From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank

Even without a runner in the top 10, the Kingsway girls packed so well they won the Varsity II race Saturday at the Bowdoin Invitational at Bowdoin Park in Wappinger’s Falls, N.Y.

Sophomore Ashlynne Burke, senior Lauren Trott, junior Allie Pierontoni and sophomore Sydney Watts placed 11th, 12th, 15th and 17th for the Dragons, all between 20:08 and 20:38, and they were backed up by juniors Kennedy Waterson and Emily Pierontoni in 36th and 37th.

Kingsway edged second-place Sacred Heart Academy of Atlantic Beach, N.Y., 76-79, and the keys to the victory were Pierontoni and Watts, who were the top third- and fourth-place finishers in the race. In fact, Watts — Kingsway’s fourth finisher — beat the next-fastest fourth runner, who was from Sacred Heart, by 41 seconds.

Kingsway’s scorers averaged 1:43:18, second-fastest among 39 schools in three varsity races. Niskayuna, N.Y., averaged 1:43:07.

The Kingsway freshmen also won, outscoring Trumbull (Conn.) 46-50. Allison McFarland was the Dragons’ top finisher, taking fourth in 12:33 over the 3,000-meter course. Allison Helkowski [8th in 12:59], Kaitlyn Duffy [18th in 13:51], Isabella Battaglia [32nd in 14:48] and Grace Cassidy [41st in 15:26] also scored for the Kingsway 9th-graders.

Sophomore Sophie Steidle of Collingswood won the girls varsity race at the Ray Hoagland Invitational Saturday by more than a minute!

Steidle covered the 5,000-meter course at the Rancocas Valley Sports Complex in Easthampton in 19:36, beating second-place Tabitha DiDonata by a a fraction of a second over a minute [60.44 seconds to be exact].

That’s about a 250-meter win over the field.

The time is a PR for any 5,000-meter course for Steidle. She ran 19:39 last October at the Colonial Conference All-Star Meet at Pennypacker Park in Haddonfield.

Steidle didn’t compete at sectionals last fall but she did place fourth at Group 2 states in the 3,200 last spring.

Sophomore Emma Klouchek ran 16:22 over 4,000 meters on the hallowed Van Cortlandt Park course and the Seneca girls placed fifth in a very competitive field of mainly New York schools Saturday at the Xavier Invitational in the Bronx.

Klouchek placed seventh overall, leading the way for Seneca. Junior Morgan Hough [25th in 17:31], junior Chelsea Richards [40th in 18:08] and seniors Reilly Ritter [56th in 18:37] and Kayla Handt  [58th in 18:39] also scored for the Golden Eagles.

Notre Dame Academy of Staten Island won the team title with 57 points, followed by Ward Melville of East Setauket, N.Y. [72], Washingtonville (N.Y.) [105] and South Side of Rockville Center, N.Y. [129]. Seneca scored 179.

 

Cinnaminson’s Austin Gabay ran the seventh-fastest time in course history Saturday and placed second in the junior boys race at the Thompson Park Class Meet in Jamesburg and Monroe Township.

Gabay ran 16:09, taking second to Liam Murphy of Allentown, who ran 15:39 and broke the course record of 15:56, set in 2011 by Cullen Davis of North Brunswick.

The previous-fastest time by a South Jersey runner at Thompson Park was a 16:29 by Ben Woodward of Highland last weekend.

Here are the top 10 times in course history:

15:39.37 … Liam Murphy, Allentown [2018]
15:44.92 … Vedang Lad, West Windsor [2018]
15:56.41 … Cullen Davis, North Brunswick [2011]
16:01.69 … Khari Bowen, Monroe Twp. [2011]
16:06.42 … Billy Hill, Franklin Twp. [2017]
16:08.20 … John McGovern, Somerville [2018]
16:09.70 … Austin Gabay, Cinnaminson [2018]
16:11.30 … Jonathan Torres, Hamilton North [2018]
16:15.00 … Paul Ehmann, Mendham [2015]
16:20.07 … Kyle Davis, North Brunswick [2011]

Gabay was a 4:17 miler last spring and placed fifth in the state Group 2 meet at 1,600 meters.

 

Stockton packed its five scorers in a 35-second span and ran away with the team title at its own invitational on Saturday morning.

Sophomore Daniel Do, senior Joe D’Amico, sophomore Cooper Knorr and senior Christian Mele placed 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th in 27:11 through 27:32 over 8,000 meters on Stockton’s campus in Galloway Township, and soph Kyle Navalance took 11th in 27:46.

Stockton finished with 33 points, nearly half of second-place The College of New Jersey. Jefferson of Philly – the combined program of Philadelphia University and Thomas Jefferson – was third with 76.

