South: Bring Out The Brooms! Team Sweeps In Every Group

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Bring Out The Brooms! Team Sweep Galore!

Every single Group at the South Sectional Championships saw one school win both the boys and girls titles. Haddon Township earned the Group 1 titles, Haddonfield swept the Group 2, Ocean City took home the Group 3, and Cherokee powered through the deep Group 4 races.

All eight individual titles were spread between athletes from different high schools. Elijah Whitaker of Glassboro and Jordan Hadfield the Group 1 champs, Elijah Forrest of Collingswood and Riley Austin of Haddonfield the Group 2 winners, Peyton Shute of Gateway - Woodbury and Maeve Smith of Ocean City the Group 3 champions, and Nick Kuenkel of Cherokee and Jessica Abbott of Toms River North the Group 4 title winners.

Group 1

Whitaker Repeats, Haddon Township Wins Fourth in Past Six Years

Elijah Whitaker defending his South Group 1 title with a 30+ second victory at 15:34. The senior had the third fastest time on the day at DREAM Park, Audubon's Aiden Williams was second at 16:08. 

Whitaker's teammate Ty Blackman, a junior, also with a strong ran finishing third at 16:26. He is now the top returner for the section looking at 2024. 

With that one card finish by Whitaker and third place by Blackman they helped push their Glassboro team to Groups advancement scoring 106 for fourth! 

Top 5 Finishers South Group 1

Haddon Township boys won their fourth Group 1 team title in the past six years with a 48 to 92 win over second place Gloucester City. They saw four finish within the top ten on Saturday led by senior Jackson Sennhenn in fourth at 17:19. Sophomore Shaun Maloney was sixth at 17:39, senior Owen Dybus ninth 17:58, sophomore James Clauson 10th 18:00, and closing their top five was Like Wolfram in 19th at 18:53. 

Their displacers Aidan Curran, 21st, and James Flocco, 40th, also adding to the points lead on advancing teams.

AP Schalick, Glassboro, and Audubon also move on to the Group 1 State Championships with top five team placement. Maple Shade also with a solid effort just missing advancement in sixth by four points.

Top junior was Glassboro's aforementioned Blackman in third 16:26, leading sophomore was Haddon Township's Shaun Maloney in sixth at 17:39, and the top performing freshmen was Chase Cline of Glassboro running 28th at 19:28.  

Boys Advancing South Group 1 Teams

Hadfield Leaves Field Behind, Haddon Twp Wins Tight Race vs. Schalick!

Jordan Hadfield of A P Schalick won by over a minute on the field clocking 18:34. The star junior recorded the fourth fastest time of the day at DREAM Park, including the performances from the Bob Kiessling Invitational, and third fastest among the groups at South Sectional Championships.

This is Hadfield's fifth straight race win since a sixth place run during Shore Coaches back in September and her first cross country sectional title. Hadfield is Schalick's third individual winner the past seven seasons, Marleigh Puglia won in 2017 and Julia Smith won three straight from 2018 through 2020. 

Also running top five was junior Macie McCracken of Wildwood in second at 19:50, junior Crystal Benito of Maple Shade fourth 21:13, and junior Dejia Robert of Gloucester City fifth 21:28.

With a score of 46 to 65 the Haddon Township girls won their third girls sectional team title in the past four years.

The averaged 22:40 and brought this win home with two freshmen in their scoring five and four freshmen among their top seven! They were led by senior Genevieve Gentlesk finishing third overall at 19:51, sophomore Blake Kemery was sixth at 21:30, freshman Biz Maher 14th at 23:35, freshman Abigail McLaughlin 16th 23:57, and senior Ella Sherwin 22nd 24:34. 

Haddon Township's displacers were two freshmen, Reagan Maher in 23rd and Chloe Lajoie in 39th. 

Group 2

Forrest Makes Collingswood History, Haddonfield Continues Winning Ways

With a time of 16:03, senior Elijah Forrest became Collingswood's first individual Sectional Champion on Saturday winning by eight seconds over second place Liam Dougherty of Haddonfield Memorial. 

