The Mainland Regional boys won their 21st Atlantic County XC title in the last 29 years Thursday, riding a 1-2 finish by senior Kevin Antczak and sophomore Linden Wineland to a 56-68 win over Cedar Creek.
Antczak, fresh off his 15:32 at Holmdel County Park, cruised the 5,000-meter course at Stockton University in Galloway Township in 15:34, winning his second straight title.
Wineland, who was 23rd as a freshman in 17:23, shaved more than a minute off his course PR, taking second in 16:15.
The 16:15 was actually a 5,000-meter PR for all XC courses for Wineland, who had run 16:27 on the same Stockton course last month.
Senior Blake Corbett, freshman Elliott Post and junior Matt Wynne also scored for Mainland, Corbett taking 7th in 16:48, Post 21st in 17:39 — he was the top freshman in the race — and Wynne 30th in 18:02. Sixth man Vaughn Blanchet finished only four seconds behind Wynne and 7th runner James Wurzer, a junior, was 36th in 18:26.
Cedar Creek, with just one senior in the pack, didn’t have a finisher in the top seven but squeezed all five scorers between 8th and 24th and had a 55-second gap between first and fifth. Their first finisher was junior Joey Mayer, 8th in 16:54.
Also in the top 10 were Oakcrest senior Mike Liberty (3rd, 16:18), Egg Harbor junior Nicola Valdivieso (4th, 16:34), Pleasantville sophomore Irvin Marable (5th, 16:43), Buena senior Jeremy Haas (6th, 16:43), EHT junior Aidan Winkler (9th, 17:07) and Oakcrest senior Kyle Hartman (10th, 17:12).
St. Augustine was third with 93 points, with all five scorers crossing the line between 17:17 and 18:00 – a 43-second pack.
The team title is Mainland’s fourth in a row. The Mustangs won seven in a row from 1991 through 1997, then nine in a row from 2000 through 2008. They also won in 2012 before embarking on their current stretch of four in a row.
