Notes from this week’s action

Sept. 28

By Kevin Cranston
Runningco.com Writer

South Jersey XC Shootout (Gloucester County College)
Battle of Monmouth Class Meet (Monmouth Battlefield State Park)

• Although the boys field at the Shootout wasn’t as strong as it could have been, with teams such as Cherokee, Haddonfield and Haddon Heights, to name a few, not running its top guys, the same can’t be said about the girls’ field of the 1-2 race. The top seven finishers – Moorestown’s Brianna Rogers (19:01), Millville’s Lindsay Bertulis (19:09), Our Lady of Mercy’s Jena Peacock (19:10), Williamstown’s Maria Ruiz (19:25), Cherry Hill East’s Melissa Showers (19:39), Millville’s Britney Kott (19:43)and Timber Creek’s Megan Arnold (19:46)– will be at the front of races all year long and all have legitimate shots of making the All-South Jersey team.

• The Ocean City boys further showed on Saturday that there is more to their lineup than just Brett Johnson and Ryan Birchmeier as the Red Raiders, ranked No. 4 in Runningco.com’s Top 20, won the team title over Cherry Hill West 14-21. While Johnson (16:20) and Birchmeier (16:31) took the top-two spots in the 1-2 race, seniors Stephen Hoffman (17:06) and Connor Martin (17:27), both in their first season of cross country, went 1-5 in the 3-4 race. The team’s fifth man was Mike Hagen (17:54), who took fifth in the 5-6-7 race. This team will only get better as the season progresses as Hoffman and Martin get even more comfortable running cross country.

• When reeling off a list of the top South Jersey girls teams, make sure you don’t forget Timber Creek. The No. 3 Chargers beat strong Moorestown and Paul VI teams last Saturday to win the Shootout team title with 33 points. (Timber Creek was awarded the title over Moorestown on a sixth-runner tiebreaker.) The team’s top five consisted of Megan Arnold (seventh in the 1-2 race, 19:46), Megan Short (eighth in 1-2 race, 20:02), Amira Abdullah (fourth in the 3-4 race, 21:10), Brooke Dovell (13th in the 3-4 race, 21:35) and Amanda Kerno (first in the 5-6-7 race, 21:42). Jackie Inaldo, who helped the team clinch the title, took 10th in the 5-6-7 race in 22:15.

• Instead of the Shootout on Saturday, the Highland boys traveled to Monmouth Battlefield State Park in Manalapan for the Battle of Monmouth Class Meet. With each class race being scored separately by taking a team’s top three finishers, the No. 8 Tartans won the junior and senior races with 14 and 19 points, respectively.

Kyle Gorczynski won the junior race as he covered the 3.1-mile course in 16:57. He was followed by Krishna Prabakaran (fifth, 17:56) and Jacob Brown (18:22). In the senior race, the team’s top three were J.J. Caffarelli (third, 17:07), Matt McDevitt (sixth, 17:50) and Drew Ellenberg (13th, 18:26).

Dual Meets

• The Cherokee boys, ranked No. 1, have had no trouble going 3-0 in Olympic Conference meets so far. The Chiefs opened their dual-meet season with a 17-44 win over then-No. 12 Cherry Hill East on Sept. 19. Then, this past Tuesday, Cherokee defeated No. 7 Washington Township 19-42 and No. 11 Eastern 19-40.

The team’s top five on Tuesday consisted of Alex Yersak (16:31 on Gloucester County College’s 3.1-mile course), Chris Applegate (16:35), Kevin Schickling (16:46), Steve Burkholder (17:17) and Sean Hartnett (17:25).

Cherokee’s top seven will run in their first major meet of the season tomorrow in Warwick, Rhode Island as the Chiefs will be in the Championship Race of the New Balance Ocean State Cross Country Invitational at Goddard Park.

• Although it fell to Cherokee on Tuesday, the Eastern boys didn’t leave GCC empty handed as the Vikings squeaked by Washington Township 27-28. Eastern took places 2-3-4-8-10, while the Minutemen finished 1-5-6-7-9.

Eastern’s top finisher was Joe Steffney, who ran 16:58. After him were Alex Bruno, Mike Ali, John Hill and Steve Greer. Township was led by Alex Clemson’s 16:39.

“Township took the race out pretty hard, but we just stayed within our race plan and we came up on them at the end of the race,” Eastern coach John Shea said. “We’re finishing off races nicely so far. We’re working on getting out a little better, but that will come.”

• The Cherokee girls, ranked No. 8, bounced back from a loss to Cherry Hill East last week to take down No. 5 Eastern on Tuesday 25-31. Alison and Angela Weeks grabbed the top-two spots, running 19:41 and 19:42 at GCC. Eastern, led by Barrie Cohen, took the next three places. But the Chiefs then took places 6-7-9 to seal the victory.

• Kingsway’s Chelsea Ley completely destroyed the field in her team’s dual meet against Delsea on Tuesday as she won the race by 1:44 with a time of 18:04. Her Dragons, ranked No. 10, got past No. 11 Delsea 25-30.

• Northern Burlington’s Mike Bowden returned to action on Tuesday as he won his team’s batch meet with a time of 16:16. Bowden didn’t run the Cherokee Challenge or the team’s batch meet last week because of a lower back injury.

• The Cherry Hill West boys, ranked No. 9, easily beat No. 10 Shawnee on Tuesday 17-38. The Lions, led by Andrew Sturner, put four guys in before the Renegades’ first. Tuesday’s win for West came just two days after they finished second in the South Jersey Shootout to Ocean City.   

“The kids have been staying healthy and have really run well the past two weeks,”      West coach Nick Mitidieri. “Our No. 4 and 5 guys had an awful day against Cherry Hill East (last week), but they came back and put it together the past two races.”

For Shawnee coach Gary Hill, he’s just trying to get his team healthy. On Tuesday, Ian Boyle, who has been slowed with an IT band injury, ran in his first race of the season, but is no where near back to full strength. David Forward also hasn’t been 100 percent as of late due to an abdominal strain.

“We ran terrible, but (West) buried us,” Hill said. “Reality set in and the kids realized that things need to get better.”

Paul Short

A few South Jersey teams will be racing today at the Brooks Paul Short Run at Lehigh University. Making the trip will be the Haddon Heights boys and girls, the West Deptford boys and girls and the Bishop Eustace boys.