Forster a triple winner in rain-soaked meet
OCEAN CITY — John Paul Forster was a triple winner for the champion Ocean City High School boys track team at the rain-soaked Cape May County Track and Field Championships on Thursday at OCHS.
The meet featured athletes from OCHS, Middle Township, Wildwood, Wildwood Catholic and Lower Cape May Regional.
Forster won three field events — the long jump with a leap of 20’0.75”, the triple jump with a distance of 40’2.5” and the high jump, clearing 5’4”.
And he threw in a second place in the 100-meter dash to boot with a time of 11.57 seconds. Teammate Connor Berich was third in the event at 11.67 seconds.
Two other teammates, Talon Fischer and Zion Hamilton, tied for second in the high jump, both clearing 5’. Hamilton was third in the triple jump at 36’6” and Raider Greg Guyon was third at 34’9”.
In the long jump, Guyon was fourth at 17’8.25” and Hamilton fifth at 17’7.75”.
Fischer won the 400-meter dash in 52.61 seconds, with Jude McGovern second in 53.69 and Ben McGonigle third in 54.48.
McGovern flipped it in the 200-meter race, wining in 23.55 seconds with Fischer close behind in 24.18.
Kal Heyman led a 1-2-3 sweep with Ethan Buck and Robert Cesari, respectively, in the 800 meters. Heyman won with a time of 2:04.34. Buck clocked in at 2:05.35 and Cesari at 2:06.38.
Three Raider freshmen ran the 1600 meters and swept the top three places. Keenan Newman won in 4:40.74 followed by Nathan Aschmann (4:46.72) and Michael Romano (4:49.62).
Matt Hoffman, a senior and standout in the distance events, opted to run the 3200 meters and won in 9:31.12, with teammate Erik Preisner second in 9:54.94.
Raider Ryan Davis dominated the hurdles, winning both events.
His time in the 110 hurdles was 16.14 seconds, with teammates Berich second in 16.31 and Brandon Argos third in 17.23.
In the 400 hurdles, Davis’ winning time was 1:01.61. Teammates Lukas Tuthill and Argos were second and third with times of 1:03.61 and 1:04.29, respectively.
In other field events, three different Raiders took first place.
Anthony Gasparic won the discus with a throw of 141’8” followed in second by Luke Smith at 128’3” and fourth by Clifford Dirkes at 110’8”.
Anthony DeRose led the Raider sweep in the javelin. His winning throw was 132’3”. Gavin Taylor threw 118’6” for second and Brendan Bergman 117’10” for third.
Grady Hanson won the shot put with a distance of 44’3”, with Dirkes second at 41’2.5” and Mike Palmer fifth at 34’3.25”.
The OCHS boys also won the 4×400 relay with a time of 3:45.65. Running for the Raiders were McGonigle, Cesari, Lyon and Tuthill.
The Raiders finished with 230 points to win the meet. Middle Township was second with 41.5, Lower Cape May Regional third with 26.5, Wildwood fourth with 9 and Wildwood Catholic fifth with 1.
The boys are traveling today to Bridgeton High School for the Cape-Atlantic League Track and Field Championships.
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
