By Kevin Cranston
Runningco.com Writer

The Teams

Voorhees is the overwhelming favorite to take the team title. The girls from Glen Gardner were awesome at last Saturday’s NJSIAA state group championships in winning the Group 3 title by 42 points over Ridge. In the process, the Vikings’ top five set the Holmdel Park team average record by running19:04.8. Led by junior Melanie Thompson, who ran 18:18 to take individual honors, Voorhees should win its first M of C title by a comfortable margin.

Other teams that will be shooting for a top-five finish include Ridge, Roxbury, Haddonfield, Toms River North and Southern.

Haddonfield, ranked No. 1 in runningco.com’s Top 20, should be South Jersey’s top team. The Bulldawgs, led by individual winner Marielle Hall, rolled to a 56-113 win over Holmdel last weekend to claim the Group 2 title as the team posted a five-girl spread of 56 seconds and an average of 20:04.6 – the sixth-best average out of all six group races. If the Bulldawgs run well, they could finish as high as third.

No. 2 Lenape can’t be completely counted out to finish as South Jersey’s top team, though. Although the Indians have underperformed the last two weeks, they have the talent to run with just about any team in the state.

Prediction: Voorhees cranks out another quality performance to take the title. Haddonfield takes third overall to finish as South Jersey’s best team.

The Individuals

Oak Knoll senior Kathleen McCafferty, Voorhees junior Melanie Thompson, Kingsway sophomore Chelsea Ley, Southern junior Jillian Smith and Roxbury senior Lauren Penny. Take your pick out of these five standouts because any one of them could take the individual crown.

McCafferty enters Saturday’s race with the best time out of the group after she went 18:13 to win the Non-Public B race by 59 seconds. But McCafferty won’t be able to run away with this title. While her 18:13 was impressive, Thompson (18:18 last Saturday), Ley (18:20), Smith (18:29) and Penny (18:26) are all capable to running sub-18:15 at Holmdel.

Smith is really the one the rest of the field should be most worried about. She may have only run 18:29 (she was unpressed in the Group 4 race) last weekend, but she has gone 18:15 at Holmdel this season. The thing about Smith is that she can hang with pretty much any pace during the first 2½ miles. And with her 2:08 800 speed, no one can match her stride for stride at the end of the race.

The race will certainly be fast, but Smith will pull away in the final quarter-mile to win the M of C title in her first season running cross country.

Ley will be South Jersey’s top finisher by a large margin and will definitely mix it up with the lead pack. She has a very good chance of running around 18:15.

Prediction: Smith wins in 18:00, McCafferty takes second and Ley finishes third.