Shawn Wilson may be the favorite to win the Meet of Champions. And he may never get the chance to run it.

Wilson, the Cherokee senior, has been unchallenged on the trails this fall, and on Saturday he basically jogged to the South Jersey Group 4 XC title at Delsea, winning in 15:40, more than 120 meters ahead of a very good field.

Wilson joined Marc Pelerin (2001) and Alex Yersak (2005, 2006, 2007) as Cherokee’s third sectional cross country champ.

Wilson will be among the top seeds Saturday at the state Group 4 meet at Holmdel County Park, and based on his training, coaches Chris Callinan and Steve Shaklee believe Wilson is in sub-15:40 shape at Holmdel.

How fast is that? Only 22 runners have ever gone sub-15:40 at Holmdel and only 13 have run under 15:35. The fastest South Jersey runners in Holmdel history are Jason DiJoseph of Paul VI (15:16.2 in 1988), Greg Hughes of Mainland (15:38.9 in 2003), Ocean City’s Brett Johnson (15:40.4 in 2008), Jon Vitez (15:41.4 in 2009) and Ben Potts (15:42.7 in 2009) of Haddonfield and Pelerin, now one of Wilson’s coaches, who won the 2001 Meet of Champs at Holmdel in 15:43.7 — fastest ever by a Burlington County runner.

So Wilson has a chance here to really put together a historical performance. He’s a tremendous hill runner and is perfectly suited for this course. With perfect conditions and a great start, he could even dip a second or two under 15:30.

If all goes according to plan, Wilson will come out of the state Group 4 meet as one of the favorites for the Meet of Champions a week from Wednesday at Holmdel and also as a favorite to qualify for Foot Locker Nationals at the Foot Locker Northeast Regionals at Van Cortland Park a week from Saturday.

The problem is, Wilson and the other top New Jersey runners most likely can’t run both.

If he runs states, Meet of Champs and Foot Locker Regionals, that’s three very hard efforts in eight days. If he runs hard at Meet of Champs on a very tough Holmdel County Park course, it could very well hinder his ability to make the top 10 at Foot Locker and earn his ticket to San Diego.

Thank Hurricane Sandy for this dilemma. The hurricane forced meet officials to postpone sectionals and states a week, and that forced them to hold states and the Meet of Champs just four days apart. It’s tough enough doubling back on a grueling course four days later without having to race the top runners in the region three days after that.

It really comes down to this: What’s more important — winning the Meet of Champions or earning a spot on the prestigious Foot Locker Northeast Regional team and racing at nationals in Balboa Park against the top runners in the country? For someone like Wilson, who hasn’t really been noticed yet by the top colleges, a quality performance at regionals and, say, a top-15 race at nationals could mean a college scholarship.

No final decision has been made on Wilson’s plans moving forward. He’ll see how he feels after states and then make a call. There’s still an outside chance he’ll try the Holmdel-Vanny double. He would certainly be one of the favorites to win the Meet of Champs if he races, but the effort that course takes out of a runner would make it very tough to race at a high level at Van Cortland, another very challenging course.

One thing is certain — wherever Wilson races, he has a chance to accomplish some very special things over the next few weeks.