From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank

Holy Cross junior Julia Flanagan broke 19 minutes for the 2nd straight race and placed 3rd Saturday morning in the Varsity B race at the Six Flags Wild Safari Invitational in Jackson.

Flanagan ran an all-course 5K lifetime-best 18:54 when she finished first last weekend at the Ray Hoagland Invitational at the Rancocas Valley Sports Complex in Eastampton.

On Saturday, she ran 18:59, the 8th-fastest time ever recorded by a South Jersey girl on the 5,000-meter layout at Great Adventure.

Flanagan finished behind only freshman Leah Starkey of Ocean Township High and senior Elizabeth Scarpa of Colts Neck.

Also under 21:30 were Clearview senior Lilla Porter [15th in 20:01], Highland senior Audrey Musmeci [21st in 20:36], Clearview sophomore Rhea Remaly [27th in 20:46], Highland senior Katie Punch [30th in 21:02 and Highland junior Lyana Gutierrez [31st in 21:04].

Junior Luke Andresen, senior Bennett Wright, junior Ryan Gibson, junior Benjamin Andrus and junior Peter Simpson finished with a 20-second gap, and Haddonfield placed 2nd Saturday among some of the top schools on the East Coast Saturday in the Varsity II race at the Bowdoin Park Classic.

Haddonfield also placed 2nd in a merge of the two varsity races.

Despite wet, rainy conditions, all five Haddonfield runners ran between 16:32 and 16:52 over 5,000 meters at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls, N.Y., and Haddonfield was the top public school in the race.

Andresen ran 16:32 and took 10th, Wright and Gibson placed 12th and 13th in 16:33 and 16:35, Andrus was 16th in 16:37 and Simpson 22nd in 16:52.

Haddonfield, ranked 4th in New Jersey, will be seeking its 21st consecutive sectional title next month. Wright, Gibson, Andresen and Andrus all finished in the top seven at last year’s sectional race.

Overall winner Mason Wassell led Highland to a commanding team title in the Varsity B race Saturday at the Six Flags Wild Safari Invitational in Jackson.

Wassell, a senior, ran 15:48 over 5,000 rainy, sloppy, wet meters at Great Adventure, finishing 35 meters ahead of 2nd-place Brandon Williams of Charter School of Wilmington, who ran 15:55.

That 15:48 is an all-course PR for Wassell, 11 seconds faster than his 15:59 at DREAM Park in Logan Township earlier this month. It’s also 4th-fastest by a South Jersey runner at Great Adventure and fastest since Sebastien Reed of Pitman ran 15:31 in 2019. Highland’s Steve Maine ran 15:38 in 2013.

Highland placed its first four finishers in the top 20 and all seven in the top 35 out of 171 runners, won by a whopping 88 points over East Meadow, 68-156, with Garden City a close 3rd with 157 and Clearview 4th at 168.

Junior Andrew Dopkin placed 6th for Highland in 16:34 and Colin Roznowski and sophomore Pierce Dopkin finished back-to-back in 16th and 17th, Roznowski in 17:11 and Dopkin in 17:12. Senior Andrew Kellern ran 17:27 for 28th and Highland’s top five were backed up by junior Daniel Gee [34th in 17:39] and sophomore Liam Murphy [35th in 17:42].

Clearview senior Ethan Worst, Cherry Hill East junior Rex Takakjy and Winslow junior Vincent Perri also finished in the top 10, Worst 4th in 16:28, Takakjy 5th in 16:29 and Perri 9th in 16:40. Also under 18:00 were Clearview’s senior Ryan Handley [21st in 17:16] and junior Quentin Gannone [38th in 17:47].

Senior Julian Rich of Camden County Tech in Sicklerville finished nearly a minute ahead of the field and won the South Jersey Vo-Tech Championships individual title Thursday.

Rich ran 16:45 over 5,000 meters at Westampton Tech and finished 250 meters ahead of 2nd-place Connor Auge, a senior at Gloucester County Tech in Gloucester Township. Auge ran 17:37 and led Gloucester to the team title.

Rich’s time is an all-course 5K PR. He had run 16:46 at the Battle of Ocean Park earlier this month in Lakewood.

Gloucester went 2-6-7-8-13, which became 2-5-6-7-12 when runners not representing full teams were removed for team scoring purposes. Gloucester outscored Burlington County Tech Medford 32-53, with Camden Sicklerville 3rd at 63.

Also in Gloucester’s top five were sophomore Duke Snyder-Shellito [6th in 18:20], senior Gavin Kravchuck [7th in 18:22], senior Owen DeLuca [8th in 18:25] and sophomore Liam Robles [13th in 18:51].

Others in the top 10 included senior Luke Damato of Burlington County Medford [3rd in 17:59], Medford soph Chris Davis [4th in 18:03], Atlantic County Tech senior Thomas Wodazak [5th in 18:18], Cape May Tech junior Evan Feliciano [9th in 18:33] and Medford Tech junior Marcus Paulino [10th in 18:37].

Ethan Wechsler finished as 5th man Friday for nationally ranked Syracuse at the Nuttycombe Invitational in Madison, Wisc.

Wechsler, a senior from Cherokee, ran 24:45 on the hilly, challenging Zimmer Championship Course at the University of Wisconsin and Syracuse placed 12th in the country in the annual pre-NCAA shown of the nation’s top programs. Wechsler ran 15 seconds faster than he ran on the same course last year.

Wechsler was Syracuse’s 7th man two weeks ago in Syracuse’s season opener at the Harry Groves Invitational at Penn State.

