The boys’ cross country team finished in first place out of 34 teams, while the girls’ cross country team finished in fifth place out of 28 teams.
By JOHN HAPP
Special to the Sun
The Cherry Hill East boys and girls cross country teams have gotten off to a fast start in 2016. The first major meet of the year was the Battle at Ocean County Park, in Lakewood on Sept. 16. This meet features 45 schools with more than 1,000 runners. This meet runs by grade (all freshman, all sophomores, etc.) rather than varsity and junior varsity. Sophomores, juniors and seniors all run the typical 5,000 meters, while the freshman run 3,200 meters. In the merged results of all 5K runners, the Cherry Hill East boys finished first out of 34 teams, while the girls had their best finish ever when they were fifth out of 28 teams. There were also a number of very strong individual performances.
Grace Yoon won the freshman girls’ 3,200-meter race with a time of 11:59. That is the fastest time ever by a Cherry Hill East freshman girl, beating the time of 12:32 set by now senior Taegan Field in 2013. It is also the second fastest freshman time in the last six years. The only faster run was last year by Abby Loveys of Randolph High School, who ran a time of 11:39.9. Also medaling for the freshman was Miranda Russ, who finished 24th in the field of 134 runners in a time of 13:03.
In the sophomore girls 5K race, Sarah Pierce finished second in a field of 112 runners with a time of 19:03. Overall, in the merged results of all 5K runners, Pierce finished fifth in a field of 328 runners. Her time was the second fastest ever by a Cherry Hill East girl and topped only by the 18:52.1 run by then senior Monica Lee in 2014. This was also Pierce’s first ever-competitive 5K race. Dani Lazarus finished sixth in the sophomore race and 24th overall and took 38 seconds off her personal record with her time of 20:09. Other sophomores that pointed and helped the team to a second place finish were Erin Krassan, Sarah Brown and Larina Fu.
Medaling in the junior race was Jill Westman with a time of 22:42. In the senior race, Alexa Happ finished 15th (and 31st overall) with a new PR time of 20:26. Also medaling was Taegan Field who finished 22nd (and 50th overall).
On the boys side after having finished second to Christian Brothers Academy as freshmen, sophomores and juniors; the senior boys had a very strong showing and finished in first place. Cherry Hill East put five seniors in the top 17 with Marc Meltzer third (third overall in a field of 486) with a time of 15:36, Tyler Parsons fourth (fourth overall) in 15:37, Josh Dillon 11th (15th overall) in 16:12, Michael Onu 16th (26th overall) and Noah Priehs 17th (26th overall). Meltzer’s and Parsons’ times qualified them as Milesplit U.S. First Team status, and Dillon qualified for the US Second Team status. Also pointing for the Cherry Hill East seniors were Andrew Warkala, who finished 42nd, and Zach Sell, who finished 54th.
Jeremy Helfand (46th) and David Agosto-Ginsberg (53rd) were the highest finishers for the Cougars in the junior race.
In the sophomore race, Cherry Hill East finished a strong third behind St. Peter’s Prep and Southern Regional High School. Jack Quarry finished fifth with a time 17:21 and Kyle Krell finished ninth in 17:27. Drew Parent ran an 18:07 and just missed medaling. Overall, in the field of 486, Quarry finished 73rd and Krell finished 84th and were the highest non-senior finishers for the Cougars.
In the freshmen boys race, cherry Hill East finished sixth out of sixteen teams and was led by Oliver Adler, who finished eighth in a time of 10:56. Also medaling was Paul Bruce, who finished 26th in a time of 11:21. Adler’s time was the best by a Cherry Hill East freshman since now senior Meltzer’s 10:40.6 in 2013.
