The Roadrunner cross country teams took to the trails of Richard Stockton University over the weekend for their season opening matchup. The teams used the local meet as a stepping stone, focusing on getting rid of pre-season nervousness and getting a feeling for running fast and competitively. The teams faced some big competition from Rowan, Stockton, and TCNJ but fared very well against the other NJCAA teams in attendance, with RCSJ coming out on top for the JUCO teams.
Freshman harriers led the way for both the men's and women's races, with Autumn Heaton (Schalick) and Charlie Hepler (Delsea) battling the twists and turns to earn top placing for RCSJ and for all NJCAA runners in the meet. Both teams had a solid pack/flock mentality, with only 18 runners falling between the top 5 scorers. In the team competition, the men fared slightly better with a 7th place finish while the women came in 8th in the 10-team invitational.
Coach Ryan Hughes was impressed with the team's efforts in the early season meet, stating, "The teams did well in their first outing, I think we did exactly what was expected trying to break off the rust and get our legs used to running fast again. We're very excited for the upcoming season and look forward to harder and harder workouts to help the team improve."
Next up for the Roadrunners is the Jersey Blues Invitational hosted by Brookdale Community College where the teams will face almost all of their region 19 junior college competition.
9/9/22
Richard Stockton Memorial Inv.
Stockton University, Pomona, NJ
Women's 5k
55 Autumn Heaton 23:25
62 Ashton Wiseley 24:42
68 Mackenzie Cochran 25:33
76 Susana Serrano 26:19
73 Alyssa Connor 26:39
87 Paige Wodarczyk 30:02
Team = 8th place
Men's 5k
49 Charlie Hepler 18:29
59 Joey Malec 19:17
62 CJ Gilmore 19:28
64 John Schilling 19:31
67 Derek Wyllie 19:44
79 Mike Abate 20:49
84 Ben Kellum 21:21
Team = 7th place
Full Stockton Results Below:
https://tomahawktiming.com/9-9-stockton-invite-womens-5k/
https://tomahawktiming.com/9-9-stockton-invite-mens-5k/