Great athletes rise to the occasion, and on a snow-covered Iowa cross country course Laney Vecchio shook off the cold and ran the race of her life to become the National Junior College Athletic Association Division III Cross Country national champion.
“It was a great experience,” Vecchio said. “I decided to start out slower, and then I was able to close out faster. I just stuck to my plan and ran the race I wanted to, and it worked out well. And the cooler weather didn’t bother me at all.”
Although all the times were slower than normal due to the weather, Vecchio picked up the pace after the 1K split to finish with a time of 20:20.5 and win by 12 seconds. She celebrated the victory with her Rowan College of South Jersey (RCSJ) teammates who also competed, including Kayla Ayars, Gabriella Szwed, Amelia Helkowski and Georgia Lorenzetti.
They all traveled to Fort Dodge, Iowa, on Nov. 8 for the national championship race hosted by Iowa Central Community College.
“I was surprised at the heavy snow and I certainly didn’t expect to win the race,” said Vecchio, a psychology major at RCSJ.
Her effort capped off a great season for the 2025 RCSJ Roadrunner women’s cross country team, which won its third straight Region 19 championship. The entire team, as well as Vecchio and Ayars who were named to the All Region first team, were honored at the recent RCSJ Fall Season Awards Banquet at the school’s Deptford campus.
Athletes and coaches from the men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s cross country, and volleyball teams were honored during the evening’s program.
Executive Director of Athletics, Brian Rowan, presented the Athletes of the Season honors to Vecchio and Alphiwe Ngcobo, the star on the men’s soccer team.
He also congratulated the women’s soccer and women’s cross country teams for winning Region 19 championships, the women’s volleyball team which earned a Region 19 playoff berth, and the Roadrunner Unified Sports team was also honored for their outstanding Fall 2025 season.
Also fall coaches handed out team honors to individual athletes, highlighted by the following athletes who earned All-Region and All-American honors this past Fall, including:
Ryan Handley, All Region cross country first team; Brianna Howard, Ava Delaney and Ava Pino, All Region women’s soccer first team; Brianna Morgan and Mackenzie Cignatta, All Region women’s soccer second team; Alphiwe Ngcobo, All Region men’s soccer first team; Gavin Riemer, All Region men’s soccer second team; and Marisa Van Atter, All Region women’s volleyball second team.
Competing during the Winter Sports season for RCSJ will be the men’s basketball team, the women’s basketball team, and the men’s wrestling team.