Do and Mele are South Jersey alums, Do from Absegami and Mele from Cherry Hill East. D’Amico ran at Central Regional, Knorr at Manalapan and Navalance at Toms River North.

Stockton’s five scorers were backed up by sophomores Stephen Conte of Paul VI, Andrew Fellin of Monroe Township and Nick Toth of Spotswood, who placed 17th, 18th and 19th in the field of 112 runners.

Three of TCNJ’s top four runners are South Jersey alums: junior Chris Coombs of Burlington Township placed 10th in 27:41, sophomore Noah Preihs was 12th in 27:49 and freshman Jack Ennis of Shawnee was 15th in 28:03.

For Jefferson, freshman Tyler Savage of Timber Creek placed 30th.

Pitman junior Sebastien Reed tore apart the Stockton University 5,000-meter course in 15:43, beating the field by about 200 meters in winning the varsity boys race at the Osprey Invitational Friday afternoon in Galloway Township.

Reed won by 37 seconds over senior Jensen Nunez of Pleasantville, who took second, helping Pleasantville place fifth in team scoring.

Washington Township edged Ocean City 67-72 to win the team title, with Williamstown (111) and West Deptford (141) giving Gloucester County three of the top four spots.

Pitman was eighth with all underclassmen scoring, and Reed was at the head of the pack, running a personal best for 5,000 meters on any course. His previous PR was a 15:59 when he placed sixth at the Tri-County Championships last fall at Cumberland Regional.

Reed has run 4:30 for 1,600 meters and 9:38 for 3,200 meters. He was sectional 3,200 champ last winter at the Bennett Center and went on to place fourth at the state Group 1 meet.

He similarly won Group 1 sectionals in XC last fall before taking fifth at states at Holmdel. He’s the top returning runner from that state Group 1 race.

 

Senior Brooke Farr was the difference maker for the Ocean City girls Friday in a dramatic team victory over one of the state’s top-ranked teams.

Farr was Ocean City’s fourth runner and placed 12th overall, finishing eight spots (six in team scoring) ahead of Red Bank Catholic’s fourth runner and helping the Red Raiders to a 56-60 win over RBC in the Osprey Invite girls race at Stockton University in Galloway Township.

After three runners, Red Bank Catholic had a 15-16 lead. RBC’s fifth runner finished one place — and less than a second — ahead of Ocean City’s fifth runner. Red Bank is ranked No. 12 in New Jersey. Ocean City is No. 1 in South Jersey.

So the fourth runners really determined this team title, and Farr ran 20:07 to lead Ocean City to the triumph.

That is the fastest 5,000 meters Farr has ever run on any course. Her previous PR was a 20:27 at sectionals last year at Delsea.

Ocean City had four of the first 12 finishers, with sophomore Alexa Palmieri second in 18:49, junior Casey McLees fourth in 19:09, junior Rebecca Millar 10th in 19:55, Farr 12th and sophomore Isabella Padula completing the scoring with a 31st-place finish in 21:40.

Ocean City went 2-4-10-12-28 with non-scorers eliminated.

Red Bank Catholic went 1-6-8-18-27.

Mainland was third with 74 points, including four in the top 20.

There were 134 girls in the varsity race, 19 complete teams and runners from a total of 26 schools.

Maddy Kopec of RBC was the overall girls winner in 18:41.

Other South Jersey girls in the top 10 included senior Angela Bannan of Holy Spirit [34rd in 18:59], freshman Alyssa Turner of Mainland [7th in 19:33] and senior Briana Hagerty of Pitman [9th in 19:52].

Juniors Laney and Marissa Guido also raced for Ocean City, placing 41st and 42nd in 22:00.

Ocean City also went 1-4-6-13-15-22-28-33-34 in the JV race, with junior Reghan Handley finishing first overall in 18:41 over 4,032 meters.

Led by overall winner Chris Spisak, Cherokee packed all seven of its runners in the top 16 and recorded a commanding win in the Varsity B race at the Suffern Invitational Saturday at Bear Mountain State Park in Rockland County, N.Y.

Spisak, a junior, led from start to finish, covering the hilly three-mile course in 15:38.4 and winning by about 35 meters over Ryan Guerci of Nanuet.

Junior Ethan Wechsler took fourth in 16:13 and junior Chase Miller was ninth in 16:40. Not far back was a pack of four Cherokee runners in a row — sophomores Brett Shea and Nico Grilli, junior Michael Gavio and senior David Jackson took 13th through 16th in a six-second span from 16:51 through 16:57.

In team points, Cherokee went 1-4-8-12-13-14-15. Cherokee could have scored all seven runners while every other school scored five and the Chiefs still would have won the team title.

Cherokee had its seventh runner across the line before anybody else had its fourth runner finish.

