GALLOWAY – With a friendly rival hot on his heels, Mainland Mustang Linden Wineland won the 2021 Cape-Atlantic League Cross Country Championship Thursday at Stockton University.
Wineland, the Atlantic County champion, finished about 5 seconds ahead of Ocean City’s Owen Ritti, the Cape May County champion who helped lead the Red Raiders to the CAL team title.
Wineland finished in a time of 15:39.71 and Ritti was second in 15:44.76.
“I felt I could have gone faster,” Wineland said, even though he set a personal record by 10 seconds. “I was basically sprinting at the end because I was trying to beat the guys out. I could have pushed it more, but I was staying conservative because I was trying to get the title today. I did what I had to.”
Wineland said he has been running conservatively and is starting to open up more.
“I knew championship season I could really pick it up if I stuck with my training. I was all on my own last week, but I had good guys pushing me today. I had Owen (Ritti) from Ocean City and Zeb (Hinker) from Lower Cape May. They are very good to run with. I always like running with them. I remember running with Owen since middle school.”
Wineland said he and Ritti were thanking each other after the race “because we knew we pushed each other. We’re just so grateful to each other.”
He is looking forward to sectionals this week and believes he can perform well there.
“I think I can do really good. It’s boosts my motivation a bit to do well,” he said. “I want to run in college; my times have to drop a little bit more to maybe get into the places I want to go, but I’m just excited to run against the guys I haven’t seen in a while because I know they’ve been improving too. I want to thank my coach and everybody who supported me. I wouldn’t be here with them.”
For his part, Ritti said competing with Wineland is “a lot of fun.”
“Usually I don’t necessarily running with people faster than me, but with him it’s different because I feel like we know each other and can push each other to do our best, which will give us good times and help us later on. So overall I enjoy running with him a lot,” Ritti said.
He was glad to help the Red Raiders to the team title. The only loss this season has been to Mainland – by a single point. That was a loss no one expected.
“It’s been nice seeing how we’ve bounced back as a team although most of us are really young. I’m not,” he laughed, adding he has been impressed by how much the freshmen and sophomores have progressed.
Like Wineland, he is excited about sectionals and states. “I know there will be Linden and other people in the group. That will be a good place to maybe PR or just run a good race. Maybe our team can get the title through that,” he said.
Ocean City won the team title with 43 points and the Mustangs were second with 57 in the 17-team field.
Mainland coach Dan Heyman said he was “really proud” of Wineland, but acknowledged his Mustangs are a bit beat up as a team.
“It’s tough sometimes when you’re the frontrunner,” Heyman said of Wineland. “The pressure on you is always so great. All of the guys in the race feel that, but to respond to it with the great competition he had today, I’m proud of him. He needed to run good in a tough spot and he did that today.
“We’re still going forward,” he added. “We want to see him do some damage at Holmdel in November (at states). It was a good step for him to get in a good race like that. I’m really proud of him.”
Heyman said his team is “a little banged up. We knew it was going to be a tough road. We wanted to make it close with Ocean City. We felt we would give them a race, but thought it would be closer. We get another shot at it next week and hopefully some of our guys get healthy – a couple of guys pop, make something out of it. We’re not going away quietly, but they’re definitely stronger than us right now. Hat’s off to them. They did a great job.”
The Red Raiders put all five scorers in the top 15 (and its other two runners in the top 20) to win the championship. They were interspersed with runners from other schools and the top four Mustangs, who also finished in the top 15.
Lower Cape May Regional’s Zeb Hinker, a senior like Wineland and Ritti, was third overall in 15:54.52. Ocean City junior Nick Scarangelli was fourth in 15:57.05 and Mustang junior Elliot Post was fifth in 16:10.64. EHT’s Ryan Taylor (16:13.36) was sixth, Cedar Creek’s Dalton Culleny (16:14.83) was seventh, LCMR’s Jack Cura (16:18.30) was eighth and Buena Regional’s Kayden Platania (16:29.36) was ninth.
Red Raider junior Chris Sardy was 10th in 16:32.72 followed by Mustang Vaughn Blanchet, a senior, in 16:41.92. Ocean City’s Nigel Collins, a senior, was 12th in 16:50.06, Mainland sophomore Ethan Mitnick (16:56.34) was 14th, Ocean City’s Matt Hoffman (17:00.12) was 15th, LCMR’s Elijah Jackson was 16th in 17:07.46. Ocean City’s Colin Abbott (17:13.65) was 18th and teammate Reece Wagner (17:18.77), a senior, was 19th.
Mainland’s Ethan Bongiovanni, a sophomore, rounded out Mainland’s scoring, finishing 26th in 17:48.75. Teammates Micah Miller and John Gaffney, both sophomores, were 43rd and 65th.
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
