Junior Princess Nwoga ran a PR 20:04 and Highland placed four in the top six to win a close dual meet with Schalick at Camden County College in Gloucester Township.

Nwoga’s time was a huge 5K all-course PR, 47 seconds faster than she ran a week earlier in a dual meet on the same course.

She won by more than a minute over senior Julia Smith of Schalick, the South Jersey Group 1 champ both in the 1,600 last year and in XC.

Highland went 1-3-5-6-8, winning by a 23-33 margin.

For Highland, sophomore Grace Wassell placed third, senior Kate Goodman fifth, junior Heather Mattern 6th and sophomore Calista Jaensch eighth. 

Schalick’s top group also included junior Mia LaMarra in 4th, senior Chloe Gerstenbacher in 7th, junior Autumn Heaton in 9th and senior Tia Furbush in 11th. 

It’s a different sort of year, with no XC invitationals, no states, no Meet of Champions, no Nike, no Foot Locker and limited conference and county meets.

Thankfully we’ll have sectionals and it looks like some counties and conferences will hold championship meets, but there’s a new emphasis on dual meets this year because that’s really the only chance most runners will have to race with one or two exceptions.

I would love to run more dual meet results on the site, but I can’t do it if I don’t get them. So feel free to send me your dual meet results at FromTheBackstretch@gmail.com and I’ll get to as many of them as I can.

Thanks for your support!

Haddonfield’s Anne Earp ran a 5K PR Tuesday in a dual meet with Haddon Heights at Pennypacker Park.

Earp ran 19:33, lowering her all-course XC 5,000 personal-best from 19:44, which she ran two weeks ago on the same course. Her time is 12th-fastest by a freshman at Pennpacker, which has been in use for Colonial Conference meets for at least 15 years.

Freshman Ava Thomas ran 20:53 and freshman Riley Slootsky 20:59 as Haddonfield, racing without several of its regular runners, swept the top three spots. Thomas and Slootsky also both ran their fastest 5K times this year.

Sophomore Ava Severino was Haddon Heights’ first finisher, placing fourth in 21:20, six seconds faster than her previous 5,000 all-course PR.

Also scoring for Haddonfield were senior Georgia Nussey [5th in 21:29] and freshman Sarah Fetter [6th in 21:57].

Haddonfield won 17-45.

Camden Catholic junior Billy Clewell led the way in a five-team Olympic Conference batch Saturday cruising to a 17:32 at DREAM Park in Logan Township.

Clewell, who ran 16:24 at DREAM Park last week, finished 12 seconds ahead of Cherokee freshman Nick Kuenkel, who was second in 17:44.

Team scoring was not kept and several top runners did not compete, but Shawnee went 4-5-10-11-12 and would have won with 42 points over Cherokee’s 46. Shawnee packed its first five in 30 seconds.

Sophomore Ryan Czechowski [17:58] and freshman Ryan Kaczur [18:15] led Shawnee in 4th and 5th, with seniors Robert Birdsall, Dylan Hansen and John Ruona all finishing together in 18:28.

Also in the top 10 were Eustace junior Anthony Faust [3rd in 17:50], Cherokee freshman Andrew Free [6th in 18:22], Eustace junior Ryan Carney [7th in 18:25, Camden Catholic sophomore Braelen Crump [8th in 18:26] and Cherokee freshman Julian Hatch [9th in 18:27].

Duke freshman Austin Gabay ran a big 8K PR Friday, placing 11th in the Panorama Farms Invitational.

Gabay, a freshman from Cinnaminson, ran 24:26 and was Duke’s fifth runner on the Panorama Farms course in Earlysville, Va., just outside Charlottesville.

Host Virginia edged Duke, 26-33, for the team title.

In his first collegiate 8,000, Gabay ran 25:41 three weeks ago at the Virginia Tech Invite in Blacksburg, Va., so he ran 15 seconds per mile faster over the nearly 5.0-mile course.

Duke senior Mike Ungvarsky, also from Cinnaminson, also ran an 8,000 PR, finishing in 24:49. His previous fastest all-course 8K time was 24:55 at a meet in Greenville, N.C., in October of 2018.

Washington Township packed its seven runners in 31 seconds in sweeping an Olympic Conference batch meet Saturday morning at DREAM Park in Logan Township.

Washington Township swept the top seven spots in the six-team batch meet. There was no team scoring, but if there were Paul VI would have edged Eastern for second place.

Junior Chris Colavita ran 17:20 for overall individual honors, with junior Charles Lant [17:32], junior Nate Kidwell [17:34], junior Sean Hice [17:36] and senior Mason Brewster [17:46] also scoring for the Minutemen. Seniors Julian Lawson [17:51] and Cole Kolodziej [17:51] were right behind.

