Olivia Shafer became the first Egg Harbor girl under 19 minutes at Holmdel County Park with her 4th-place finish at the state Group 4 meet.
Shafer ran 18:55, 40 seconds faster than her 19:35 at last year’s Meet of Champions, which had stood as the previous-fastest time by an EHT runner at Holmdel.
Older sister Abby Shafer previously held the mark at 19:45 from the 2011 state Group 4 meet. The fastest EHT girl outside the Shafer family is Michaela Pomatto, who ran 20:37 last month at Shore Coaches.
Shafer’s time is second-fastest ever by an Atlantic County girl, behind only Mainland’s Alyssa Aldridge, who ran sub-19 eight times at Holmdel, including a 17:55 in 2016.
The only other Atlantic County girl to run under 19 at Holmdel County Park is Holy Spirit’s Monique Purcell, who ran 18:59 in 1978 – the first year the current course at Holmdel went into use.
With her 4th-place finish, Shafer advances to the Meet of Champions Saturday on the same course.
There were three South Jersey girls in the top 10, with Shafer, Cherokee senior Kate Rathman [7th, 19:05] and Shawnee freshman Kate Ruona [9th, 19:06].
All the results aren’t in yet, so we can’t put together a list of South Jersey’s fastest times at the various state meets
Kingsway placed third in Group 4 team scoring behind North Hunterdon and Ridgewood. We’ll have more on Kingsway later, but the Dragons presumably will advance to the Meet of Champions as a wild card with an average time of 19:57.
