WILDWOOD — With a complete lineup in time for the championship part of the season, the Ocean City High School girls cross country team easily dominated the annual Cape May County Championships on Oct. 15 on the Wildwood Boardwalk.
Sophomore Riley Tolson was the individual winner and her six Red Raider teammates all finished within the top eight spots.
Tolson’s winning time was 18 minutes and 49.84 seconds.
“I felt pretty good about my race; it was solid,” she said. “We went out fast and I just stayed with the front pack and then I just sped up toward the end.”
She enjoyed the course on the boardwalk that started close to the Wildwoods Convention Center, headed north, turned around and went south, then back north to finish at the starting point.
“It was really good because it was a flat course, so we were going pretty fast,” she said. “It felt nice to not have like any hills or anything.”
She is looking forward to the rest of the season which will include hills, especially at the course in Holmdel.
“Our team’s doing really good, especially now that we have some of our top runners back,” Tolson said. “We’re going to have a really good rest of the season and we’re really excited for championship season coming up.”
Teammate Carly Godfrey, a junior, was second in 19:05.92; junior Lillian Flora third, 19:16.85; freshman Isabella Edwards fifth, 19:46.91; freshman Bella Cera sixth, 19:53.61; senior Gabrielle Henry seventh, 19:54.18; and junior Peighton Clemens eighth, 20:42.92.
Middle Township senior Olivia Orton was fourth in 19:28.78, the only break in the OCHS pack.
As a team, the Red Raiders won with 17 points. Middle Township was second with 61, Wildwood Catholic third with 80, Lower Cape May Regional fourth with 102 and Cape May County Tech fifth with 115.
The OCHS girls ran their race after finishing second at the Manhattan XC Invitational over the weekend.
Head coach Tim Cook said his girls have been doing well with a diminished lineup because of injuries, but should be complete heading into the season that follows with the Cape-Atlantic League Championship, South Jersey sectional, states and Meet of Champions.
The ultimate goal, Cook said, is to get the team back to the Meet of Champions.
“I thought they ran really well,” the coach said. “They were excited to have kind of an up-and-back course and pack together and see what time they could put down. They were excited to run a fast time and run together.”
He was pleased with the result and that important scorers were back in the lineup.
“We were missing two or three girls, so it was nice to have some of them back. They can get some racing in their legs and get ready for the championship season,” he said.
The girls finished second at the Manhattan XC Invitational over the weekend and at the Shore Coaches Invitational before that, not far behind Middletown South High School.
“Manhattan’s such a great race. More and more of the CAL teams and South Jersey teams are showing up there, which is awesome,” Cook said. “I think somebody said there’s 10 different states that were (represented).”
“I think we’re going to be in a good spot (going forward). We’re hoping to repeat our success from last year and a big goal is trying as a team to get to the Meet of Champs, however we can get there,” he said.
“I think … we have a chance. Hopefully they’ll run well and run together and we can achieve it all,” he said.
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
