Ocean City’s Cape-Atlantic Conference title was particularly impressive because of the depth the Red Raiders showed.

Ocean City not only placed its five scorers in the top 15, its sixth and seventh runners both ran in the top 20 in a field of 117 runners Thursday at Stockton University’s 5,000-meter course in Galloway Township.

Those two runners may not have “scored” in terms of Ocean City’s five-runner total, but when you have two runners that are this far up in the field, they are bumping down the scores of every other team. That’s why XC is the ultimate team sport.

First of all, Mainland senior Linden Wineland, coming off the Atlantic County title, was the overall winner, crossing the line in 15:39 on the fast, flat Stockton layout. That’s an all-course PR for Wineland.

Ocean City had two runners under 16 minutes – senior Owen Ritti was second in 15:44 and junior Nick Scarangelli ran 15:57 for fourth. It was the first time under 16 minutes on any course for Ritti and Scarangelli.

The Raiders’ other scorers were junior Chris Sardy [10^th in 16:32], senior Nigel Collins [12^th in 16:50] and sophomore Matt Hoffman [15^th in 17;00].

Junior Colin Abbott and senior Reece Wagner ran 17:13 and 17:18 to place 18^th and 19^th and give Ocean City seven runners in the top 19.

The bigger the meet, the more this sort of depth will help. Ocean City outscored Mainland 43-57 to win its third straight Cape-Atlantic team title and 7^th in the last 10 years. There was no meet last year. Ocean City’s top five averaged 16:24.

Also in the top 10 were Lower Cape May senior Zeb Hinker [3^rd in 15:54], Mainland junior Elliot Post [5^th16:10], Egg Harbor junior Ryan Taylor [6^th in 16:13], Cedar Creek senior Dalton Culleny [7^th 16:14], Lower Cape May junior Jack Cura [8^th 16:18] and Buena senior Kayden Platania [9^th 16:29].

That’s runners from six different high schools in the top 10!

Full results are here.

 

 

 

 

 

2019

2018

2^nd in 2017

2016

2015

2^nd in 2014

2013

2^nd in 2012

2011

2010

Sofia Day on Thursday ran the fastest time by a South Jersey girl on any 5,000-meter course this year with her winning 17:38 at Stockton University in Galloway Township and led Mainland to the the Cape-Atlantic Conference XC championship.

Day, a Mainland freshman, ran the 2nd-fastest time in course history and fastest ever by a South Jersey runner. Cate DeSousa of Red Bank Catholic, a state champion at 800 and 1,600 meters, set the course record of 17:29 last month at the Osprey Invitational. The previous course best by a South Jersey girl at Stockton was Day’s 18:15 in the same race.

Day’s time is fastest by a South Jersey freshman on any course since Briana Gess of Haddonfield ran 16:57 at Pennypacker Park in Haddonfield at the 2013 Colonial Conference All-Star Meet.

Day is the first freshman to win the Cape Atlantic Conference title since Ocean City’s Brittany Sedberry ran 19:04 at Stockton in 2002 to edge Grace Nuzzi of St. Joe’s-Hammonton by four seconds. She’s Mainland first CAL winner since Alyssa Aldridge won the 2017 meet at Motorsports Park in Millville.

Millville had three of the first six placers and won its first CAL title, 33-60, over Ocean City, with Cedar Creek third with 97 points.

Sophomore Gillian Lovett ran 18:47 for second and sophomore Claudia Booth 19:48 for third. Senior Lily Malone took 11th in 20:21 and sophomore Chloe Malone was 13th in 20:33, with freshman 6th runner Ava McDole 15th in 20:35. Mainland’s five scorers averaged 19:25.

Also in the top 10 were Egg Harbor sophomore Michaela Schema [3rd in 18:53], Atlantic City junior Madeline Dischert [4th 19:23], Ocean City junior Grace McAfee [5th 19:43], Ocean City freshman Chloe Care [7th 19:54], Cedar Creek sophomore Lexi Sears [8th 20:10], Wildwood Catholic senior Samantha Andress [9th 20:14] and Ocean City sophomore Frankie Ritzel [10th 20:19].

Woodstown graduate Xavier Seals, a freshman at Georgian Court, edged sophomore Owen Bradley of Jefferson College and Cedar Creek in a 1-2 finish Sunday morning at the CACC Championships.

Seals ran 27:26 over the challenging 8,000-meter course at Belmont Plateau in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, finishing just ahead of Bradley, who ran 27:28. The Central Athletic Collegiate Conference Championships weren’t held last year.

For Wilmington (Del.), freshman Dan Wyshinski of Pennsville ran 28:10 for 6th place and senior Michael Dowd from Williamstown was 9th in 28:35, making it four South Jersey runners in the top 10.

Jefferson won the team title 42-63 over Georgian Court. Also racing for Jefferson was sophomore Leonard Bustos of Oakcrest, who placed 13th in 28:44, and sophomore Blake Corbett of Mainland Regional, who was 14th in 28:49. Freshman Mike Keough, also a Cedar Creek graduate, was Jefferson’s 6th runner in 21st overall in 29:32.

Wilmington placed third with 80 points with three of its five scorers from South Jersey. In addition to Wyshinski and Dowd, freshman Jared Cushlanis from Absegami took 46th in 32:39.

