The Cherry Hill East boys’ cross country team finished in second place at the meet, with the girls team finishing in third.
By JOHN HAPP
Special to the Sun
The Olympic Conference Cross Country Championship was held on Oct. 21 at Rowan College at Gloucester County. The Cherry Hill East boys’ team once again proved to be one of the elite teams in the conference when they finished in second place for the second straight year. This was the fifth straight year that the boys were one of the top two teams in the conference. Meanwhile, the girls’ team finished third in the conference and is having one of its strongest seasons since they last won the conference in 2006. Their third place ties their finish in 2014, and is their best since finishing second in 2008.
The girls team was led by sophomore Sarah Pierce who is the 2016 Olympic Conference cross country champion. The field included 119 runners from all fourteen schools in the conference. Pierce’s time of 18:19.2 is the best winning time since 2011 when Megan Lacey of Cherokee won in 17:45. Pierce is only the second Cherry Hill East girl to be the Olympic Conference champion. She joins Theresa Cattuna, who won with a time of 18:11 in her senior year in 2006. Cherry Hill East placed five girls on the all-Olympic Conference American Division team. That ties for the most girls by a Cherry Hill East girls team with the 2006 team that won the South Jersey section and finished second in the Group IV finals. Four girls received first team recognition, which is the most ever by a Cherry Hill East girls team since 2006. Prior to this year, no Cherry Hill East team had placed more than two girls on the first team. Joining Pierce on the first team all-conference are sophomore Dani Lazarus (ninth, 20:32 which is an 47-second improvement over her time from last year), senior Alexa Happ (19th, 21:00) and senior Taegan Field (23rd, 21:14.9). Earning second team honors was junior Greer Field (28th, 21:47). Taegan Field was an all-conference runner all four years of her cross-country career at Cherry Hill East and is the first girl to do that since Melissa Showers from 2005 to 2008. Lazarus and Happ were also all-conference runners in 2015, while Greer Field was also in 2014. Also running varsity in this championship meet were freshman Grace Yoon, junior Jill Westman, sophomore Erin Krassan, senior Rachel Allen, freshman Maddie Armstrong, sophomore Sarah Brown and junior Mackenzie Heal.
Cherry Hill East finished third in the conference behind champion Seneca and second place Shawnee. Seneca and Shawnee have been number one and number two in the conference for the last four years. Shawnee had been the three-time defending conference champion until Seneca won this year.
It is a similar case on the boys side where Cherry Hill East and Cherokee has been the number one and number two teams now for the last four years. The Cougars were conference champions in 2013 and 2014, and now Cherokee has won the last two years.
The Cherry Hill East boys team is led by a strong senior class. The top five finishers for East are all seniors led by Tyler Parsons (fifth, 16:05), Josh Dillion (ninth, 16:32), Marc Meltzer (11th, 16:41), Noah Preihs (15th, 17:15) and Michael Onu (30th, 17:33). Also pointing for Cherry Hill East were sophomore Kyle Krell (47th, 18:01) and junior Jeremy Helfand (52nd, 18:09). Also running varsity in this championship meet were seniors Zach Sell and Andrew Warkala, sophomore Andy Zhong, Juniors Chris Witting and David Ginsberg. Cherry Hill East placed four runners on the all-conference team. Receiving first team honors were Parsons and Dillon. Receiving second team honors were Meltzer and Preihs. Parsons was also an all-conference runner in 2015, and Dillon in 2014.
Next up will be the South Jersey Group IV sectionals at Delsea High School in Franklinville on Nov. 5. The boys are the three-time defending champions. The girls are looking to finish in the top five and advance to the state finals for only the second time in the last eight years.
