Delaware's CR, Cape win cross country titles

Results

FELTON - Veteran standout Jill Hajec led the Caesar Rodney girls varsity cross country team to the Henlopen Conference Championship Meet held at Killens Pond State Park Saturday afternoon. The Riders were also the regular-season dual-meet conference champs as well.

Cape Henlopen boys also completed the sweep winning Saturday's meet and the regular-season title.

Hajec put on an awesome performance with a time of 19:23, 31 seconds better than her teammate Liz Paul who finished second.

The Riders had five runners finish in the top 15 to easily edge Lake Forest 27-68 for the title. Kashante Codner finished fifth, Kasheka Codner finished sixth and Natalie Robbins took 13th.

"I'm very pleased with my performance as well as the team's performance today," Hajec said. "But we know there is a lot of work yet to be done this week in practice for our team to challenge for a state title. I am very glad to come back this year and do so well."

Hajec missed last season's Henlopen Conference meet with a knee injury but more than made up for with her performance this year.

His peers at the meet also voted the Riders veteran head coach Charlie Bell as girls coach of the year.

Sussex Tech's Rebecca Singh finished in third place, just two seconds ahead of Lake Forest's Lena Ewing. Brittany Morris of Cape Henlopen finished eighth while Amy Mallamo of Milford came in ninth. Caitlin McGroerty finished seventh for Seaford while Lashell Green finished 12th to lead Dover.

Matt Jackson led the way for the Viking boys, winning the race with a time of 17:00. Cape Henlopen had six runners in the top 15 on their way to winning the meet championship.

Teammate Nick Adams may have been the surprise of the meet with his second-place finish behind Jackson at 17:06. Greg Swift finished fifth, Andrew Freeman eighth, Matt Riggin ninth, and Nick Lemmon 13th.

"The time was OK but I just wanted to win the race today," Jackson said. "Nick Adams really came through for us and the whole team just had a great effort for us today in order for us to win. We are ready for states and I can't wait."

Gary Smith was Dover's top finisher as the surprising Senators finished second as a team and second during the dual-meet season.

Mike Hazeltine finished fourth to lead Lake Forest, Chad Carpenter captured sixth place for Milford. Jed Mountz led Caesar Rodney with his 11th-place finish and Seth Elder led Seaford with a 12th-place finish.

Dover boys coach Jim Solomon was voted boys coach of the year.

The boys junior varsity race was won by Russell Ayers of Cape Henlopen while Caesar Rodney dominated the girls JV race with Julie Wagner winning and Jessica Wright coming in second, followed by teammate Leah Bercat for a 1-2-3 Rider finish.

The top seven runners were named first-Henlopen All Conference while the second eight finishers were awarded second-team Henlopen All Conference honors.

The state meet will be held Saturday afternoon at Bellevue State Park in Wilmington.