OCEAN CITY — The Red Raider girls cross country team has a legitimate shot to defend its Group III state championship and is already powering toward that goal.
There are six girls back from that team, a seventh who ran at the Meet of Champions, and some strong freshmen. So far the team is not contending with injuries like it did last year (fingers crossed).
The Red Raiders kicked off this season early when they finished first overall as a team at the two-mile Run the Night Powered by Nike on Sept. 4.
Riley Tolson won the junior class 3200-meter race at Run the Night and her time of 11:12.86 was 45 seconds better than the second-place runner. Tolson’s time was second among all the classes. Fellow junior Lenna Driscoll was sixth in that race at 12:24.99.
Carly Godfrey was fifth among the seniors in 11:47.22. Shore Regional’s Alexandra Klein won in 10:51:13 — the only time better than Tolson on the day.
Fellow senior Lillian Flora was eighth in 12:04.20 and Peighton Clemens was 21st in 13:03.39.
Raider sophomore Bella Cera was fifth in her race in 12:41.71. Among the freshmen, Ocean City’s Mackenzie Jenkins was third in 12:40.12 and Cara Jefferson ninth in 13:08.16. Fellow freshman Brynn Cunningham was 18th in 14:13.84.
“The cool thing about it is it’s at nighttime, completely under the lights,” head coach Tim Cook said. “We ended up winning that meet after they did the full merge (adding the scores of the runners from the different classes).”
The girls are unbeaten in dual meets so far this season — they just shut Mainland Regional High School out of the top seven spots in the windy dual meet on the beach and boardwalk Sept. 22.
Over this past weekend, the varsity and junior varsity teams just placed second at the 33rd annual Carlisle (Pa.) Invitational. Tolson was second in that 5,000-meter race with a time of 17:50, just about four seconds behind the winner from Bedford, Pa. Dallastown won the meet with 86 points; OCHS was second with 119 among the 24 schools.
“We’re lucky enough we’re in a spot where we really return our top six girls from last year,” Cook said. “And then we have a few freshmen coming in that could fill in spots as well. We have a good group.”
The six returning starters are Tolson, Godfrey, Flora, Driscoll, Cera and Clemens. Isabella Edwards filled in for the Meet of Champions race.
“This year we’re hoping to do the same thing, get everybody on the same page and healthy at the right time,” Cook said, noting three starting runners were hurt at different times last season. “Knock on wood, everybody’s been great all season this year. Everybody’s had a great summer of training and everybody’s a little older, a little stronger and more experienced.”
The aim is to be in a strong position to challenge for the state title, but the “real goal,” the coach said, is the Meet of Champions.
The OCHS cross country team was ranked sixth in the state last week. Cook said they have floated between fifth and seventh, but noted his girls don’t pay much attention to that.
“Obviously the only poll that really matters is the end of the year,” he said. “We’d rather just go run and have everything based on our results. Our girls don’t really put too much stock into that stuff, which is good. That’s why our girls are great.”
The coach said he would prefer to have fewer dual meets during the season, but they do have value, especially for the young runners.
“Everybody focuses on the front seven all the time,” Cook said about his starters, “but we have 29 girls on the team. It’s a really good experience for them to race against different schools on different courses and terrains.”
He added that the girls have been doing a good job in the weight room weekly, prepping their bodies because the season is long with another month or two of running.
Clemens, he noted, has stepped up as kind of a team mom, taking the younger runners under her wing.
“Peighton’s just been that kind of person since she’s been in the program,” Cook said. “Some freshmen are pretty talented, and going into a big meet, she really takes her time to talk to them, explains what they need to do and kind of calms their nerves a little bit. It’s really fun to see.”
In the team’s five dual meets, in addition to Mainland, they also shut out Vineland, Bridgeton and Cedar Creek 15-50, and topped Egg Harbor Township 16-45. (Lowest score wins in cross country with the first-place runner getting 1 point, the second place runner 2 points, etc.)
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
