OCHS boys team finishes second at states, girls place third as team
HOLMDEL – Ocean City High School junior Riley Tolson is a cross country state champion.
She won the title in the Group III meet Saturday, Nov. 7, in Holmdel.
Her fellow Red Raider girls finished third overall in Group III as a team. The OCHS boys cross country team was second in Group III, matching what they accomplished last year.
They will be competing this coming Saturday at the Meet of Champions.
Tolson won the Group III race with a time of 18 minutes and 5.86 seconds, about 25 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Amelia Pattwell of Middletown South.
Middletown South won as a team with 86 points. Princeton was second with 97 and Ocean City third with 106.
For the girls, senior Lillian Flora was 24th in 20.02.73; junior Lenna Driscoll, 28th, 20:09.32; senior Carly Godfrey, 32nd, 20:17.29; and freshman Mackenzie Jenkins 36th, 20:28.90. Senior Peighton Clemens was 40th in 20:40.23 and freshman Cara Jefferson 50th in 21:00.40.
Raider boys third in state meet
The Ocean City boys team came in second as a team with 68 points. West Windsor-Plainsboro North won the state Group III title with 37 points and Hopewell Valley was third with 123 points.
Senior Nathan Aschmann had the fastest time for the Red Raiders, placing fourth in 16:25.61. Fellow senior Keenan Neuman was right behind in fifth place in 16:29.86. Junior Nevin Millstein was 16th, 16:55.80; junior Benjamin McCarthy, 20th, 17:05.15; and senior Michael Romano, 28th, 17:14.88. Junior Ryan Jefferson was 36th in 17:26.30 and junior Hayden Tarves 53rd in 17:41.37.
West Windsor-Plainsboro North took first and second place – junior Agrim Jha won in 15:54.17 – and also took 10th, 11th and 13th.
Both the Ocean City boys and girls cross country teams, under coaches Matt Purdue and Tim Cook, respectively, won the South Jersey Group III titles a week earlier. It was the fourth South Jersey title in a row for both teams.
– By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff