How much has Richie Castañeda improved?

A year ago, he ran 17:48 at the Camden County Championships and placed seventh. On Friday, on the same 5,000-meter course at Timber Creek Park in Lindenwold and Glocuester Township, he ran 16:51, ran away with the individual title and led Camden Catholic to the team title at the Camden County championships.

Castañeda and Matt Coffey, two seniors, finished 1-2 to lead the Irish to a 33-60 win over Paul VI.

Coffey took second in 17:09, a 32-second improvement of his own over his race at Timber Creek Park last fall.

Senior Ray Derman and junior Matt Denton gave Camden Catholic four finishers in the top 10. Derman ran 17:28 for sixth and Denton 17:38 for ninth. Senior Denny Kelly clinched the team title with a solid 15th-place finish in 18:03.

The team title is Camden Catholic’s second in a row.

How well did Camden Catholic race? Scoring against the field, they would have lost only by six points. That’s with Camden Catholic going 1-2-6-9-15 for 33 points and the field going 3-4-5-7-8 for 27 points.

Camden Catholic’s 33-point total is the lowest at the Camden County meet in five years, since Cherry Hill East won the 2013 meet with 27 points.

Losing one of the best runners in the state hasn’t slowed down the Shawnee girls.

The Renegades won their sixth straight Burlington County Open XC title Friday and 24th overall, edging a rapidly improving Cherokee team 49-62 over 5,000 meters at Mill Creek Park.

With defending sectional champ Isabella Turner sidelined, Shawnee showed its depth, placing three runners in the top 10 and six runners in the top 20.

Turner, who won the Open in 2016 and 2017, hasn’t raced since an 18:03 at Delsea, fastest time of the day at the South Jersey Open on Sept. 29.

But junior Claire Hauser led the way Friday with a 19:30 for second place behind Cherokee junior Kate Rathman, and senior Grace Kearns [8th in 20:23], freshman Sarah Kochanski [9th in 20:32], freshman Madison Koveloski [12th in 20:50] and junior Maddy Yeager [18th in 21:15] gave Shawnee a top-5 average of 20:30.

Cherokee actually led after four runners, so Yeager was the difference for Shawnee, and she was backed up four seconds later by Shawnee’s sixth runner, senior Lauren Tenet, who was 19th in 21:19.

The last time Shawnee didn’t win the Open was 2012, when Seneca went 2-3-5-8-10 for the team title with just 28 points.

Shawnee won five straight Open titles from 1982 through 1986, 11 straight from 1988 through 1998 and two more in  2002 and 2003 before starting its latest streak in 2013.

In all, Shawnee has won 24 of the last 37 girls team titles.

Elizabethtown junior Samuel Gerstenbacher, a Schalick graduate, outraced Bryce Descavish of Dickinson to win the Dickinson Short Course Invitational Saturday over 4,000 meters in Newville, Pa.

Gerstenbacher and Descavish both covered the 4,000-meter course in 12:10, with Gerstenbacher getting the win after their times were compared down to the 1,000th of a second — Gerstenbacher was credited with a 12:10.530 and Descavish a 12:10.532 after the timers examined the photo.

Literally a hair’s difference.

Gerstenbacher, the Landmark Conference champion last fall, led Elizabethtown to a second-place finish in the Dickinson Short Course Invite by a 14-18 score, with only the first three runners for each team scoring.

At Schalick, Gerstenbacher ran 4:20.31 for 1,600 meters and was a Group 1 sectional runner-up and state medalist as a senior and won numerous Salem County and Sri-County titles in both track and XC.

Sophomore Ashlynne Burke led five Kingsway runners in the top 25 and the Lady Dragons easily won the Varsity B race at Shore Coaches Saturday, outscoring second-place Mendham 49-75.

It was the fourth Shore Coaches team title in school history and the second in a row.

Kingsway is ranked No. 1 in South Jersey and No. 2 in the state.

Burke ran 19:27 to place fifth, and sophomore Sydney Watts [9th in 20:00], senior Lauren Krott [10th in 20:05 and junior Emily Pierontoni [12th in 20:12] gave Kingsway four of the first 12 runners. Kingsway averaged 20:08, 25 seconds per person faster than Mendham.

Pierontoni was Kingsway’s fourth runner Saturday, but she finished ahead of the second runners from every other school in the race.

Freshman Allison MacFarland completed Kingsway’s scoring, taking 24th in 20:58.

Juniors Kennedy Watterson and Allie Pierontoni both broke 22 minutes for Kingsway, Waterson taking 43rd in 21:40 and Pierontoni 52nd in 21:57.

