By JOHN HAPP
Special to the Sun
The Cherry Hill East girls cross country team is looking to return to the State Group IV Finals. This year’s team is led by senior co-captains Jill Ranes, a three-year varsity runner, Marissa Myers and Soverno Chen. Other varsity members returning from last year’s team include juniors Greer Field, Taegan Field, Carrie Baeckstrom and Alexa Happ.
Expectations are strong as the team returns three all-conference runners. Greer Field made the Olympic Conference All-American first team in 2014, while Baeckstrom and Taegen Field made the second team. This was Taegen Field’s second consecutive selection having also made it as a freshman in 2013. In 2014, the Cougars placed four girls on the all-conference teams, which is the most since 2008 when Melissa Showers, Meghan Marro, Natalie Kusza and Colleen Thompson made the all-conference teams. Also competing for varsity time are juniors Abigail Roncace and Rachel Allen as well as sophomore Maddy Levin. With the experience from last year and the loss of only two varsity runners, Monica Lee and Isabella Roncace, to graduation, the expectations for this year’s team are strong.
The challenge will be finding someone to replace Lee, who graduated in the spring and is now running collegiately for Rutgers University. Lee was Cherry Hill East’s top runner last year; she finished seventh in sectionals and was named to the Olympic Conference All-Conference First Team for the fourth year in a row. Lee won the Camden County Championship and was also named to the 2014 Cross Country Girls All South Jersey Team by the South Jersey Track Coaches Association. She is also the first East girl to be named to the team since 2006 when Theresa Cattuna was the South Jersey runner of the year.
The goals for this year’s team include defending their Camden County and Olympic Conference American Division championships won last year. The ultimate goal is to return to the Group IV State Finals. The team qualified in 2013 for the first time since 2008, but last year they finished seventh in the South Jersey Sectionals at Delsea High School. Last year, Shawnee won the sectional for the second year in a row. Also in the South Jersey Group IV sectional are perennial state qualifiers Toms River North, which finished third in 2014 and has qualified for states for the last 12 years, and Southern, which finished fourth last year and has qualified for states for the last 10 years.
The team is led by Head Coach Anthony Maniscalco, now in his eighth year as Cherry Hill East’s girls cross country coach, and Assistant Coach Chris Corey, a former Cherry Hill East Cross Country runner and now Beck Middle School science teacher.
Besides the tough Olympic Conference Batch meets, the season features the Adidas Shore Coaches Cross Country Invitational on Oct. 3 at Holmdel Park, which is the same iconic tough course used for the State Group Finals. The season cumulates in November with the Olympic Conference Championship and then the South Jersey Sectionals on Saturday Nov. 7 when the team tries to return to the State Group IV Finals.