Also in the top 10 were Eastern junior Andrew Shinkle in 8th [17:53] and junior Jake Buniva [18:15] and sophomore Colin Hermack [18:26] of Lenape in 9th and 10th.

Moorestown senior Kate Inglis opened her season by leading a 1-5 Moorestown sweep in a tri-meet with Riverside and New Egypt at Moorestown.

Inglis ran 20:40, winning by nearly a minute over senior teammate Anu Bezwada, who was second in 21:37.

Senior Maggie Goettle [21:57], freshman Mary Läufer [21:58] and senior Leah Rivenburgh [23:56] also were part of Mooretown’s scoring group.

Sophomore Cassidy Burr was New Egypt’s first finisher, taking sixth overall, and sophomore Ryah Fitzgerald was Riverside’s finisher.

Inglis, the 2018 BCSL Liberty Division champ, placed 12th at Central Jersey Group 3 sectionals last year at Thompson Park in Jamesburg.

Soph Alex Boyko ran an all-course PR of 17:18 to lead Cinnaminson to a team win in a four-time Burlington County Scholastic League  batch meet on his home course.

Boyko obliterated his previous 5K PR for any course of 18:27, set last October at the BCSL Patriot Division meet at New Egypt.

Boyko won by about 100 meters over Burlington Township senior Aydan Sherman, who ran 17:38.

Cinnaminson went 1-3-5-9-13 and outscored second-place Maple Shade 31-47.

Cinnaminson’s top three runners were sophomores. Matt McCarron was third in 17:38 and Tyler Schill was fifth in 17:49. All three times are PRs. Schill didn’t break 19:30 as a freshman last year.

Senior Sergey Boyko took 9th for the Pirates and another soph, Dean Clark, was 13th.

Also under 18 minutes were Delran senior Riley Maher [4th in 17:47] and Maple Shade junior Ryan Olesky [6th in 17:57]. Rounding out the top 10 were Delran junior Anthony Guarino in 7th, Maple Shade sophomore Chad Cloke in 8th and Maple Shade junior Brennen King in 10th.

Shawnee swept the first three spots in a five-team Olympic Conference batch meet Saturday, with senior John Ruona running a 5,000-meter all-course PR.

Ruona, senior Robert Birdsall and junior Alex Campagna took the top three spots, and Ruona’s 16:18 is his fastest 5K ever. Birdsall was 2nd in 17:05 and Campagna 3rd in 17:11.

Team scoring wasn’t kept, but Shawnee went 1-2-3-6-7 for what would have been 19 points. Sophomore Ryan Czechowski and freshman Ryan Kaczur were Shawnee’s 4th and 5th runners in 17:49 and 17:51.

Also in the top 10 at DREAM Park in Logan Township were Bishop Eustace junior Anthony Faust [4th in 17:25], Eastern junior Andrew Shinkle [5th in 17:41], Bishop Eustace junior Ryan Carney [8th in 18:03] and two Paul VI sophomores – Joseph Wigginton [9th in 18:24] and Owen King [10th in 18:30].

Ruona moved into the No. 11 spot on the all-time DREAM Park course, which has been in use for three years now. He ran 16:38 on the same course earlier this month. His time is 3rd-fastest this year at DREAM Park, behind Cherokee senior Nico Grilli [16:01] and Cherry Hill East senior Aidan Groff [16:17].

Kaczur’s time is No. 6 all-time by a freshman on the DREAM Park course and second-fastest this year, behind Nick Kuenkel of Cherokee, who ran 17:34 last week.

In his second college race, Mainland Regional graduate Kevin Antczak took nearly a minute and a half off his 8,000-meter time for North Carolina State.

Antczak, a Wolfpack freshman, ran 24:23 over 8,000 meters at the Wolfpack Invitational at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, N.C.,, just outside Raleigh.

In his collegiate debut last month, Antczak ran 25:48 at a meet at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg and was N.C. State’s No. 7 runner.

This time, he was N.C. State’s No. 6 runner and missed the top 5 by one second.

Virginia edged N.C. State 28-31 to win the team title.

Click to access 001-1.pdf

The Wolfpack’s top runner, senior J.P. Flavin, is a graduate of Toms River North, where he had a PR of 9:27.30 for 3,200 meters. He placed second in 23:35, three seconds behind Virginia’s Rohann Asfaw.

Antczak was hurt most of the indoor season last year and all of outdoors, so this is really the first time he’s run healthy since last XC season, when he placed second in the Meet of Champions with a 15:29 at Holmdel – No. 14 in course history – and then took 8th at Foot Locker Nationals, the best performance by a South Jersey boy at Foot Locker in 31 years. 

KEVIN ANTCZAK DESTROYS IT AT BALBOA PARK, EARNS ALL-AMERICA STATUS WITH BEST FOOT LOCKER FINISH BY S.J. BOY IN 31 YEARS!!!!!!