Kingsway outscored Ridge 77-81 last year to win its first Shore Coaches team title in 27 years.

The Dragons won their first two Shore Coaches team championships in 1988 and 1990, when Lori Townsend won the individual title in Varsity D leading Kingsway to the team title both years.

OK, we generally just write about South Jersey track and cross country, but when a girl runs 16:21 at Holmdel you have to make an exception!!!

Katelyn Tuohy, a junior at North Rockland High in Thiells, N.Y., and already the greatest high school runner of all-time, made the trip down to Holmdel this weekend to take on the legendary Holmdel County Park 5,000-meter course and broke the meet record of 17:28, set by Highland’s Megan Venables at the 2010 state Group 3 meet.

BY 67 SECONDS.

The greatest high school XC performance ever? No doubt about it.

Some incredible runners have taken on Holmdel, and Tuohy ran a minute faster.

Ashley Higginson, a U.S. national champ in XC, ran 17:49. Olympic miler Erin Donohue ran 18:18. Marielle Hall, who this summer won the NACAC XC title, ran 18:16. Janet Smith, who set the Foot Locker course record, ran 17:35.

Etc.

Tuohy’s time would have been 17th-best out of 995 boys who raced in the various varsity races at Shore Coaches this year. She would have had the fastest time of the entire meet as recently as 1998.

According to Lambo, Tuohy was out in 5:23 and 10:46 — which are insane splits to begin with on the ridiculously hilly Holmdel course — but that would mean she covered the last 1.1 miles in 5:35, which means she closed in about 5:05 for the final mile!

Watch the video of Tuohy’s finish here:

Here’s a list of every girl that’s ever run under 18 minutes at Holmdel:

16:21 Katelyn Tuohy [North Rockland, N.Y.], 2018
17:27.9 Megan Venables [Highland], 2010
17:35.5 Janet Smith [North Edison], 1983
17:40 Michelle Rowen [Washington Twp.], 1982
17:43.1 Chelsea Ley [Kingsway], 2008
17:45 Briana Gess [Haddonfield], 2013
17:46.6 Melanie Thompson [Voorhees], 2008
17:46.9 Danielle Tauro [Southern Reg.], 2006
17:47 Sarah Disanza [High Point Reg.], 2012
17:49.2 Ashley Higginson [Colts Neck], 2006
17:54 Christi Constantin [Kittatinny Reg.], 1988
17:54.6 Megan Lacy [Cherokee], 2010
17:54.8 Alyssa Aldridge [Mainland Reg.], 2016
17:59 Amanda Marino [Jackson Mem.], 2005
17:59 Kelly Janokowicz [Hillsborough], 2012
17:59.2 Cate Guiney [Middletown South], 1998

For the third straight year, the Kingsway boys won a team title at Shore Coaches, and for the third straight year they had to run past North Hunterdon to do it.

Kingsway boys won a dramatic dual against North Hunterdon, ranked No. 4 in the state, Saturday in the Varsity B race at Shore Coaches.

North Hunterdon led 27-28 after three runners, and Kingsway led 47-48 after three runners, and that’s what makes cross country so great – your fifth runner is just as important as your first runner.

In this case, Kingsway’s No. 5 runner, senior Stephen Wilkins III, edged North Hunterdon’s fifth runner by six seconds and three spots, giving the Dragons a 78-74 triumph

Junior Stone Caraccio led Kingsway in third place with a 16:19 on the 5,000-meter hill-fest at Holmdel County Park. Senior Gavin Wagner [10th in 16:55], freshman Kyle Rakitis [15th in 17:02], junior Ayden Magee [19th in 17:10] and Wilkins also scored.

This is Kingsway’s third straight title in Varsity B. The Dragons outscored North Hunterdon 55-90 last year and 68-81 in 2016. Kingsway also won Varsity A in 2014.

Kingsway averaged 16:56 for its five scorers to 17:02 for North Hunterdon.

The Haddonfield boys raced without three of their top five runners and still won the Varsity E race at Shore Coaches by 33 points!

With Martin Riddell, Greg Eisenhower and Andrew Gostovich taking SATs, Haddonfield cobbled together a makeshift varsity team and still averaged an incredible 16:51 over the Holmdel County Park hills.

The Bulldogs outscored neighborhood rival Camden Catholic, 49-82, to win the title.

Haddonfield’s score of 49 points is the lowest by any winning team in Varsity E in 10 years, since the 2008 Haddonfield team, led by Jon Vitez, Benn Potts and Matt Nussbaum, scored 36.

