CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE — The Ocean City High School boys cross country team dominated the Cape May County meet Thursday afternoon, placing all seven runners in the top 10.
The Red Raiders added the county title to their 9-0 regular season record as they prepared to head into Tuesday’s Cape-Atlantic League Cross Country Championship at Stockton University after the Sentinel sports section went to press.
Senior Nick Scarangelli won the race in 15:49.55, breaking the course record at the Cape May County Park and Zoo set in 2013 by former Red Raider Louis Paone (15:52).
“I came out here hoping to get a new PR (personal record) and get a course record, which I believe was 15:52. I think I hit 15:50, so I’m happy about that. And it’s a new PR,” Scarangelli said.
Boys coach Matt Purdue confirmed Scarangelli broke the record.
“I just wanted to go out fast and stay in the front and hope to have a good kick at the end. It was definitely a good race,” Scarangelli said. “It was kind of spread out. I like races with a lot of competition because it pushes you. Everyone did good.”
He added the team was looking good heading into the CAL meet and sectionals, which are Saturday at Gloucester County Dream Park in Logan Township.
“We’re hoping to do good things at CALs and at sectionals, the same thing. There are a lot of good teams. We hope our pack is tight and that we go in strong,” Scaranelli said. “I definitely think we have a strong five, even seven, and we have good things coming our way.”
At the county race, Ocean City junior Matt Hoffman finished second in 16:23.36 and teammate Chris Sardy, a senior, out-sprinted Lower Cape May Regional senior Jack Cura in the final straightaway to finish third in a time of 16:45.08. Cura’s time was 16:48.17.
Wildwood’s Jorge Cruz Valle, a junior, was fifth in 16:56.7.
And then it was a sea of red jerseys as Ocean City took sixth through ninth places.
Sophomores Ethan Buck (16:58.31) and Kai Heyman (17:22.7) were sixth and seventh; senior Colin Abbott (17:27.23) was eighth and sophomore Sam Ritti (17:28.22) was ninth.
Wildwood junior Luke Basile rounded out the top 10 with a time of 18:38.25.
As a team, Ocean City scored 19 points, Wildwood was second with 66 points, LCMR third with 79, Middle Township fourth with 86 and Cape May County Tech fifth with 121.
Purdue said his team finished up the regular season last week facing three teams in a single meet — Hammonton, Bridgeton and Millville.
“We had a nice day. Those were our last three CAL meets of the season. We had three wins and our record ended up 9-0 for the season, so that was exciting,” he said.
Asked about the importance of the county meet, Purdue called it “a good confidence booster. Last year I think we ended up 8-1 after a tight meet with Mainland, so there was a lot of hunger to win the division this year and I’m hoping that transitions into … next Saturday.”
“We like racing on this course. It’s our only opportunity to run on this course. It’s a flat, fast course. It’s well marked. It’s a scenic course,” he said. “That is a lot of meaning in the tradition. This version of the course has been since 2013. We keep team PR lists on courses so the guys are motivated to try to break into the top 20 times on the course.
“We certainly never take this for granted coming in. We lost a tight meet to Middle a few years back. We raced really hard but Middle was a better team that year so we always come in prepared to compete and focused on trying to run as fast as we can,” he added.
Purdue noted with all fall sports moving a week ahead, it put three championship meets within 10 days of one another. Normally there would have been a week between the county and CAL meets and another week between the CAL meet and South Jersey sectionals.
“It has caused a bit of a tight squeeze this week,” Purdue said.
CAL meet
Ocean City was expecting strong competition at the CAL meet from Egg Harbor Township and Mainland Regional high schools, among others. EHT edged Mainland for the boys team title at the Atlantic County meet Thursday, 54-61.
EHT’s Ryan Taylor took first place in the meet with a time of 16:24. Mustang senior Elliott Post led his team with a fourth-place finish in 16:59.02. His teammates’ finishes included Ethan Bongiovanni, seventh, 17:41.44; Trey Goldstein, 12th, 18:16.31; Justin Yon, 14th, 18:16.7; and Micah Miller, 24th, 18:53.91.
Sectionals
“We fell short in a close meet to Triton last year,” Purdue said of the sectionals. “We’re looking at Highland as a really tough team. We’re always a perennial power and we know that normal South Jersey suspects will be there. We were second last year and ran really well. We’re hoping to run well and be in the mix for winning. That’s our ambition.”
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff