By DAVID NAHAN and CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
OCEAN CITY – The Ocean City High School boys cross country team is missing the invitational meets and the Cape May County meet this season, but coach Matt Purdue said he was glad to have last Friday’s dual meet with Mainland Regional because the top Mustang pushed his runners.
The Red Raider boys are 4-0 so far this season, keeping their record intact with the win over Mainland Friday on their home course, which takes them from the boardwalk to the streets of Ocean City to the beach and back again.
None of the Red Raiders was able to keep up with Mustang Linden Wineland down the stretch. He won the meet with a fast time of 16:21.
The Red Raiders took the next nine places to handily win the meet, 20-43.
Senior Tyler Greene led the Red Raiders, and was just ahead of Wineland when the two were battling for position coming off the beach at North Street, but Wineland was able to get ahead and then extend his lead to win by 15 seconds.
Greene was second in 16:36 followed by teammates Owen Ritti (16:47), Nick Ferzetti (16:51), Brendan Schlatter (17:09) and Chris Sardy (17:36).
Those five were counted for Ocean City’s low point total, but were followed by teammates Nick Scarangelli, Matt Hoffman, Aidan Daley and Josh Hutchinson for seventh through 10th places.
Mustang Vaughn Blanchet and Matt Wynne were second and third for Mainland, finishing in 11th and 12th places.
“We’ve been fortunate that we’ve been home all year because of the nature of the schedule so in that regard we’ve been lucky having our home course, but it’s something we enjoy racing on. We’ve had really good races,” Purdue said.
“(Linden) Wineland just ran an incredible time on our course, a 16:21. That really pushes our guys to really improve,” he added.
“It’s good because this season we’re missing out on the invitationals and the county and conference meets so to have a good dual meet like today, so fast, is very exciting for the team.”
Purdue said he had a few varsity runners back from last year – Greene, Ritti, Schlatter and Ferzetti – and all have been making great progress.
“Then we have a couple of young guys today in the top seven, Chris Sardy, Nick Scarangelli and Matt Hoffman working their way up. Nick and Chris are sophomores and Matt is a freshman,” Purdue said.
Talking about other up-and-comers on the team, he added, “We’ve seen great improvement from the guys who ran JV last year and have really worked hard to make it to the varsity lineup this year, Aidan Daly, Josh Hutchinson, Gabe McCormick, Nigel Collins. And we had another freshman run varsity today, Dylan Schlatter, who is the younger brother of Brendan Schlatter.”
Purdue said it was a “nice balance of runners, some experienced guys like Tyler who has been important every season for the last four years.” He said Brendan Schlatter and Greene are the team captains, both four-year runners.
“They have a lot of competitive racing experience,” the coach said.
Overall he is pleased with his team this season, but because of the pandemic-shortened season, the only thing he can compare it to with the 2019 season are the times they have posted on their home course from last year to this year.
“So far we’re making steady progress and we’re pleased with the progress of the runners,” he said.
Ocean City was at Cape May County Technical School on Monday and next Monday, Nov. 9, will finish the regular season at Lower Cape May Regional.
After that, it will be the South Jersey sectional championship, scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 14. And that will be that.
“The official New Jersey season is over for all conferences. There’s no state meet or Meet of Champs this year. Everyone is gearing for that one South Jersey race,” he said. “We’re excited. Like every coach, our top focus is keeping everyone healthy.”
Mainland boys
The Mainland Regional High School boys cross country team is competitive once again after having lost top runner Kevin Antczak to graduation last year.
Coach Dan Heyman, who has a career record of 218-29, has led his team to a 3-1 start in 2020. The Mustangs dropped their first meet of the season to Ocean City on Friday, Oct. 30.
Heyman said Linden Wineland, a junior, is the Mustangs’ top returnee. Wineland was second in Atlantic County last season to Antczak and fifth in the Cape-Atlantic League Championships last year.
Other top returners include sophomore Elliot Post, senior Matt Wynne and junior Vaughn Blanchet. Heyman said promising newcomers include freshmen Ethan Mitnick, Jesse Rios and Micah Miller.
According to Heyman, top accomplishments so far this season include “just keeping up their training through all of these COVID restrictions and getting our season going.”
Wineland is undefeated in races so far this season, he said.
Team goals include trying to win the CAL Eastern Division, which was created for this season only and is regionally based for coronavirus tracing and includes Mainland, Egg Harbor Township, Atlantic City, Holy Spirit and Pleasantville.
“We have lost a few of our better runners to injury, but the younger runners are trying their best to keep us competitive,” Heyman said. “We would like to finish in the top half of the South Jersey Group III sectional meet in November as well. We would like Linden to be among the top runners in South Jersey.”
