OCEAN CITY — The Mainland Regional High School girls cross-country team is small again this year with only 10 girls, but are 5-1 in dual meets so far this season.
Their only loss came last week courtesy of Ocean City, which shut them out of the top seven places, but consider the competition — the Red Raiders are the defending Group III state champions and reloaded for this season.
“The girls are working hard,” head coach Brian Smith said. “We have 10 girls and a couple of injuries, but they’re working hard. We’re a competitive team.”
There are three seniors on the Mustang team with Cecilia Foreman leading the way. Foreman finished second in last season’s Atlantic County Championship.
Foreman, the coach said, “has been with me for four years now. She’s a four-year letter winner and she’s our captain — such a positive force and positive energy.”
Fellow senior Lauren LaMonica is in her second year running cross country.
“She’s a lacrosse girl who’s really been an outstanding addition for us the last two years,” Smith said.
The third senior, Emily Dill, also has been with the team for four years. “She does her thing and works hard. She’s not really in my top seven, but she’s a wonderful girl.”
Foreman, a captain for the second year in a row, “has really got the positive attitude and understands the work that needs to go in to be a successful runner, so she’s a tremendous role model for the younger girls,” Smith said.
He said LaMonica is an outstanding athlete.
“She signed (a letter of intent) for lacrosse and she’s just a competitor, so it’s good for the girls to see the fact that she fights, and she competes. You want these girls to set goals and have expectations for themselves and Lauren models that,” he said.
The Mustang squad also features three freshmen, including Smith’s daughter, Quinlan Smith. “She’s actually been our number one runner for a lot of the season,” the coach said.
Two other freshmen who “have really stepped up and made us competitive” are the number five and six girls — Kate Lavigna and Janice Yan.
“We’ve got seniors and we’ve got freshmen and in between Adrian Sykes, a junior, who is our number four runner,” Smith said.
“Right now we’re 5-1, so we’ve done pretty well. We were ranked seventh in South Jersey in our last ranking, so we feel really good about that. Ocean City took it to us last week,” he said.
“They shut us out. We obviously respect that and they’re a tremendous team. That’s who we measure ourselves against.”
He believes the team is in a good place for South Jersey Group III.
“We’re one of the top teams. We’re not quite that elite level, but the girls are working hard and we have some positive lights for the future as well.”
The coach noted the brutal conditions for the meet against Ocean City, where the winds were blowing and the sand was flying; part of the Red Raider course is on the beach.
“The gale-force winds. I was riding a bike out there, and at one point, I got stood up. I felt like I was pedaling and not getting anywhere, so really, really tough conditions on the beach there. But Ocean City, give them all the credit. They’re a great group of girls, and they work hard, and you can see that they work together as well,” Smith said.
Knowing the Mustangs face Ocean City in the Cape-Atlantic League meet and in Group III, the coach said one of the team’s goals is to compete with Egg Harbor Township for the Atlantic County Championship title. EHT is the defending county champ.
“We did beat them head to head this year, but three of their girls didn’t run that day and we know that they just won the Osprey invite. We would like to compete. We’ll measure ourselves in Atlantic County against Egg Harbor Township,” he said.
“And then, for South Jersey Group III, obviously Ocean City’s the class of our group, but we would like to finish in the top three … and advance to the state group championships.”
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