Dougherty was leading a major team run by Haddonfield with that second place finish as they brought home Haddonfield's 20th straight South Group 2 title and their 41st overall including their Group 1, Group 2, and Group 3 Sectional victories over the years. This is also the South Group 2's lowest score since Haddonfield totaled 20 points in 2018.  

After Dougherty's team leading performance their top five saw Bennett Wright in third at 16:22, Ryan Gibson fourth 16:22, Luke Andresen sixth 16:33, and Benjamin Andrus seventh 16:52. Their displacers brought in strong performances as well with Brandon Stoner 12th at 17:21 and Linus Kucer 18th 17:56.

This team is built for the future as well, looking at 2024 six of their top seven return with Liam Dougherty the only senior.

Manchester Township's Will Ashton also finished top five individually running 16:26. Along with Haddonfield the four other teams advancing to State Championships included Manchester Township, Haddon Heights, Cedar Creek, and Cinnaminson. 

Haddonfield's Impressive Win Powered by Austin and Thomas 1-2!

Clocking a time of 18:48, sophomore Riley Austin became Haddonfield Memorial's fifth individual title winners the past five seasons! Teammate Ava Thomas finished second at 19:09 and their entire scoring five were in by ninth place.

Ava Thomas brought home the title in 2022, Anne Earp in 2021, Sarah Naticchia won two straight in 2019 and 2020, continuing a long running tradition of Sectional success out of this program.

Their 25 point team victory is their 23rd South Group 2 title and their 31st overall including their Group 1 Sectional wins. Sterling was second with 38, Cedar Creek third, Cinnaminson fourth, and Seneca fifth, all advancing to the State Group 2 Championships this coming weekend.

Behind Austin and Thomas' leading performances Dylan Melcher was fifth at 19:51, Harper Benjamin eighth 20:01, and Anna Stolarick closing out their top five in ninth at 20:05. Their lone displacer Katherine Asher ran to 13th with a time of 21:09. 

Group 3

Shute Shows Great Fitness, Ocean City Leads Hard Fought Team Standings 

Junior Peyton Shute of Gateway Woodbury won his second straight South Group 3 title with the quickest run of the day at DREAM Park clocking 15:10.

A performance tied for second all-time at DREAM Park with Dennis Fortuna of Triton Regional who won the South Group 3 in 2021 with a 15:10 as well. The course record is held by George Andrus of Haddonfield at 14:59, the South Group 2 winner in 2022.

Shute won the 2023 South Group 3 race by 53 seconds and led the entire South Sectional meet by an impressive 13 seconds.

Also finishing top five were Matt Hoffman of Ocean City 16:03, Andrew Tatesure of Lacey Twp 16:04, Matthew Littlehales of Delsea Regional 16:08, and Ethan Buck of Ocean City 16:11. 

Delsea's two scorers in the top five led an impressive victory of 42 points to Shawnee's total of 71. Ocean City averaged 16:33 with a top five split of 1:09. 

Behind Hoffman and Buck Ocean City also saw Erik Preisner in ninth at 16:31, Kal Heyman 12th 16:52, and Keenan Neuman 18th 17:13. Their sixth and seventh runners Nathan Aschmann 27th and Zach Hutchinson 29th. 

Also advancing as teams were Highland Regional, Clearview Regional, and Delsea Regional. Timbercreek and Mainland were SO close just one and two points off respectively from the cutoff position.

Ocean City and Mainland Separated by Just THREE Points!

The girls South Group 3 race did not disappoint with the NJ Top 20 ranked Ocean City and Mainland Regional girls going head to head for the Section title. 

To start off this great duel the front runners of each squad presented of the more intriguing individual matchups heading into the weekend as well between Maeve Smith of Ocean City and the two Mainland teammates Gillian Lovett and Sofia Day.

Ocean City's breakout junior Smith pushed through the late day heat for the victory running 18:09, the fastest time on the day between all groups! Mainland junior Sofia Day ran second at 18:26 and senior Gillian Lovett third at 18:46.

