EDITOR’S NOTE: The Red Raider girls won the Cape-Atlantic League cross-country championship Tuesday at Egg Harbor Township High School, but times were not available due to timing errors.
CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE — The Ocean City High School girls team took the top seven spots in the annual Cape May County Cross Country Championship on Oct. 13.
They also posted 10 of the top 11 fastest times on the course that wound around Cape May County Park.
For the girls, it was back to a smaller field after winning two major invitational championships the weekends before, but it didn’t change the strategy for how they run.
Junior Riley Tolson won a few days after winning the Varsity A division race in the Manhattan University Cross Country Invitational and after winning the Varsity C crown at the Shore Coaches Invitational the weekend before. The teams won as well.
“It was good just to get out here, just as a team and get through this race,” Tolson said.
She felt really good about the recent invitational wins for her team. “It was nice to get out there with some big races with some other really great girls. It’s just an amazing opportunity to race and just chase people down,” she said.
She describes her strategy as starting more in the middle of the pack and catching and passing runners throughout the race.
“I don’t really like chase them down towards the finish just because I’m more of the endurance athlete,” Tolson said. “But I would definitely say just like in that race, just trying to pick people off as I go and just try … to pass as many people as I can.”
For the record, she tends to pass everybody inevitably. That happens when you come in first.
“We have sectionals coming up as well as CALs. I feel really confident. I’m just really proud of our team, just putting in the work every day,” Tolson said.
“It’s been a really good season,” Godfrey said. “I think the younger girls have really stepped up. A lot of us are graduating, but we have some really good freshmen and younger classmen.”
Asked the difference in strategy between the small field at the county championship and racing against some two dozen teams at the invitationals, Godfrey said it stays pretty much the same.
“These races are more about running together as a team and at some of the bigger races, I run a lot with Lily (Flora), so we really strategize, run together and try and pick people off to help our team.
“Overall it kind of feels the same. We’re just always trying to do our best and hoping for the best for each other,” she said.
She’s excited about the championship meets coming up.
“I think we have a really good team, so I think we have a really good shot at winning a sectional title, maybe a state title. We’re always working, so I see bright things.”
The Ocean City girls are the defending Group III South Jersey and state champions.
Although runners from seven county schools were competing — including Middle Township, Wildwood, Wildwood Catholic, Cape May Tech and Lower Cape May Regional — only Ocean City and Middle Township fielded full teams this year.
The top five girls all finished within a minute of each other, led by Tolson, who ran a time of 19 minutes, 34.42 seconds for the title. Godfrey (20:16.69) was second; freshman Mackenzie Jenkins (20:17.27) was third; sophomore Bella Sera (20:28.80) was fourth; and senior Peighton Clemens (20:29.70) was fifth for the runners whose times counted in the championship.
Freshman Cara Jefferson (20:55.94) was sixth and senior Lillian Flora (21:10.15) was seventh for the varsity runners.
Middle Township sophomore Teagan Emmer (22:35.66) was eighth; and fellow Panthers Eden Geisel (23:04.79), a senior, was ninth, and junior Autumn Cannon (23:14.35) was 10th. Wildwood Catholic junior Shea McIlhinney was 11th in 23:35.92.
Other Ocean City girls running, whose times were often better than the varsity competitors, included freshman Brynn Cunningham, 21:51.80; junior Julianna Rearick, 22:43.78; senior Madison McHale, 22:44.58; senior Kai Linthicum, 23:51.88; sophomore Allie Garrabrandt, 23:54.42; sophomore Melanie Gannon, 23:59.66; sophomore Jane Switzer, 24:23.50; junior Edith Heywood, 25:19.62; freshman Grace Willey, 26:08.95; senior Marley Ostrander, 26:17.04; junior Natalie Russo, 26:22.15; senior Flora Morris, 26:39.01; sophomore Payton McAfee, 28:34.39; junior Gianna Smallwood, 29:35.37; and senior Laurel Manning, 29:38.08.
They finished with 15 points, the lowest score possible in a cross-country meet, and Middle Township was second with 50. The individual girls from the other schools mostly finished far down in the field.
EHT first, MRHS 2nd
in Atlantic County
The Egg Harbor Township High School girls won the Atlantic County Cross Country Championship on Oct. 15, with the Mainland Mustangs coming in second.
Junior Molly Rooney won the race in 18:07.53 and the Eagles took six of the top 10 spots, including second, third, fifth and eighth to win with 19 points.
The Mainland Regional High School girls were led by freshman Quinlan Smith, who was fourth in 18:32.83. Three more of her teammates were in the top 10: junior Adrian Sykes (19:11.78), sixth; senior Cecilia Foreman (19:16.63), seventh; and senior Lauren LaMonaca (19:25.72), ninth. Freshman Janice Yon was the team’s fifth finisher, in 18th place, in 20:33.23. Those five gave the team 44 points for second place among the six teams.
Mustangs Alisa Kalika (22:40.66) and Emily Dill (24:05.70) were 26th and 32nd.
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