The Orangemen are ranked No. 2 in the Northeast Region (behind Harvard, which didn’t race Friday) in this week’s U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association poll and 19th nationally.

Syracuse finished with 325 points Friday, just 13 behind No. 17 Villanova and 12 behind No. 15 Virginia.

Iowa State sophomore Seth Clevenger from Haddonfield finished 7th Friday afternoon in the B race at the Nuttycombe Invitational in Madison, Wisc.

Clevenger ran 24:40 on the hilly, challenging Zimmer Championship Course at the University of Wisconsin and finished just 19 seconds behind winner Berkley Nance of Brigham Young.

Clevenger ran 38 seconds faster than he ran on the same course as a freshman, when he crossed the line in 25:18.

Last spring, Clevenger ran 4:07.14 for the mile and 8:12.00 for 3,000 meters.

Sarah Seiden, a senior at Salem County Vo-Tech in Mannington Township, picked up her first cross country individual victory Thursday when she ran away from the field at the South Jersey Vo-Tech Championships.

Seiden ran 22:24 over 5,000 meters at Westampton Tech, finishing 150 meters ahead of 2nd-place sophomore Natalie Pandolfo from Gloucester County Tech, who ran 23:08 for 2nd place.

Pandolfo led Gloucester County Tech of Deptford Township to the team title, 31-54, over Atlantic County Tech of Hamilton Township.

Also in Gloucester County Tech’s top five were freshman Jordan Moczydlowski [4th in 23:19], senior Keira Petro [8th in 24:04], senior Sydney Huang [10th in 24:10] and senior Brooklyn Greenwood [11th in 24:43].

Also in the top 10 were Westampton Tech senior Janelle Sanabria [3rd in 23:12], Cape May Tech junior Kirstyn McHale [5th in 23:23], Camden County Tech Sicklerville senior Sonai Castrillo [6th in 23:47], Atlantic County Tech senior Shannon Powers [7th in 23:58] and Atlantic County Tech senior Ashlyn Warker [9th in 24:04].

Haddonfield took pack running to crazy extremes Tuesday with 11 runners crossing the finish line in a 14-second span in a five-team Colonial Conference batch meet in Haddonfield and Cherry Hill.

Senior Leonardo DiCello and junior Aaron Keith took the first two spots for the Bulldogs, who going deeper in the race had 14 runners finishing in a 31-second span.

DiCello covered 5K at Pennypacker Park in 17:36, with Keith 2nd in 17:39. Junior Marcus Flagg of Gloucester took 3rd in 17:39, Haddonfield senior Linus Kucer was 4th in 17:40 and Haddon Township junior Luke Wolfram placed 5th with a 17:40.

The next eight finishers were from Haddonfield, all of them running between 17:42 and 17:50: Sophomore Andrew Blum [6th, 17:42], junior Peter Simpson [7th 17:42], junior Benjamin Andrus [8th, 17:42], junior Ryan Gibson [9th, 17:43], senior Bennett Wright [10th, 17:43], junior Brandon Stoner [11th, 17:45], junior John Leibrandt [12th, 17:50] and junior Michael Sinnes [13th, 17:50].

Also under 18 minutes were Gloucester junior Vincent Kelly [14th, 17:51], Gloucester senior Trey Fitzpatrick [15th, 17:56] and Haddonfield junior Luke Andresen [16th, 17:58].

The top freshman girl in Hawaii this fall was the top middle school runner in South Jersey last year.

As an 8th grader last year at Northern Burlington Middle School in Mansfield, Sadie Krueger won the Cherokee Challenge Middle School race with an 8:06 over 2,400 meters and then won the New Jersey Middle School title with an 11:17 over 3,000 meters at Montgomery Middle School in Montgomery Township, Somerset County.

In track, she ran a 5:09.53 full mile (equivalent to a 5:07.73 for 1,600 meters) at the Cherokee Night of Races and ran 11:11.42 for two miles (equivalent to 11:07.43 for 3,200 meters) at West Philly Outdoor Nationals at Franklin Field.

All as an 8th-grader.

Krueger is now a freshman at Moanalua High School in Honolulu, and she’s off to a terrific start to her high school career.

She’s placed 2nd in all four invitationals she’s contested so far, dropping a 17:45 for three miles in a meet at Oahu Country Club in Honolulu and an 18:39 over 5,000 meters in an invitational at Kapalama, Hawaii. That 17:45 converts to 18:20 for 5,000 meters.

That 18:39 is the 3rd-fastest 5K time by any girl in Hawaii so far this fall behind a junior and a senior, according to MileSplit Hawaii’s databse. No other freshman has run under 19:30.

Seniors Kaysie Luna, Jonalee Adames, Isabella Patruno and Amber Wilsey swept the top four spots and Sterling had seven of the top 10 finishers in a seven-team Colonial Conference batch meet Tuesday in West Deptford.

Luna and Adames both broke 20 minutes on the 5,000-meter West Deptford Park course, Luna winning in 19:16 and Adames 2nd in 19:26. Patruno and Wilsey were 3rd and 4th in 21:25 and 21:38.

Also in Sterling’s top seven were sophomore Brianna Gilligan [6th in 22:06], freshman Riley Sharp [9th in 23:58] and junior Taylor Frazier [10th in 25:22].

Team scoring wasn’t kept, but unofficially Sterling would have won over Haddon Heights by 16-53.

The only non-Sterling runner in the top six was Lindenwold junior Daisy DelaRosa, who took 5th in 21:47.

Also in the top 10 were Haddon Heights sophomore Kendall Samuels [7th in 22:55] and Haddon Heights senior Grace Duffy [8th in 23:14].