OCEAN CITY — A strong end to the season has brought the Ocean City High School girls swim team to the playoffs.
Ocean City defeated the Cedar Creek Pirates 118-52 on Jan 24. The win gave the Raiders their sixth straight victory to end the season. They won nine out of the 11 races against the Pirates while head coach Ian Keyser was testing new lineups.
“We tried some new events for some girls with the playoffs coming up,” Keyser said. “We are trying to feel some things out and where we can switch some people around for the playoffs.”
The previous two meets were the biggest challenges the Raiders faced all year. On Jan 17, Ocean City defeated Vineland High School 93-77. Junior Abby Hays won three events in the meet to give the Raiders an edge over the Fighting Clan.
The week after, on Jan. 22, they had an even closer meet when the Raiders beat Haddonfield Memorial High School 87-83. Even in races in which they did not finish first, they would claim second and third place to keep the score close.
Also, the meet in Haddonfield was measured in yards instead of meters, so each race was slightly shorter than normal. The shorter pool forced swimmers to swim harder as there was not as much room to make up time.
“We had two great wins the last two weeks against Vineland and Haddonfield,” Keyser said. “Feeling very confident off those wins. It has been a great end of the season here and we are trying to carry that momentum into the playoffs in a couple weeks.”
Ocean City finished with an 8-3 record and will end up as the number two seed in the South Jersey Group B playoffs. The Mainland Mustangs narrowly beat out Ocean City for the top seed with a 7-2 record and slightly more power points.
The Raiders’ first meet of the playoffs still has not been set but the first opponent would likely be third-seeded Shawnee High School.
Haddonfield tested the depth of the Raider squad. Ocean City had five first-place finishes in the meet. However, after giving up six to Haddonfield, the Raiders won thanks to claiming second and third place in four of those events.
Hays (1:08.16) won the 100-yard breaststroke by a full five seconds over Olivia Hogan (1:13.90) of Haddonfield. Fellow junior Ryan Cooke (25.50) won the 50-yard freestyle by a half-second over Julia McHale (26.05). An event that already required swimming as fast as possible was made faster thanks to the shorter pool.
Freshman Holly Aiken won the 100-yard fly with a time of 1:03.06, a full second faster than Hogan.
The younger Raiders have been performing well this year while they help the seniors make one last push for a championship.
Before the meet against Cedar Creek, Ocean City held a ceremony for the graduating seniors on the team. The seniors took center stage in the meet and put on one last performance in their regular season sendoff.
Julianna Duff (1:26.48) won the 100-meter breaststroke and was joined by Callie Bellwoar, Breanna Fabi and Morgan Lancaster to win the 200-yard MR. The all-senior team won by nearly two seconds in the first race of the day.
Bellwoar also captured the 500-meter freestyle with a time of 5:03.37. Kelsea Cooke (29.18) held on to win the 50-meter freestyle by only a half-second over Amber Klose (29.66) of Cedar Creek.
“This class of seniors is somewhat small with seven of them, but they have been huge contributors and have come a long way,” Keyser said. “Their freshman year was the shortened COVID year, and they were trying to get over things. To see how far they’ve come over these last four years has been awesome to see, and I am really proud of the whole group.”
The smaller senior class means Ocean City can hopefully keep up their success while the underclassmen improve. But for now Keyser says the whole team is “focused” on the playoffs.
By WILLIAM TRUITT/For the Sentinel
