East Boys Win Olympic XC Team Crown

Cherry Hill East’s boys squad put three runners in the top ten en route to the team title at the Olympic Conference cross-country championships, and the Cherry Hill West boys, East girls and Camden Catholic girls and boys all managed top-10 finishes Friday.

Camden Catholic’s Kyle Kirk, who didn’t race at the Camden County championships the week before, was the overall boys winner, coming in at 15:55.

The Cougars embraced the pack mentality, which gave them the edge in the team competition, which they won with a score of 45, easily beating second-place Cherokee, which had 81.

East’s Aaron Groff was second in 16:00, and four other Cougars runners—Ben Dillon, who won the county title, Dan Helfand, Christian Mele and Jeff Braun—all finished within 45 seconds to clinch the team victory.

West’s Scott Sherry (19th) and Carlos Martines (23rd) led the Lions to a seventh-place finish.

Despite Kirk’s win, the Irish could only manage 10th overall as a team, with Tim Slack (18th) helping push them ahead of Paul VI.

Girls

A week after winning the county title, East’s Maddy Berman led the Cougars again—but strong Shawnee and Seneca teams relegated East to a fifth-place team finish.

Berman was 17th overall in 19:58, followed by teammates Monica Lee (21st) and Taegan Field. The Cougars also got top-50 finishes from Rebecca McCormack and Greer Field.

Camden Catholic’s Kelly McHugh (19:33) was the top local runner, and the Irish ended up 10th with help from Kelsey Crouse (45th) and Meghan Giordano (59th).

The West girls just missed out on a top-10 team finish, finishing 16 points behind the Irish.

Julia Marzocca (50th) was the top finisher for the Lions, with teammates Emily Johnston (52nd) and Gabrielle Rash (57th) finishing within 40 seconds of her time.