LAKEWOOD, NJ (Nov. 8, 2026) - Georgian Court Cross Country had the honor of hosting the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Championship meet for the first time in program history Sunday morning. The Lions did not disappoint with both the men's and women's teams finishing in the top-five. The race was held off campus at the Ocean County Park.
The women took third place overall, scoring 96 points. It's their highest team finish since the 2019 season when they also took third place.
Georgian Court had two named All-CACC by finishing in the top-15.
Sophia Mauro led the Lions running 20:02.1 to place ninth.
Nena Menard set a major personal-best time, completing the 5K race in 20:42.0 to place 14th. That time is also good for top-15 in Lions history in the Division II era. For Mauro, the sophomore is now two-for-two making the All-CACC Cross Country team in her career.
Also finishing in the top-20 was
Dori O'Halloran. She placed 19th with a time of 21:33.3.
Nora Sprunger ran a personal-best 5K time as well and placed 25th, running 22:28.3.
Azucena Martinez-Panesso and
Jill Konschak finished back-to-back in 30th and 31st place. Martinez-Panesso ran 23:23.1 while Konschak was right behind in 23:24.8.
Julisa Sanchez Ponce rounded out the field for GCU. She ran a personal-best time 28:33.9.
For the second straight year Jefferson had a perfect score of 15 to take home the team championship. The Rams' Olivia Grahn also repeated as the individual champion and set a new meet record, running 17:09.5. She did it all by herself, finishing a full two minutes ahead of her teammate and second place finisher, Natalie McFadden.
The Georgian Court men's team repeated in fourth place for the second consecutive season. The Lions totaled 103 points as a team, led by
Ryan Pettrow. Pettrow picked up his second All-CACC honor as he placed fourth running 26:36.0. Pettrow was one of three Lions to finish within 10 seconds of a personal-best time in the 8K race.
The trifecta of
Richard Riopel,
Colin Broadbelt and
Zachary Spoonire all finished within five places of each other. Riopel came in 22nd place running 28:08.7. Broadbelt set a new lifetime-best and moved up to 21st in Lions history running 28:27.3 to place 24th. Coming in 26th was Spoonire who ran 28:39.6.
Luke McCormick rounded out the Lions scoring. He too wasn't far off his personal-best as he ran 29:20.7 and placed 31st.
Stephen Lane was the Lions final runner. He finished 38th running 30:05.8, just two seconds off of his lifetime-best.
The team title was hotly contested as three teams were within just nine points. In the end, Wilmington picked off Jefferson by the slimmest of margins, scoring 45 to the Rams' 46 points. Felician finished in third with 54 points. Kenai Black of Wilmington was the individual champion. The freshman was named the CACC Rookie and Runner of the Year as he crossed the line in 26:06.8. The men's race was much closer than the women's. Where Grahn was two minutes ahead of second place, Black was just two seconds ahead of Jefferson's Dylan Boyle which proved to be the difference in the individual and team championship.
