AVALON — The Ocean City High School boys and girls cross country teams won the 2024 Cape May County Cross Country Championships on Thursday, Oct. 19, on a softer-than-usual course — the Avalon beach.
The boys swept the top five places and seven of the top eight and the Raider girls all finished in the top 10, including six of the seven top spots.
Senior Maeve Smith won the girls race in 19 minutes 43.34 seconds and junior Erik Preisner won the boys race in 17:20.66 with teammate Keenan Neuman, a sophomore, a step behind in 17:20.98.
The race historically takes place at the Cape May County Park and Zoo, but there has been ongoing construction there. This year’s race, on a crisp and sunny fall day, started on the beach near Surfside Park, raced south and then back north on relatively hard-packed sand, and then finished on the Avalon boardwalk at the park.
“It felt pretty good. It was a lot of sand,” Preisner said. “Our goal was to stay together as a pack and beat all the other teams.”
“It was mostly hard sand in the lower part. There was only soft sand when we were going to and from (the course) on the beach.” The OCHS home course includes the beach and boardwalk as well.
Since this is the start of the championship season, Preisner said he believes his team will win the Cape-Atlantic League Championship, which is at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 23, at Egg Harbor Township High School.
“I think we will win the CAL and from there sectionals and hopefully a Group III state championship,” he said.
“I was a little nervous because (the course) was on the beach for a long time,” Smith said, “but it was exciting because it was a different course that I’ve never run before. It felt good on the hard sand, but it was a little bit tougher on the soft sand getting on and off the beach.
“We run on the beach in the summer sometimes so we weren’t totally unfamiliar with it, which was good,” she added.
Smith wasn’t pushing for her fastest time in the race.
“I didn’t want to do too hard of an effort because I want to save it for some bigger meets coming up,” she said, “but it felt good.”
Smith is looking forward to the CAL meet this week and then after that South Jersey sectionals followed by states and Meet of Champions.
“I am hoping to continually get first, put down some good times, and I definitely want to place better at Meet of Champs,” she said. “That’s another goal.”
Smith finished third at the state Group III meet and in the top 15 at the Meet of Champions last year.
For the girls, Wildwood senior Macie McCracken was second in 19:50.68 followed by five Raiders — senior Chloe Care, third, 20:11.62; sophomore Carly Godfrey, fourth, 21:06.91; freshman Riley Tolson, fifth, 21:07.39; sophomore Peighton Clemens, sixth, 21:15.01; and senior Zoe Zammit, seventh, 21:40.69. Lower Cape May Regional’s Jenna Hill broke up the pack by finishing eighth in 21:51.62. Ocean City junior Gabrielle Henry was ninth in 21:59.83.
As a team, the Raider girls won with 15 points. McCracken’s score didn’t count toward team points because there were only three racers for Wildwood.
Overall, Middle Township was second with 72 points, Wildwood Catholic third with 85, Lower Cape May fourth with 95 and Cape May County Tech fifth with 113.
For the boys, Raider senior Ethan Buck was third in 17:27.85; with teammates Nathan Aschmann, a sophomore, fourth, 17:37.94; sophomore Michael Romano, fifth, 17:38.84; senior Zach Hutchinson, seventh, 18:20.81; and freshman Nevin Millstein, eighth, 18:21.19. Middle Township sophomore Jamar Mack slipped into sixth place with a time of 17:47.84.
The Raider boys won the team title with 15 points. Middle Township was second with 52, Cape May County Tech third with 82 and Lower Cape May Regional fourth with 101.
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
