EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP – Ocean City’s girls easily won the Cape-Atlantic League Cross Country Championship Oct. 23, but Mainland Regional’s Sofia Day was able to slip past Red Raider Maeve Smith to claim the individual title by just over a half-second.
Day and Smith, both seniors, ran side by side for most of the course at Egg Harbor Township High School. Smith came into the Eagles’ stadium with a good 30-yard lead over Day for the final stretch on the track, but Day used her kick to pass Smith right at the finish, winning in 18:25.18. Smith finished second in 18:25.84.
The two girls were more than 40 seconds ahead of the rest of the field.
“I really like to go by my strategy in the race, so going into it I knew I wanted to stay with Maeve because she is a very competitive runner and I’ve run with her a bunch in the past,” Day said. “I think we feed off of each other really well to get good times. That was my goal.”
Asked about her kick at the end, Day said when she got to the track, her coaching was yelling “and I realized I had to let go of everything I was thinking about the race and should just push and go back to my training.” She credited “all those summer workouts when you have one more rep and you just have to push through it. That’s where I got it from.”
“The course was fun,” she added. “It was different. It was cool to see all of the parents watching the entire race. I think this really helped me and my team. We all feel confident and ready. Me and Ava McDole, it’s our last year, so we’re really trying to push through it and make the best of it.”
Day, who has committed to run at Division I Vanderbilt University in Tennessee after she graduates, is a state champion runner in spring track; she runs the 800 and 1600 meters. Asked if she likes those races over the 5,000 meter cross country races, she said she prefers track “a little more, but I definitely prefer the team aspect of cross country.”
“It’s nice to have competition again because normally we’re just running in the front all by ourselves,” Smith said of past races with her teammates. “It was fun to have someone to run with and to push each other.”
Smith said she was happy with her time, “but I did’t want to overdo it because sectional and all the Holmdel races are coming up. I’m just glad I put down a pretty fast time without having to exert myself too much.” Smith noted the same thing after winning the Cape May County title a week earlier. She won that mostly beach course in Avalon with a time of 19:43.34. Day won the Atlantic County title in 18:09.05 on Hammonton’s short course.
“I was really happy with their runs,” Raider head coach Tim Cook said of his athletes. “Everyone wanted to get out fast and run smart races. We had some strategies coming in of packing together, getting a good race in.
“Maeve got to duel with Sofia again, which is always fun to watch,” he added.
Raider senior Chloe Care was third overall in 19:12.47 followed by sophomore Carly Godfrey in fourth, 19:13.01; freshman Riley Tolson fifth, 19:13.96; senior Zoe Zammit ninth, 19:53.83; sophomore Lillian Flora 11th, 19:56.09; and sophomore Peighton Clemens 15th, 20:13.38.
“They look a little exhausted and some of them are walking around happy,” Cook said of his runners. We had a bunch of PRs (personal records). I think there were five under 20 (minutes). That’s what we were hoping for. I think we’re rolling at the right time.”
He noted the win at the CAL meet “is a great springboard” heading into South Jersey sectionals Saturday at Dream Park in Logan Township and then the state meet the following week.
“We really wanted to come in with some fast times, a couple of the girls got PRs. You always get that confidence boost mentally and the big thing is coming out healthy and getting ready,” Cook said. “We’re going down to Holmdel (site of the state meet) in a couple of days. We’re gearing up for the big time.”
Mustang Cecelia Foreman was seventh in 19:49.32; with teammates McDole 19th, 20:53.83; Macie Gannon 22nd, 21:41.36; Ella Mokienko, 25th, 21:56.45; and Emily Dill, 50th, 23:47.38.
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
