at Pitman High, ran 14:15.94 for 5,000 meters at the Penn Relays in April, only three seconds off the school record of 14:12.67 set by Nick Pellegrino of Marlboro at the 2004 IC4A Championships at Yale University in New Haven.

Rutgers sophomore Zeb Hinker from Lower Cape May Regional and Rider senior Gobi Thurairajah from Egg Harbor Township both also finished in the top 20. Hinker ran 17:35 for 18th place and was Rutgers’ top finisher, and Thurairajah was Rider’s No. 2 finisher.

In the women’s race, Monmouth junior Isabella Leak from Egg Harbor, Rider freshman Maddie Dischert of Atlantic City, Monmouth junior Allie Pierontoni from Kingsway all finished in the top 20. Leak ran 14:39.9 over 4,000 meters for 13th, Dischert ran 14:41.0 for 15th and Piertontoni 14:59.6 for 18th.

Kevin McDonnell, a former Camden Catholic runner from Moorestown, won the Philly 10K Sunday in 30:40.

McDonnell, who ran at St. Joe’s, finished about 100 meters ahead of 2nd-place Ethan Hermann, who ran 30:56.

At St. Joe’s, McDonnell set a school record that still stands with a 29:16.01 at 10,000 meters in a meet at Bucknell in 2013. He was runner-up in the Atlantic 10 Cross Country Championships in 2009, when St. Joe’s won its first team title since 2000. He was a two-time NCAA XC qualifier for the Hawks.

McDonnell has a 5,000 PR on the track of 14:03.52 from 2013 in Williamsburg, Va.

Runner-up Hermann attends Drexel, which does not have a track team. He’s a journalism major at Drexel and currently a music and entertainment writer for the school’s student newspaper, The Triangle.

Pleasantville’s Nia Ali cruised into the 100-meter hurdles final Wednesday at the World Track Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

Ali ran 12.49 – the 9th-fastest time of her life and 3rd-fastest ever in a qualifying race – and earned a large-Q qualifier as the second finisher in the third of three semifinal races at the National Athletics Center along the eastern banks of the Danube River.

Puerto Rico’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, the 2020 Olympic gold medalist, won the third semi in 12.41. The top two finishers in each of three semifinal races and the next two-fastest times advanced to the final at 9:25 p.m. Thursday.

On Wednesday, both small-Q qualifiers – Ditaji Kambundji of Switzerland and Danielle Williams of Jamaica – ran 12.50, Kambundji in the first semi and Williams just behind Ali in the third race.

World No. 1 Kendra Harrison, the U.S. record holder at 12.20 from 2016 in London, had the fastest time in the semis with a 12.33 in the first race.

Ali’s 12.49 was tied for 3rd-fastest behind Harrison and Camacho-Quinn. Devynne Charlton of the Bahamas ran 12.49 in the first heat.

Harrison and Charlton were aided by a 0.5 assisting wind. Ali ran into a 0.4 wind.

Ali, 34 and with three kids, was the 2019 World Champion with her 12.34 in Doha. On Thursday, she’ll attempt to become only the third U.S. woman to win multiple World Championships. Gail Devers won in 1993 in Stuttgart, 1995 in Gothenburg and 1997 in Athens, and Michelle Perry in 2005 in Helsinki and 2007 in Osaka.

The only other double winner is Austrailian Sally Pearson, who won in Daegu, South Korea, in 2011 and London in 2017.

Here’s a look at Ali’s 10-fastest lifetime times, with six of 10 coming since June 8:

12.30 … Herculis Diamond League [f], Fontvielle, Monaco, July 21, 2023
12.34 … World Championships [f], Doha, Qatar, Oct. 6, 2019 [1st]
12.37 … U.S. Championships, [f], Eugene, Ore., July 8, 2023 [1st]
12.38 … Memorial Kamila Skolimowska Diamond League, Stadion Śląski [f], Chorzów, Poland, July 16, 2023 [3rd]
12.41 … Hungarian Athletics Grand Prix [f], Székesfehérvár, Hungary, July 18, 2023 [2nd]
12.43 … U.S. Championships, Eugene [sf], Ore., July 8, 2023 [—]
12.44 … World Championships [sf], Doha, Qatar, Oct. 6, 2019 [—]
12.48 … U.S. Championships [f], Des Moines, Iowa, June 22, 2013 [3rd]
12.49 … U.S. Championships [sf], Eugene, Ore., June 25, 2022 [—]
12.49 … World Championships [sf], Budapest, Hungary, Aug. 23, 2023 [—]

Pleasantville’s Nia Ali coasted to a win in her 100 hurdles heat at the World Championships Tuesday at the National Sports Center in Budapest, Hungary.

Ali was first across the line in the second of five qualifying races for the semifinals. The first four in each heat and the next four-fastest hurdlers qualified for the second round, which is scheduled for 2:45 p.m. Wednesday.

Ali, who won her first U.S. championship in June at 34 years old, ran 12.55 and won her race by 1-10th of a second over Poland’s Pia Skrzyszowska, who ran 12.65.

Ali will be in Lane 6 in the 3rd of three semifinal races.

The first two finishers in each of the three races plus the next two-fastest runners advance to the final, which is scheduled for 3:22 p.m. on Thursday.

Ali is No. 2 in the world this year with her 12.30 in Monaco last month. U.S. record holder Kendra Harrison took over the No. 1 world ranking from Ali on Tuesday, when she won her qualifying race in 12.24. Harrison set the American record of 12.20 in London in 2016.

Ali’s 12.30 is No. 9 in world history and No. 3 all-time in the U.S., behind Harrison and Brianna McNeal, who ran 12.26 in Des Moines in 2013.

Ali won the 100-meter highs at the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Qatar.