Cinnaminson’s Austin Gabay, in his first race for Butler, placed 5th in the Fighting Illini B1G Preview Friday in Savoy, Ill.

Gabay ran 23:48 over 8,000 meters on the Orange and Blue Golf Course just south of Champaign. He was Butler’s first finisher.

Gabay graduated in the spring from Duke and is spending a graduate year at Butler in Indianapolis. That 23:48 is only four seconds off his 8K PR of 23:44 from the 2022 Paul Short Run on Lehigh’s Goodman campus.

Gabay finished only six seconds behind winner Christian de Vaal of Wisconsin and New Zealand.

At Duke, Gabay ran 3:40.73 for 1,500 meters and 7:58.94 for 3,000 on the track.

Kylee Black, a senior at Vineland, ran a lifetime all-course PR over 5,000 meters Tuesday and placed 1st in a tri-meet with Cedar Creek and Atlantic County Institute of Technology on Vineland’s course.

Black ran 20:53 and won by about 250 meters over senior teammate Gabrielle Brown [2nd in 22:01], with sophomore Olivia Masucci [3rd in 22:51] making it a 1-2-3 Vineland finish.

Senior Leah Denmead [4th in 23:44] and sophomore Lisette Echevarria [5th in 23:54] were Cedar Creek’s top finishers.

Sophomores Gianna Capoferri and Jasira Spencer ran 6th and 7th and were Vineland’s 4th and 5th finishers. Seniors Shannon Powers and Ashlyn Walker were ACIT’s top finishers in 8th and 9th and Cedar Creek’s Jenny Rae was the top freshman in the race in 10th place.

Vineland outscored Cedar Creek 19-38.

Bishop Eustace senior Ethan Caprarola, 5th in the state Parochial B meet last year at Holmdel, finished 1st of 64 runners Tuesday in an Olympic Conference batch meet.

Caprarola ran 18:44 over 5,000 meters at DREAM Park in Logan Township and won by about 10 meters over Moorestown sophomore Ethan Taylor, who was 2nd in 18:46.

Also in the top 10 were Camden County Vo-Tech Sicklerville senior Julian Rich [3rd in 18:49], Eustace senior Desmond Carey [4th in 18:50], Winslow senior Dominic Bassey [5th in 19:33], Camden County Vo-Tech Sicklerville senior Leo Vargas-Trinidad [6th in 20:05], Eustace junior Alexander Dietz [7th in 20:07], Winslow senior Eric Brown [8th in 20:22], Winslow senior David Duran [20:24] and Winslow junior Vincent Perri [10th in 20:29].

Winslow topped Moorestown 32-45 to win the team title.

In a separate race, Eastern had three of the top four finishes to edge Lenape 28-38.

Senior Ryan Haefele ran 18:16 and finished 30 meters ahead of 2nd-place Connor McCafferty, a Seneca senior, who was 2nd in 18:23.

Also in the top 10: Eastern junior Justin Fox [3rd in 18:25], Eastern senior Nicholas Sirdashney [4th in 18:41], Lenape senior Rayyan Ahmed [5th 18:53], Lenape senior Cooper McDonald [6th in 19:05], Lenape sophomore Aaron Smith [7th in 19:22], Lenape junior Christopher DiBraccio [8th in 19:42], Rancocas Valley sophomore Cody Habeck [9th in 19:45] and Eastern junior Aiden Mueller [10th in 19:46].

Haddonfield, ranked 3rd in New Jersey, placed six runners within 10 seconds in its season debut in a Colonial Conference batch meet Tuesday at West Deptford Park.

Haddonfield won the state Group 2 title last year with four underclassmen in the top five, and later this fall will be shooting for its 7th straight state title and 22nd since 1978.

Senior Bennett Wright was the overall winner in 17:46, followed by junior Benjamin Andrus [17:47], junior Ryan Gibson [17:47], junior newcomer Peter Simpson [17:47], freshman Augustan Coley [17:56] and sophomore Owen Snyder [17:56].

