Red Raider boys take fourth overall
HOLMDEL — The Ocean City High School boys cross country team gave it everything they had in their final race of the season.
The Red Raiders competed in the NJSIAA group championships Nov. 4, finishing in fourth place with 131 team points, just 2 points behind third.
Peyton Shute of Gateway/Woodbury won the race with a time of 15:47. Mendham High School scored 75 points as a team, which gave them first place and an automatic qualifier for the Meet of Champions.
The Raiders have had a dominant season, as they previously won every race in which they competed this year. They qualified for the group championships after winning the South Jersey Group III title the previous week.
Six out of the seven Raiders broke their personal record for the course at Holmdel Park. Ocean City coach Matt Purdue was satisfied with his team’s performance on the day.
“Coming in, our goal was making the top three teams and we came up just short of that by two points,” Purdue said. “We certainly ran well today and overall, we are pleased. We basically ran to the best of our ability.”
The season is not over as Matt Hoffman and Ethan Buck qualified for the Meet of Champions on Nov. 11 as wild cards. They will represent Ocean City and compete one last time this year to bring home a trophy.
Hoffman finished with a time of 16:43, which was good for 16th place. He held off a late surge from Chase Kober of North Hunterdon to maintain his position.
The senior built upon his run last year at Holmdel as he ran 28 seconds faster and improved his placement by six slots. His final year at Ocean City has been everything he could ask for. He has led the Raiders in every race this season and pushed his teammates to improve.
Buck has been at Hoffman’s side throughout the year and finished right behind him at 16:45. Hunterdon broke up the duo as Buck placed two spots behind Hoffman in 18th place.
Ocean City looks to be in great shape for the future. Buck and the other five runners all will likely return to the team next season with only Hoffman graduating.
Sophomore Erik Preisner (17:08) finished in 30th place to give Ocean City a respectable top three.
The field for the race was large with 156 racers from more than 20 schools in attendance. Only a couple seconds between runners could drop a guy five placements.
Kai Heyman (17:30) finished in 47th place, while teammate Zach Hutchinson (17:47) locked in the 64th spot. They only finished 17 seconds apart yet had 16 boys between them.
A pair of Raider freshman ended the day for their team. Keenan Neuman (18:03) and Nathan Aschmann (18:07) got their first taste of the state championships. Aschmann ran down the final stretch smiling, which has become his signature quirk.
Holmdel Park will host the final race of the year as the best performers from this week will compete in the Meet of Champions. Hoffman and Buck were selected as wild cards because they were among the top 30 best performers who were not part of an automatic qualifier. They will finish their season Saturday.
By WILLIAM TRUITT/For the Sentinel