HOLMDEL – A week after the Ocean City High School boys and girls cross-country teams finished second and third, respectively, at the state Group III championships, they were back on the hilly Holmdel course for the Meet of Champions.
Facing the top runners from New Jersey’s high schools, the Red Raider girls finished seventh overall and the Ocean City boys were ninth.
Senior Chloe Care was the fastest for the Ocean City girls, finishing 20th overall out of the 155 competitors with a time of 19 minutes and 20 seconds. Care improved her time by 17 seconds compared to her ninth-place finish a week earlier on the course in the Group III state final.
Union Catholic Regional sophomore Paige Sheppard won the Meet of Champions race in 18:02.
Mainland senior Sofia Day was 33rd in 19:40.
For Ocean City, sophomore Carly Godfrey was 48th in 19:57, freshman Riley Tolson 65th in 20:09, senior Zoe Zammit 121st in 21:09, sophomore Lillian Flora 134th in 21:37 and sophomore Peighton Clemens 141st in 21:54. Their team total was 206. Union Catholic also won the team title with 80 points in the 14-team field.
Junior Erik Preisner led the Ocean City boys team, which finished with 208 points. Christian Brothers Academy took the team title in the 14-team field with 16 points, placing all five of its scoring runners in the top seven places, with senior Joe Barrett leading in 15:24.
Preisner finished 38th in 16:39.
Fellow Raiders were senior Ethan Buck, 59th, 16:50; sophomore Keenan Neuman, 68th, 16:56; sophomore Nathan Aschmann, 85th, 17:05; senior Zach Hutchinson, 111th, 17:21; sophomore Michael Romano, 136th, 18:06; and freshman Nevin Millstein, 141st, 18:20.
The Ocean City girls and boys cross country teams finished the season with South Jersey Group III championships and the titles at the Cape May County meet and Cape-Atlantic cross country championships.
– By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