Wright, Gibson and Andrus placed 6th, 8th and 11th at the state meet last year, when Haddonfield raced past Bernards 39-68 at Holmdel.

After Haddonfield’s first six Tuesday, West Deptford sophomore Lane McClintock, a 1st-year cross country runner, was 6th overall in 18:05.

Also in the top 10 were Haddonfield senior Liam Paterson [18:18], West Deptford junior Gavin Yoder [18:26] and Haddonfield senior Case Hurly [18:49].

In the girls meet, No. 9 Haddonfield swept the top 11 spots, with sophomore Madison Kelsey winning in 21:48, followed by senior Dylan Melcher [21:59], sophomore Molly Mills [22:00], junior Lauren Hamblin [22:08], sophomore Harper Benjamin [22:14], junior Edith Green [22:24], senior Caroline Barker [22:29], sophomore Devon Gervasi [22:31], junior Elizabeth Pappas [22:35], junior Sofia Conrey [22:39] and junior Sophia Rowell [22:23].

Audubon took the next three places, with freshman Sophia Brassill [23:30] [yes, that’s three straight finishers named Sophia / Sofia!], sophomore Lydia Gravante [23:31] and freshman Romina Macko [23:32].

Eastern’s Theresa Albertson opened her sophomore year with a big win in an Olympic Conference batch meet Tuesday at DREAM Park in Logan Township.

Albertson, who placed 7th in the Olympic Conference meet and South Jersey Group 4 sectionals as a freshman, ran 20:21 and was 1st of 57 runners from Eastern, Lenape, Seneca, Shawnee and Rancocas Valley.

Junior Natalie Dumas, in her first race since winning the 400-meter hurdles national title at the West Philly Nationals at Franklin Field in 58.32 – 4th-fastest in state history – placed 2nd in 22:17. It was her first cross country race ever.

Senior Annelise Shack, sophomore Jordyn Waterman and senior Sarah Haefele – none of whom ran XC last year – finished 6th, 7th and 8th, all between 24:08 and 24:10, giving Eastern five of the first eight finishers and 24 team points if there were team scoring.

Lenape sophomore Audrey McCorkle, who also didn’t run XC last year, placed 3rd [22:53], and junior Mary Casano [23:15] and senior Haley Wasson [23:30] of Rancocas Valley finished 4th and 5th.

Sophomore Danica DiPerna and senior Kayla Dilks of Shawnee rounded out the top 10, DiPerna in 9th and Dilks in 10th in 24:11 and 24:12.

Kingsway graduate Tom Cooke placed 24th out of nearly 4,500 runners in the men’s division of the New Balance 5th Avenue Mile Sunday in Manhattan.

The 30-year-old Cooke, now listed with a Blackwood Terrace (Deptford Township) hometown, ran 4:07 along 5th Avenue from 80th Street down to 60th Street. He placed 1st out of 926 runners in the 30-34 age group.

Cooke has a track mile PR of 4:02.16 from a meet at Tatnall School in Wilmington, Del., in April 2022.

Former Shawnee runner Jason Richwall, 26, placed 60th out of 4,491 male finishers (there were 8,807 overall finishers) with a time of 4:27. He was 32nd out of 1,008 in the 25-29 age group. Richwall ran for Muhlenberg College in Allentown, then for Rowan in the spring of 2022, then Muhlenberg again.

The top woman from South Jersey was Brianna Heffernan of Woolwich Township, who placed 95th out of 4,536 women in 5:26. Heffernan, 17, placed 7th out of 135 in the 10-18 age group. Heffernan is a senior at Padua Academy in Wilmington, Del.

Heffernan was a teammate in 2021 and 2022 of Sophia Curtis, the All-America triple jumper and hurdler who spent the last two years at Ocean City.

Lexi Tepper of UMBC and Kate Inglis of Catholic University both placed in the top 15 Saturday at the Cantello XC Invitational.

Tepper, a sophomore from Cherry Hill East, ran 22:08 and placed 5th overall out of 78 runners over 6,000 meters at the U.S. Naval Academy Golf Club in Anne Arundel County, Md., across the Severn River from Annapolis. Inglis, a senior from Moorestown, placed 15th in 23:13.

Tepper has raced twice this fall and finished no worse than 5th in either race. She won her 2024 debut last month at Mount St. Mary’s in Emmittsburg, Md., with a PR 18:13.

This was Inglis’s first race this fall. She won the steeplechase last spring at the Landmark Conference Championships in Elizabethtown, Pa. Inglis is the Catholic school record holder in the steeplechase [11:07.96] and 5,000 [17:37.32].

In what appears to be his first collegiate race in more than seven years, Rutgers-Camden sophomore Jacob Dinerman of Haddon Township placed 3rd Saturday in the Philadelphia Cross Classic.

Dinerman ran 29:03 over 8,000 meters at Belmont Plateau in Fairmount Park. According to the Track and Field Results Reporting System, it was Dinerman’s first race since May 17, 2017, when he was a freshman at The College of New Jersey and ran an 800 PR of 1:55.73 at the Mideast Invitational at Widener University in Chester, Pa.

Also according to TFRRS, he never ran a cross country race while he was at TCNJ. It does appear he ran a road 5,000 in Edison in April 2021 and ran 14:39.76, but his last official XC race appears to be a Colonial Conference batch meet at Pennypacker Park in Haddonfield and Cherry Hill on Oct. 13, 2015.

On Saturday, Dinerman finished behind only John Ferry of Goldey-Beacom in Wilmington, Del., who won the race in 28:16, and Daniel Chinchilla of Felician in Rutherford, who was 2nd in 28:46.

Matt Martino, a Holy Family freshman from Hammonton, placed 14th out of 78 runners in 31:17 in his first collegiate race. C.J. Gilmore, a Rowan College-Gloucester County sophomore from Audubon, placed 20th in 31:56.

Maeve Smith became Ocean City’s 3rd individual winner of the day and ran the fastest time of the day Saturday when she won the senior class race at the 26th annual Cherokee Challenge.

Smith, 9th in the Meet of Champions last fall and 8th in the Meet of Champions 1,600 this past spring, ran 11:28 over two miles at Cherokee and won by 60 meters over Alli DeLisa of Penn Charter, who placed 2nd in 11:41.

Earlier, Riley Tolson of Ocean City won the freshman race in 12:07 and Carly Godfrey won the sophomore race in 11:57. Four of the eight-fastest times by South Jersey runners (four of 16 overall) were recorded by Ocean City runners. Ocean City’s 5th runner was Zoe Zammit, who plcae 16th in the senior race in 12:23, the 14th-fastest overall South Jersey performance.

In the senior race, the 2nd South Jersey finisher was Ocean City’s Chloe Care, who placed 4th in 11:46. Kaysie Luna of Sterling [5th in 11:53], Moorestown’s Gabrielle DeJoseph [6th in 11:53] and Cherokee’s Megan Niglio [10th in 12:07] also finished in the top 10.

There was no team scoring kept, but unofficially Ocean City would have won 58-110 over Pingry School of Bernards Township, Somerset County. Moorestown would have placed 4th with 187 and Cherokee 6th [229] out of 71 schools that fielded at least five runners in the four races.

Fastest South Jersey girls in the junior race were Julia Flanagan of Holy Cross [2nd in 11:55], Cherokee’s Madeline Meder [8th in 12:19], Williamstown’s Sophie Aldridge [9th in 12:22] and Collingswood’s Macie Straight [11th in 12:24].

In the sophomore race, Moorestown’s Sophia DiFiore placed 9th in 12:48, Egg Harbor’s Addison Lambert 10th in 12:53 and Lenape’s Audrey McCorkle 11th in 12:55.

Other than Tolson, the top South Jersey freshmen were Cherokee’s Erin Healy [6th in 12:31] and Moorestown teammates Hope Edwards [7th in 12:39] and Makayla Zell [8th in 12:42].

Here’s a look at every South Jersey girl that run 13:00 or faster in any of the four class races:

11:28.51 … Maeve Smith [Ocean City], 1st, senior race
11:46.29 … Chloe Care [Ocean City], 4th, senior race
11:53.13 … Kaysie Luna [Sterling], 5th, senior race
11:53.23 … Gabrielle DeJoseph [Moorestown], 6th, senior race
11:55.57 … Julia Flanagan [Holy Cross], 2nd, junior race
11:57.98 … Carly Godfrey [Ocean City], 1st, sophomore race
12:07.32 … Megan Niglio [Cherokee], 10th, senior race
12:07.36 … Riley Tolson [Ocean City], 1st, freshman race
12:09.17 … Nilaa Ponnappan [Camden Catholic], 11th, senior race
12:14.89 … Jonalee Adames [Sterling], 13th, senior race
12:15.50 … Lilliana Stack Maya [Moorestown], 6th, junior race
12:19.05 … Madeline Meder [Cherokee], 8th, junior race
12:22.82 … Sophie Aldridge [Williamstown], 9th, junior race
12:23.93 … Zoe Zammit [Ocean City], 16th, senior race
12:24.28 … Macie Straight [Collingswood], 11th, junior race
12:26..81 … Zoe Chou [Northern Burlington], 17th, senior race
12:31.59 … Erin Healy [Cherokee], 6th, freshman race
12:32.45 … Noelia Reyes [Moorestown], 22nd, senior race
12:34.60 … Juliana Sieminski [Delsea], 23rd, senior race
12:34.63 … Krystal Patel [Cherry Hill West], 24th, senior race
12:35.57 … Paige Pacquing [Egg Harbor Twp.], 16th, junior race
12:36.92 … Lilla Porter [Clearview], 27th, senior race
12:38.77 … Delaney Harbison [Williamstown], 29th, senior race
12:39.25 … Hope Edwards [Moorestown], 7th, freshman race
12:42.64 … Makayla Zell [Moorestown], 8th, freshman race
12:43.40 … Devyn Per [Egg Harbor Twp.], 17th, junior race
12:44.31 … Maya Kumar [Cherokee], 18th, junior race
12:44.59 … Sarah Brown [Moorestown], 32nd, senior race
12:45.53 … Kayla Leonhardt [Northern Burlington], 34th, senior race
12:47.54 … Ashley Doyle [Delran], 20th, junior race
12:48.11 … Sophia DiFiore [Moorestown], 9th, sophomore race
12:53.71 … Addison Lambert [Egg Harbor Twp.], 10th, sophomore race
12:55.95 … Audrey McCorkle [Lenape], 11th, sophomore race
12:58.74 … Natalie Clauhs [Hammonton], 37th, senior race

Ellie Goldberg, a West Chester junior from West Deptford, placed 3rd overall and helped the Golden Rams to a perfect score of 15 points Saturday at the West Chester Season Opener in East Marlborough Township, Chester County, Pa.

Goldberg ran a PR 15:56 over the 4,000-meter course at Unionville High School and finished behind only teammates Taylor Atkinson [15:26] and Kristina Tapia [15:30].

Goldberg did not run cross country at West Deptford. She ran track and had an 800 PR of 2:27.13 for 800 meters and 6:12.44 for the mile.

But she’s blossomed as a collegiate runner, and her progression at 4,000 meters shows her steady improvement in three years at WCU: 18:55 as a freshman in 2022, 17:01 and then 16:30 as a sophomore last fall and now 15:56, which is a 34-second PR.

Also in the top 10 was The College of New Jersey junior Noelle Falzone, a Cherokee graduate. Falzone was TCNJ’s second finisher, taking 7th overall in 16:37.

Georgian Court’s top finisher was senior Amirah Beasley from Washington Township.