OCEAN VIEW – The Ocean City High School boys and girls golf teams are Cape May County champions, led by Sam Ritti and Lillian Flora, who took the individual titles April 1.
Ocean City won the boys team title with 330 points. Lower Cape May Regional was second with 352, Wildwood Catholic third with 383, Cape May Tech fourth with 393 and Middle Township fifth with 479.
Ritti won the boys crown in a playoff with teammate Archie Schreiber after both finished with scores of 78. The playoff went to two holes before Ritti was the winner. Red Raider teammate Alex Bayham was third with an 85, tying LCMR’s Cole Bada. Caper Tiger Eric Coombs and Wildwood Catholic’s Jack Belisario each carded 87s and Logan Ochs finished seventh with an 89, tied with LCMR’s Chase Hansen. Ocean City’s Christopher Payne was 15th with a 102.
The Ocean City boys are 3-4 on the season with wins over Woodstown (167-186) and Hammonton (178-182). They split two close matches with Southern, beating them 175-176 on March 25 then losing to them 165-172 March 31. They lost to Kingsway 162-174 in the season opener and fell to St. Augustine 166-178.
Girls champions
Flora was far ahead of the field and her teammates with a 90 to win the girls individual title.
Teammate Masey Heenan was second with a 109 and fellow Red Raiders Ava Williams and Isabella Sparacio tied for third with 117 scores. Middle Township took the next three spots – Ava Ruka was fifth with 124, Gabrielle Braun sixth with a 126 and Kiersten Neuman seventh with 127. Ocean City’s Mia Kaczmarski was eighth with a 133.
It was the second straight individual title for Flora, but it was the first for the Ocean City team – or any team. There wasn’t a team title for girls golfers in previous Cape May County Golf Championships.
The girls team is 1-2 on the season.
The boys and girls played 18 holes at Shore Gate in Ocean View.
Mustangs third at
Garden State Cup
The Mainland Regional High School golfers, who are 9-1 so far this season, finished third at the Garden State Cup April 2 at Blue Heron Pines in Galloway Township.
St. Joseph won the team title with a score of 302. Its top golfer, Rory Asselta, won the individual title with a 73, one shot ahead of Paul Reilly of Southern and Ethan Gallagher of Ridge.
Ridge was second as a team with 308 points and Mainland third with 313.
Mainland’s Daniel Herschel tied for fourth with a 75 and teammate Patrick Hiltner tied for 11th, shooting a 78. Mustangs Patrick Foley and Luke Tappeiner were in a group that tied for 22nd with scores of 80. Teammate Keller Tannehill tied for 29th at 81.
– STORY by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
Photos courtesy of Ed Ritti