Mainland Mustang girls XC working with very low numbers, but strong No. 1 runner
OCEAN CITY — The Ocean City High School girls cross country team crowned three champions at the Cherokee Challenge in Marlton and is 2-0 so far in dual meets early in the season.
Senior standout Maeve Smith not only won the senior race at the challenge, which features a 2-mile course instead of the regular cross country 5K, but also posted the fastest time of the day on Saturday, Sept. 7. She finished the course in 11 minutes, 28.51 seconds, 13 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher, Alli DeLisi from Penn Charter.
Smith’s teammate, Chloe Care, was fourth in the race with a time of 11:46.29.
Smith said running a 2-mile course is a lot different than the cross country races because she can go out faster.
“That’s one of my favorite races of the season,” she said Tuesday, Sept. 10, after she and her teammates beat a small Mainland Regional team 14-40. “I like that it’s low stress, there’s not a lot of pressure and it’s a fun meet to switch up the distance.”
The Cherokee Challenge has races for the boys and girls in each of the grades.
Fellow Red Raider Riley Tolson won the freshman race in 12:07.36, more than 7 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Siena Rivera of Hightstown.
“I felt really good. I was excited,” Tolson said. She is new to the high school team as a freshman, and took up distance running only in eighth grade.
“I ran in eighth grade but that’s it,” she said. “I was a gymnast.” Tolson credits that gymnastic conditioning with helping her fitness for racing.
Tolson said she “really loves” running with Ocean City. “It’s super fun running with my team.”
Carly Godfrey won the sophomore race with her time of 11:57.98.
“It was shorter. I’m more of a shorter distance. I don’t like the long stuff as much,” she said. Godfrey ran the 800 as a freshman on the OCHS spring track team.
Raider girls head coach Tim Cook said the Cherokee Challenge was exciting and fun to watch.
“It was kind of cool that the freshman race was first so with Riley being new to the team and cross country and seeing her coming over the hill, everybody started freaking out,” he said, “which is exciting. And it’s exciting for her. I don’t think she even knew what she did and to have the sophomore race follow that up — here comes her best friend Carly,” he said.
“Overall everyone ran great. We had three in the top 10 and five in the top 30 out of 800 runners. They did really well and everybody gave their best effort,” Cook added. “A lot of girls dropped a lot of time. One of our seniors, Avery Bertett, dropped 3 minutes from last year.
“I love going to that meet just for the energy. It’s a good confidence-booster for everyone and for the new girls it’s a nice opener to get used to these big meets. You can be intimidated being in a race with 200 girls. They’re able to see, ‘Oh, I can do it, I can finish.’”
O.C. 15, Mainland 40
Maeve Smith won the home meet against Mainland Sept. 10 with a time of 19:54 followed by Care in second, Godfrey in third, Tolson in fourth and Zoe Zammit in fifth for the 15 points. Raiders Lillian Flora, Peyton Clemens and Sadie Heyman rounded out the top team.
Mainland’s Ceci Foreman was sixth, Ava McDole 10th, Ella Mokienko 12th and Macie Gannon 18th.
The week before, host Ocean City beat Egg Harbor Township 15-40 with the same top five runners in the same positions.
Mainland girls low on numbers
Mainland head coach Brian Smith said his team this year is short on runners.
“We’re low on numbers this year so it’s going to be tight. It will be a little bit of a rebuilding year. We’ve been trying to recruit girls but it’s been a tough go,” he said, noting Mainland offers a lot of sports so it dilutes the pool of athletes from which to choose.
“This is the lowest I’ve had in my 12-13 years of coaching,” Smith said.
“We’ve had some girls at the front who’ve had some success, Sofia Day especially,” he noted.
Day was the Group III state champion in the 800 meters last spring. She wasn’t running in the meet against Ocean City because she has been on college visits.
“She’ll be around for the halfway point of the season,” Smith said.
For the Mustangs, sophomore Ceci Foreman is the No. 2 runner. She finished sixth in the dual meet against Ocean City.
“She is making steady progress,” Smith said. “Ava McDole is a senior who’s been steady for four years. We have a freshman girl, Ella Mokienko, who surprised in the first race. She’s kind of banged up. She’s adjusting. She’s never run before. We’re hoping to get her healthy. She could be a surprise if we can keep her healthy.”
The coach said the team is “kind of searching for someone” to take the No. 5 spot. Macie Gannon is a junior he hopes may be that person.
“We’re kind of low on numbers so it’s going to be a struggle this year,” he said. “I think we’ll compete against most teams, but when you come up against an Ocean City, a top 20 team in the state, it’s tough. They’re really deep and really good.”
He said his girls are working and he hopes they’ll keep making progress “and staying healthy is going to be key for us because of the limited numbers we have.”
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
