Haddonfield boys race to sectional championship

Though the Haddonfield boys' cross-country team didn't have a runner among the top five finishers in the South Jersey Group 2 championships Saturday at Delsea, the Bulldogs compiled enough team points to extend their state record with their 31st title in the event.

Haddonfield has taken the championship every year since 2004, and has claimed 12 of the last 13. Cinnaminson broke the Bulldogs' string of four in a row by taking the crown in 2003.

"We've had a lot tradition that's been passed on by a lot of great kids, who keep teaching the younger kids," said Nick Baker, whose team outpointed second-place Highland, 50-56.

"Thirty-one is a lot of victories over a lot of years, done by a lot of different groups of kids who have learned and passed it on to each other."

Baker, who has been the cross-country coach at Haddonfield since 1982, said the two runners who led the way for the Bulldogs had been under the weather in the days leading to the meet. But Greg Halla felt good enough to finish sixth, and teammate Miles Devine recovered to place seventh.

The winner was Nelson Matthew of Barnegat in 15 minutes, 52 seconds for the 3.1-mile course. His team finished seventh.

"They both did a great job of coming through," Baker said of Halla and Devine. "They were not at their best today. They just showed us a lot of toughness."

In another much-anticipated race, Connor Herr of Shawnee won the Group 4 event but the second-place Renegades were outdone by Cherokee by 48 points.

Herr finished in 15:27 to defeat his closest competitor, Cherokee's Shawn Wilson, by six seconds.

"We were together for the first mile," said Herr, a senior who came in second last year. "He beat me last week [in conference], and I wanted to make sure he didn't do that again.

"This was my goal for this year. Last year, I wanted to win real bad and a senior came in and beat me. He graduated, and I wanted to win so bad."

Central Jersey. Saudiq Musari's runner-up finish in 17:11 helped Bordentown take second in the team scoring in Group 1, and Northern Burlington finished second to Princeton in the Group 3 championship in Jamesburg.

Bob Keissling Non-Public. Eric Franklin of Bishop Eustace was the individual winner in 16:30, but Paul VI placed five runners among the first 13 - led by Neil MacFarlane (16:40) in third place - to take the team title at Delsea.