PHOTOS: Cape May County Cross Country Championships

Posted: October 18th 2024

Boys runners begin the Cape May County Cross Country Championships race on the beach in Avalon.

By BRIAN CUNNIFF

CapeAtlanticLive.com

AVALON – The course may have been different but the results remained similar.

Ocean City High School’s teams dominated the field in both the girls and boys races to win the Cape May County Cross Country Championships Thursday afternoon.

With construction occurring at Cape May County Park, the usual site of the event, the race was instead held on a beach/boardwalk course in Avalon.

Ocean City placed seven runners among the top nine in the girls race and seven runners among the top eight in the boys race to easily win the team titles.

Maeve Smith won the girls race for the second straight year, posting a time of 19 minutes, 43.34 seconds. Wildwood’s Macie McCracken placed second in 19:50.68, followed by in order, Ocean City’s Chloe Care (20:11.62), Carly Godfrey (21:06.91), Riley Tolson (21:07.39), Peighton Clemens (21:15.01) and Zoe Zammit (21:40.69). Lower Cape May’s Jenna Hill was eighth in 21:1.62, Ocean City’s Gabby Henry placed ninth in 21:59.83 and Middle Township’s Olivia Orton finished 10th in 22:06.45.

Ocean City totaled just 15 points to top the team scoring in the girls race, followed by Middle Township (72), Wildwood Catholic (85), Lower Cape May (95) and Cape May Tech (113). Wildwood did not field enough runners to score as a team.

Ocean City swept the boys race by earning the top five places. Erik Preisner posted a time of 17:20.66 to narrowly edge teammate Keenan Neuman (17:20.98) to win the individual boys title. The Raiders’ Ethan Buck (17:27.85), Nathan Aschmann (17:37.85) and Michael Romano (17:38.84) were third through fifth, respectively.

Middle Township’s Jamar Mack broke up Ocean City’s pack with a sixth-place finish in 17:47.75. Ocean City’s Zach Hutchinson (18:20.81) and Nevin Millstein (18:21.19) were seventh and eighth, respectively. Wildwood Catholic’s L.J. Belasco (19:42.61) and Cape May Tech’s Evan Feliciano (19:50.75) placed ninth and 10th, respectively.

In team scoring, Ocean City (15) finished ahead of Middle Township (52), Cape May Tech (82) and Lower Cape May (101).