Ocean City's route to victory was kept alive by that important individual win but this would end up an all hands on deck approach.

The teams traded finishers back and fourth but after the dust settled Ocean City's third and fifth both outran Mainland's third and fifth to help secure the 48 to 51 point win and even their sixth was in the mix displacing points on the tail end of Mainland's scoring five. 

Ocean City's Sectional Championship squad included Smith up front, junior Chloe Care in fifth at 19:38, senior Frankie Ritzel in 10th 20:37, sophomore Gabrielle Henry 15th 21:14, and freshman Lillian Flora closing out their scoring five in 17th at 21:18. Their displacers were junior Zoe Zammit in 18th at 21:19, who helped create that 3 point victory finishing ahead of Mainland's final scorer, and sophomore Emily Russo in 34th at 22:29. 

Mainland's great team performance included Sofia Day, Gillian Lovett, Sophie Goldstein, Ava McDole, Claudia Booth, and displacers Chloe Malone and Cecilia Foreman. 

What an awesome battle for the team title!

Moorestown, Cleaview, and Shawnee all advanced as teams to Group Championships as well.

Also finishing top five individually was senior Allison Roes of Clearview Regional who ran 19:34.

Group 4

Cherokee Wins Tough Group 4 Despite Missing Key Runner

The Cherokee boys toed the line for one of the toughest Sectional races of the weekend and not only advanced to Group Championships but won out right with a score of 36 to 69 over ranked teams such as Cherry Hill East and Southern Regional.

And this was despite missing their fourth man, star sophomore Logan Bromley.  

Their scoring was started off with a 1-2 finish by seniors Nick Kuenkel at 15:23 and Robert Poplau 15:36.

This was a repeat title for Kuenkel who won this same title as a junior in 2022 also clocked at 15:23.  The Cherokee boys as a school made it five straight years now winning the South Group 4 and their 13th overall.

They now have 10 boys individual titles thanks to their seven different winning athletes over the years. Kuenkel is Cherokee's second multi-time winner, the only other was Alex Yersak who won the 2005, 2006, and 2007 South Group 4 Sectional titles.

Also powering Cherokee's victory behind Kuenkel and Poplau was junior Liam Tindall in fourth at 15:39, Tindall is also the top returner from this race heading into 2024, junior Anthony DiBattista 14th at 16:28 and freshman Benjamin Realley 15th 16:30. Their displacers were freshman Bejamin Realley in 18th and Dominic Pileri in 37th. 

Also advancing out of this deep Sectional was Cherry Hill East, Southern Regional, Toms River North, and Williamstown. Just on the outside looking in was Kingsway, four points out, and Washington Twp, 12 points out. 

Top five individually, outside of Cherokee's athletes, included Santino Anthony D'Amelio of Southern Regional in third running 15:38 and Kingsway freshman Ryan Duffy in fifth at 15:47.

Boys Top 5 Team Scores 

Abbott Wins Second Straight, Cherokee Holds Off CHE

Toms River North's star sophomore Jessica Abbott made it two in a row on Saturday winning the South Group 4 with a time of 18:37. Last fall Abbott was North's first individual winner since 2000 and now with two titles in a row is the first double winner in school history on the girls side.

Abbott led Williamstown senior Alyssa Boucher to the line who finished with an 18:55, senior Kerry O'Day of Cherokee third 18:59, sophomore Sophia Aldridge of Williamstown 19:10, and senior Michaela Schlemo of Egg Harbor Twp fifth 19:18. 

Kerry O'Day's third place run helped lead Cherokee to a 54 to 67 victory over Cherry Hill East. Cherokee averaged 19:58 and behind O'Day included junior Megan Niglio in ninth 19:43, junior Grace Wojciechowski 10th 20:01, senior Alaina Bromley 15th 20:29, and closing their scoring five with Olivia Parkinson 18th 20:42. Their sixth runner was Madison Van Haren in 43rd place.

This is Cherokee's third title the past four seasons and their fourth all-time on the girls side.