The title is the 10th for the Haddonfield boys at the Shore Coaches Invite and the second in a row.

Haddonfield packed six runners in 37 seconds, with senior Derek Gess leading the way in seventh place in 16:35.

Junior Stephen Kasko placed ninth in 16:50, with senior Ethan Spellmeyer 11th in 16:51.

Haddonfield had three more runners finish 14th, 15th and 16th – junior Grayson Fasolo [16:56] and seniors Griffin Weiner [17:07] and Sean Campiglia [17:12].

Haddonfield won its first Shore Coaches title in Group C back in 1978, when the meet was held around the corner at Brookdale Community College. The Bulldogs also won in 1989 [Group D], 1995, 2000, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2017 [Group E] and 1998 [Group F].

How deep is Haddonfield? Even after moving several runners up from the JV, they still went 1-2-3 in the JV race and won the JV Group D team title, 38-68, over St. Joe’s Prep.

Sophomore John Hurly [17:53], senior Tommy Neveling [18:04] and senior Ryan Colflesh [18:42] swept the top three spots, and freshmen Matt O’Leary, Andrew Sullivan and Ethan Welborn all finished in the top 23 out of nearly 200 runners.

Cinnaminson junior Austin Gabay ran away with the Varsity E race Saturday at the Shore Coaches Invitational with a Holmdel PR of more than a minute.

Gabay nearly broke 16 minutes on the hallowed 5,000-meter Holmdel County Park layout, running 16:01 to win by 35 meters over senior Colin Flood of Manasquan.

That’s more than a one-minute PR at Holmdel for Gabay, who ran 17:09 at Group 2 states last fall after a 17:38 at Shore Coaches.

This is the fourth time a Cinnaminson runner has won an individual title at Shore Coaches. Bill Mason won the Group D race in 1998 in 16:24 and Michael Ungvarsky won the Group D race in 2015 in 16:25 and Group E in 2016 in 15:57.

His time is third-fastest in Cinnaminson history at Holmdel, trailing only Jon Anderson, who ran 15:50 at the 2003 Meet of Champions, and Ungvarsky’s 15:57. Steve Grabowski’s 16:08 at the 2005 Meet of Champions and Matt Poskus’s 16:13 at the 2006 M-of-C give Cinnaminson a five-man average of 16:02.

 

 

Cherokee graduate Megan Lacy returned to competitive running after a 17-month layoff when she placed third in the USATF Trail Half-Marathon Championships in Hayward, Wisc.

Lacy ran 1:33.04, finishing behind only Megan Roche of Boulder, Colo. [1:27;31] and Samantha Lewis of Moscow, Idaho [1:30:39] in the women’s race. Overall, Lacy was 17th of more than 200 runners who competed in the half marathon on the Birkie Ridge Trail, located in northwestern Wisconsin, about 50 miles east of the Minnesota border.

The race was Lacy’s first since the Mountain West Conference 5,000-meter run in May of 2017 at Utah State in Logan, Utah.

Lacy, now based in Boise, completed her collegiate eligibility at Boise State after graduating from Stanford, where she ran 5,000 meters on the track in 16:35 but spent much of her collegiate career dealing with injuries.

At Cherokee, Lacy ran 10:24.61 for 3,200 meters, winning the 2012 state Group 4 title before lowering her PR to 10:22.02 — third-fastest in South Jersey history — in placing third in the Meet of Champions. She was also a two-time state champion in cross country.

College of New Jersey senior Natalie Cooper covered 6,000 meters in 21:15 and placed second out of more than 350 runners in the Women’s Brown race at the Paul Short Invitational on Lehigh’s lower campus in Bethlehem, Pa.

Cooper, an All-America and two-time NJAC champion from Moorestown High, finished just 50 meters behind overall winner Siobhan Quinn of Canisius, who ran 21:02.

This is a tremendous result for Cooper, whose time would have placed her in the top 25 in the women’s Gold race, ahead of more than 300 NCAA Division 1 runners from some high-powered programs.

Her time is fastest ever at Lehigh by a TCNJ runner and made her the top Division 3 finisher in any of the three races.

“Going into the meet Natalie discussed with the coaching staff that the goal was to be in the top ten early in the race and assess how she felt in the first half, then in the second half if she’s feeling good to push the intensity,” TCNJ head coach Justin Lindsey said. “She ran it almost to a ’T’ with how she wanted to and it was great to watch.”

Cooper was named NJAC Runner of the Week for her performance at Paul Short.