OCEAN CITY – The Red Raider girls cross country team repeated as South Jersey Group III champions Saturday. Actually, it was the third repeat because the Ocean City High School girls have won the South Jersey title four years in a row now.
This coming Saturday at the course in Holmdel, the Red Raiders, under coach Tim Cook, aim to defend their 2025 state Group III championship.
Running at Dream Park in Logan Township, OCHS junior Riley Tolson led all the girls runners on the day and led her team, winning the individual South Jersey title with a time of 17 minutes and 5.69 seconds. The time was a girls course record.
All four of the other scorers for the Red Raiders finished in the top 10. Senior Carly Godfrey was fourth in 18:28.96; senior Lillian Flora was sixth in 18:51.64; freshman Mackenzie Jenkins was seventh in 19:08.45; and junior Lenna Driscoll was ninth in 19:16.87.
The Red Raiders’ two other runners, senior Peighton Clemens was 12th in 19:34.16 and freshman Cara Jefferson was 13th in 19:40.17.
As a team, the Red Raiders average a time of 18:34 for a team score of 27 points. Moorestown was a distant second at 101 and Mainland Regional was third with 127 points.
For the Mainland Mustangs, freshman Quinlan Smith was the fastest, finishing 17th in 19:50.53; senior Lauren LaMonaca, 20th, 19:58.39; junior Adrian Sykes, 27th, 20:26.03; senior Cecelia Foreman, 31st, 20:39.54; freshman Janice Yon, 37th, 21:01.48; and sophomore Alisa Kalika, 74th, 23:21.29.
There were 14 teams and 106 finishers in the Group III race.
Tolson had the fastest time among all four groups in the South Jersey sectionals.
Tolson also ran the fastest time among all the Group III sectional runners in New Jersey, but the sections did run on different courses.
In Group III, Central individual champion Siena Nicholson of Colts Neck ran a time of 17:31.65; North I winner Sophee Estrems of Demerest ran 19:12; and North II winner Sophia Burgo of Chatham finished in 18:27.90.
All the sectional champions will compete at the course in Holmdel Saturday, Nov. 7, in the group state meets.
Last year, Ocean City won with 94 points. Second-place Middletown South had 110 points and third-place North Hunterdon had 117 points.
So far this fall, the Ocean City girls have won their division at the Shore Coaches Invitational and the Manhattan University Invitational. Tolson was the individual winner at those races.
– By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