Cherokee finished with a 38-82 margin of victory over Mount Academy of Esopus, N.Y., near Poughkeepsie.

The Chiefs also won the JV A race, with junior Robert Hackney, sophomore Dylan Odud and junior Tyler Jackson sweeping the top three places in 17:28, 17:29 and 17:34.

Senior Michael Moraschi placed eighth in 18:07, junior Matthew Campbell and sophomore Bryan Lafferty ran 12th and 13th in 18:16 and 18:19 and Tyler Ortiz made it seven Chiefs in the top 20 with a 17th-place finish in 18:56 out of more than 200 runners.

Cherokee outscored second-place Suffern 26-50 to win the JV A team title.

Cherokee took sixth in the freshman race, led by Aiden Dickinson in 29th place in 10:52 over a 2,400-meter course.

The Haddonfield boys packed its five scorers within 30 seconds and raced to a commanding win Saturday in the Varsity A race at the Regis Invitational over 4,000 meters at hallowed Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.

Senior Greg Eisenhower led the way for the Bulldogs, placing third in 13:01, with junior Martin Riddell fifth in 13:08 and then senior Derek Gess, junior Stephen Kasko and senior Griffin Weiner taking seventh through ninth in 13:28, 13:29 and 13:31.

Haddonfield beat second-place Archbishop Molloy 32-80, and 31 is a very low score in an invitational with 14 schools. This is some exceptional running by Haddonfield, ranked No. 2 in New Jersey.

Haddonfield added four more runners in the top 16, giving the Bulldogs nine of the first 16 finishers.

The Bulldogs had nine runners across the line before anybody else’s third runner finished!!!

Junior Grayson Fasolo [11th in 13:32], senior Sean Campiglia [12th in 13:38], senior Ethan Spellmehyer [13th in 13:46] and junior Andrew Gostovich [16th in 13:53] gave Haddonfield a ridiculous nine runners in the span of 52 seconds on a challenging course.

Haddonfield averaged 13:20 per scorer, 40 seconds faster than Molloy.

How deep is Haddonfield?

The Bulldogs also went 1-2 in the sophomore race, with Caleb Clevenger edging John Hurly 14:21 to 14:25, and Tobias Janssen and Andrew Sullivan went 1-8 in the freshman are, with Janssen running 8:52 over the 2,500-meter course and Sullivan 9:28.

Haddonfield is ranked No. 18 in the U.S. according to MileSplit.

Full results from Vanny should be posted here soon.

Shawnee junior Isabella Turner scorched the 5,000-meter course at Dream Park in Logan Township just outside Glassboro with a 17:52 Saturday to win the girls stud race at the South Jersey Shootout.

This is a new course so there’s nothing to compare her time with, but 17:52 on any 5,000-meter course is ridiculous, and that could stand for quite a while as the course record.

Turner and junior teammate Claire Hauser ran 1-2 for Shawnee in the girls stud race, which includes the No. 1, 2 and 3 runners for each team. Turner won by about 450 meters over Hauser, who finished about a minute and a half behind her teammate.

Only three other girls – sophomore Alexa Palmieri of Ocean City [19:34], senior Angela Bannan of Holy Spirit [19:46] and freshman Alyssa Turner of Mainland Regional [19:59] – broke 20 minutes.

Turner ran 5:02 and 10:55 last year, placing fifth at states in the 1,600 and eighth in the Meet of Champions in the 3,200.

Her fastest previous 5,000 time on record was an 18:22 on the super-charged flat Delsea course at Group 4 sectionals last year, which she won. She went on to place eighth at states with a Holmde career-best 19:17 and 24th at Meet of Champions in 19:20.

The meet was held in previous years on Rowan’s own 5,000-meter course, where the course record of 18:22 was set in 2015 by Mainland Regional’s Alyssa Aldridge.

Team scoring at the Shootout is determined by the overall place of each school’s top two runners in the 1-2-3 race and top three places in the 4-5-6-7 race. It’s a great way to measure depth over frontrunners, and Ocean City won Saturday by going 1-9-10 in the 4-5-6-7 race and 3-7 in the stud race for 30 points.

Palmieri and junior Casey McLees [20:15] went 3-7 in the stud race. Junior Rebecca Millar won the 4-5-6-7 girls race in 21:09, with sophomore Isabella Padula and junior Laney Guido in ninth and 10th in 22:40 and 22:43.

Official team scoring had Ocean City with 30, Mainland with 40, Shawnee at 49 and Seneca with 60. Scoring traditionally, Ocean City wins 63-67 over Mainland, with Shawnee [103] and Seneca [108] third and fourth.

Merged individual results are here. Team scoring is here. Full menu of results is here.