OCEAN CITY – The Ocean City High School boys team took the top three spots and had all of its scorers in the top 10 to win the South Jersey Group III cross country sectional Saturday.
It was the fourth straight South Jersey championship for the team.
Upper classmen led the way at Dream Park in Logan Township.
Keenan Neuman was the individual champion, winning the race in 15 minutes, 10.33 seconds. Fellow senior Nathan Aschmann was second in 15:23.74 and junior Nevin Millstein was third in 15:24.18. Teammates Benjamin McCarthy, a junior, was fifth in 15:55.58 and senior Michael Romano ninth in 16:03.53.
Those five scores gave coach Matt Purdue’s team 20 points to vastly outscore the competition. Highland Regional was second with 82 points, Moorestown third with 107, Shawnee fourth with 156 and Toms River East fifth with 168.
Mainland Regional’s team was seventh overall with 203 points among the 17 teams in the race.
Ocean City’s other two runners weren’t far behind their teammates. Juniors Hayden Tarves (16:26.46) and Ryan Jefferson (16:27.24) were 15th and 16th among the 119 runners.
The top five finishers for Ocean City averaged a time of 15:35, nearly a minute ahead of second-place Highland Regional, which averaged 16:28. It was also the fastest average among the South Jersey teams.
In South Jersey, Group I champion Glassboro averaged 15.55; Group II champ Haddonfield Memorial, 16:09; and Group IV winner Cherokee, 15:44.
The Ocean City boys had the fastest average among the Group III teams around the state, but there isn’t a direct comparison because each section ran on different courses in New Jersey.
Among Group III teams around the state, Central winner West Windsor-Plainsboro North’s team averaged 15:45, with its fastest runner coming in at 15:21.46.
North I winner Northern Highlands averaged 17:56 and the top runner, out of Ramapo, clocked in at 16:37.00
The North II champion, North Hunterdon, averaged 16:40.
Mustang junior Jack Preissman was another top 10 runner, finishing eighth in 16:04.12. His Mainland teammates’ finishes include junior William Gerhardt, 29th, 16:52.00; freshman Jameson Foreman, 35th, 17:04.20; sophomore Chase Kern, 48th, 17:40.31; sophomore David Gregory, 95th, 19:02.61; and junior Max Brough, 101st, 19:16.95.
Ocean City now heads to the Group III state championship meet Saturday at Holmdel. The Red Raider boys finished second as a team at last year’s state meet. They had 102 points, behind first-place Colts Neck with 87 and just ahead of third-place North Hunterdon with 110 points.
They have had success at major invitational meets this fall, winning their division at the Shore Coaches Invitational meet and the Manhattan University Invitational meet, going up against teams from different groups and different states.
– By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
