Cougars sweep boys and girls titles in Salem County XC Meet; Hadfield blows away girls field, Fuerneisen wins boys race for first time
AROUND THE COUNTY
WEDNESDAY’S SCORES
FIELD HOCKEY
Highland Regional 1, Pennsville 0
BOYS SOCCER
Overbrook 7, Salem 0
Penns Grove 5, Salem Tech 0
Pitman 1, Pennsville 0
Schalick 6, Clayton 0
Woodstown 5, Wildwood 1
GIRLS SOCCER
Overbrook 3, Salem 1
Penns Grove at Salem Tech
Pitman 1, Pennsville 0
Schalick 5, Clayton 0
GIRLS TENNIS
Pennsville 5, Wildwood 0
Woodstown 5, West Deptford 0
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
PITTSGROVE – Missy Pine never ceases to be amazed at what she sees every time Jordan Hadfield steps on the cross country course.
A soccer player for most of high school career with some track experience in the spring, Hadfield decided to run cross country this fall and has really taken off. Like best girls runner in the state any classification taken off.
The Schalick junior was especially impressive Wednesday, blowing away the Salem County Meet record while winning the girls race in 18 minutes, 26 seconds on an absolutely perfect day to run on her home course. Amazingly, it came four days – four days – after she broke 19 for the first time at the South Jersey Open.
It was clean sweep for the Cougars. Charles Fuerneisen won the boys race for the first time in a personal best 16:58 and both Schalick teams ran away with team titles.
Hadfield was so dominant, she was more than three and a half minutes ahead of race runner-up Sarah Seiden of Salem Tech.
“She amazes every time that she goes out there,” Pine, the Schalick girls coach, said. “She just wants to better herself and better herself and better herself. I think she’s starting to realize what it takes to push herself and get a little bit better each time and she’s starting to be proud of the runs she puts forward even though I’m proud of her every week.
“It’s really difficult to come out and dominate the way that Jordan has this year. Cross country is a much more difficult sport than I think anybody anticipates or expects, and for her to dominate the way that she has it’s been amazing and inspiring to her teammates and the coaching staff as well.”
It isn’t always as easy as Hadfield sometimes make it – she does have “really bad races” – but there are times even she’s amazed with the immediate success she’s had. She admitted she was with Wednesday’s run.
“Today I was going for the school record,” she said. “I was really just trying to get into the 18s. I’m glad I finally did Saturday and today was just another step closer. It means more (to win) being at home, winning in front of everyone we go to school with. It means a lot.”
Fuerneisen has been chasing the county championship for three years, inching closer each year until finally grabbing the brass ring Wednesday. He was 10th as a sophomore and held on for a second-place finish last year.
“There was a lot of pressure to do it, even carrying over from last season, so to actually do it, I couldn’t be happier,” he said. “As long as the first two numbers were 16 I was going to be happy.”
It was a tight race early. Calling it “a perfect run” and saying it was the best he’s ever felt during a race, he got out to a fast first mile and as the pack came out of the woods he started to pull away. The last half of the race it was him against the clock and he won by a comfortable 44 seconds over Woodstown runner-up Karson Chew.
“Charles was hungry for it,” Cougars boys coach Justin Franzwa said. “I think this has been one he’s circled on his calendar for a while.”
In the team races, the Schalick boys had four of the seven medalists, going 1-3-5-7 – all under 19 minutes – and placed all five counters in the top 12. The Cougars finished second last year on their course.
“The whole team had a really good day; they’ve been working so hard,” Franzwa said. “As a team effort, we knew it all depended on how fast could Charles get out and how hard he could pull the rest of us. Credit to the other coaches. There were kids we could go against, that we could chase after, that really brought them along.”
The girls finished 1-3, had three in the top seven and placed all five counters in the top 10. Elizabeth Petrunis was third.
Salem County XC Championship
BOYS TEAM SCORES: Schalick 28, Salem Tech 68, Woodstown 73, Pennsville 83, Salem 108, Penns Grove 161.
GIRLS TEAM SCORES: Schalick 27, Woodstown 55, Salem Tech 56.
| BOYS TOP 10 | GIRLS TOP 10 | ||
| Charles Fuerneisen, Sch | 16:58 | Jordan Hadfield, Sch | 18:26 |
| Karson Chew, Wood | 17:42 | Sarah Seiden, Tech | 21:59 |
| Matthew Tozer, Sch | 17:54 | Elizabeth Petrunis, Sch | 22:19 |
| Jacob Marino, Wood | 18:21 | Kayla Ayars, Wood | 23:13 |
| Sal Longo, Sch | 18:26 | Savannah Johnson, Tech | 23:49 |
| Gary Schwegen, Pv | 18:37 | Makayla Butz, Pv | 24:12 |
| Wyatt Juczak, Sch | 18:51 | Aubree McKishen, Sch | 24:36 |
| David Farrell, Wood | 19:04 | Sammy Sterner, Wood | 24:43 |
| Colton DiRenzo, Tech | 19:13 | Jordan Goode, Sch | 24:50 |
| Dominic Militti, Tech | 19:14 | Ava Melnick, Sch | 25:21 |
Cover photo: Schalick’s Charles Fuerneisen (left) and Jordan Hadfield celebrate their respective wins in the Salem County Cross Country Championships.
Riverview Sports News 