EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP – The Ocean City boys cross country team kept up its undefeated ways this season by taking eight of the top 10 spots in the Sept. 19 meet against Egg Harbor Township and Atlantic City.
The top 10 finishes included winning first through sixth places, beating EHT 15-50 and Atlantic City 15-49.
The Red Raiders’ top three ran as a pack through the course and ended up finishing two seconds apart. Matt Hoffman won with a time of 16 minutes, 26 seconds, Ethan Buck was second at 16:27 and Zach Hutchinson third at 16:28.
Keenan Neuman (16:43), Robert Cesari (16:53) and Caleb Aristizabul (16:58) were fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively. Viking Muhammad Khan took the seventh spot with his time of 17:09, Raider Nathan Aschmann was eighth in 17:22, Eagle Christoph Manzo was ninth at 17:25 and Ocean City’s Kal Heyman rounded out the top 10 at 17:28.
Ocean City is now 7-0 on the season.
“This is our third race and we knew EHT and Atlantic City were good teams so we had to come prepared to run hard today,” Ocean City coach Matt Purdue said. “We like this course because its a fast, flat course and we had run well here last year so we were excited about coming over. It was a good showing.”
Purdue said the top three in the meet at EHT run as a pack.
“Their order has changed over the past three meets, but our first three finishers (have been) Matt Hoffman, Ethan Buck and Zach Hutchinson.” He noted two of the runners in the top seven for Ocean City are freshmen – Neuman, Aschmann. “That doesn’t happen too often,” he said.
Another freshman, Mike Romano, was 13th overall 16 seconds after Heyman.
He said it was “pretty good” that the Raiders had 10 of the top 15 runners against two teams.
“We have a lot of respect for EHT and Atlantic City. They’re always well-coached. It was a very fast race,” Purdue said. “For a dual meet, you’re looking at the times today – and we measured the course and know it’s a legit 5K – and to have guys 16:26, 16:27, 16:28 and the top six all under 17 minutes, that was good.
“The goal is to always try to pack our runners, obviously try to get away with the wins today, which we knew we’d have to battle for.”
“Matt, Ethan and Zach are all experienced runners from last year,” Purdue said. “I think the difference between last year’s team and this year’s team is more big racing experience.
“A couple of those guys had run the state meet in cross country last year and ran indoor nationals and outdoors ran in the state meet,” he said. “I think they’ve had a lot more big-time racing experience than maybe we were facing in cross country last year.” That, he added, provides “a little wisdom in racing strategy and experience and confidence.”
The boys were scheduled to race at Atlantic County Institute of Technology Tuesday, then head to Absegami for meets against the Braves and Mainland Regional Mustangs on Tuesday, Oct. 3.
“The season goes by quickly,” the coach said.
As the dual meet season comes to an end, the Raiders have other races before they head into championship season, with the Cape May County Championship Oct. 12 at Cape May County Park, the Cape-Atlantic League Championship Oct. 19 at Stockton University and then the South Jersey Group III sectional meet Saturday, Oct. 28, at Dream Park in Logan Township.
“We have three invitationals we’re racing at over the next several weeks. We’re going to race at the Six Flags Invitational, the Shore Coaches meet and then back at the Manhattan Invitational, where we won our race last year and are hoping to be competitive this year,” Purdue said. (The Six Flags race scheduled for Saturday was canceled because of the weather.)
“We had a tough loss to Highland last year in the sectional meet so we want to be ready to compete with them and we know Shawnee is going to be good in South Jersey Group III.
“Our goal is to finish with the top teams there and hopefully have a good race,” Purdue said.
Other runners for the Raiders at the meet last week were Gavin Mattina and Matt Bell in the top 20, Mathew Lenko, Tommy Meiser, Logan Goodwin, Brian Garrabrant, Jeffrey Taccarino, Brandon Rivers, Josh Tornblom, Carter Yoa and John DiBabbo.
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