Bloomfield College’s top two runners Sunday are from South Jersey – Leonard Lane from Burlington Township was 38th in 31:23 and Vincent Brown from Rancocas Valley was 48th in 32:51. 

 

Kingsway senior Kyle Rakitis edged Delsea senior Andrew Littlehales with both running sub-15:40 and led Kingsway to its fourth straight team title Saturday at the Tri-County Championships.

Rakitis ran 15:30 over 5,000 meters at Cumberland Regional in Upper Deerfield Township and finished about 40 meters ahead of Littlehales, who ran 15:38. 

Kingsway edged Highland 52-55, with Williamstown third with 83 points. Kingsway also won in 2017, 2018 and 2019. The meet was not held last year.

Rakitis’s time is fastest at the Tri-County meet since 2014, when Josh Clark of Highland ran 15:16, Justin Branco of Delsea 15:17 and Noah Culbreath of Kingsway 15:27.

Senior Ryan Allen and junior Cesar Pedro also finished in the top 10 for Kingsway, Allen clocking 16:24 for 4th and Pedro 16:38 for 8th. That’s a monster all-course PR for Pedro, whose previous 5,000 best was 17:25 at last week’s Gloucester County Championships at West Deptford Park. Allen’s 16:24 was also a PR, three seconds faster than he ran at Delsea earlier this month.

Kingsway’s four other runners all finished between 20th and 27th. Junior Darius Davis and senior Nick Allen ran 20th and 21st in 17:39 and 17:41 to round out the Dragons’ scoring pack. Seniors Alex Guidice and Thomas Driscoll placed 23rd and 27th in 17:47 and 18:10.

All-underclass Highland had juniors Cole Knoedler and Gavin Gallo and sophomore Aziz Muhammad-Kane in the top 10. Knoedler and Gallo palmed 6th and 7th in 16:36 and 16:37, and Muhammad Kane was just behind them in 9th in 16:45.

Juniors Anthony Imperatore and Jake Smith placed 17th and 18th for Highland in 17:20 and 17:25, giving the Tartans a tight 49-second gap between 1st and 5th.

Also in the top 10 were Williamstown junior Nicholas Krol [3rd in 15:57], Timber Creek senior Cole Mylan [5th in 16:26] and Triton senior Forrest Miller [10th in 16:58]. It was Krol’s first race ever on any course under 16 minutes.

Haddonfield graduate Martin Riddell, a freshman at Yale, ran a 5,000 PR Saturday, placing 18th out of nearly 100 runners in the 18th annual Central Connecticut State University Mini Meet.

Riddell covered the course at Stanley Quarter Park in New Britain, Conn., in 15:21.

He was Yale’s fifth finisher, helping the Eli win the team title, 47-56, over the host Blue Devils.

Riddell’s previous all-course XC PR for a 5,000-meter course was 15:22 at the 2019 Colonial Conference All-Star meet at Pennypacker Park in Haddonfield.

Rancocas Valley graduate Erika Kemp placed 2nd Saturday in the USATF 25,000-Meter Championships in Grand Rapids, Mich.

While the event serves as a qualifier for next year’s World Half Marathon Championships in China, after spending some time researching this, we have no clue what her performance means in regards to qualifying.

Kemp, who ran collegiately at North Carolina State, ran 1:24:01 over the 15 1/2-mile course, finishing second to former University of Colorado runner Makena Morley, who ran 1:23:16. The USATF championship event was held concurrently with the Amway River Bank Run.

The USATF web site is such an abomination they still don’t have live results of their own event on their web site, six hours after the event ended. Only the usual note “live results – Coming soon.” Only they never do. Because USATF is a catastrophe that does nothing to help the sport of track and field and running in the U.S. and their web site is a disgrace.

In any case, I found some regulations that supposedly explain how runners qualify for next year’s World Half Marathon Championships, which are scheduled for March 27, 2022 in Yangzhou, China.

Give this a read and if you can figure it out give me a call!

In any case, this is a terrific performance from Kemp, and no thanks at all to the USATF – which can’t even link to the results – I found them here.

Kemp came through the half marathon in 1:10.55, which puts her inside the all-time U.S. top 50 for the 13.1-mile distance. That’s 3rd-fastest half marathon ever by a New Jersey woman, behind Sarah Pagano’s 1:09.41 in Las Vegas in January and Anne Lauck’s (Letko) 1:10.03 in Philadelphia in 1994.

Kemp won the U.S. 15K title in Jacksonville in 2019 and the U.S. 20K title in New Haven last month. This was her first lifetime 25,000 and the longest race of her life.

On the track, Kemp has PRs of 15:10.10 for 5,000 meters and 31:35.63 for 10,000 meters.  

Woodbury grad Brady Shute, now a Cornell freshman, ran a 5,000 PR Saturday, covering Cornell’s Moakley XC Course in Ithaca, N.Y., in 15:41 at the John Reif Memorial Run.

Shute placed 7th of 42 entrants from Syracuse and Cornell along with numerous alumni and post-grads.

Shute’s previous all-course 5,000 PR was 15:47, which he ran in 2019 at the Colonial Conference All-Star Meet at Pennypacker Park in Haddonfield.

On the track, Shute’s 5K personal best is 14:51.35 from a meet in April at Thomas Edison Park in Edison.

In his previous race last weekend, Shute ran an 8,000-meter PR of 25:54 at the R.K. Munsey Invite at the University of Albany. He finished 6th overall out of nearly 90 runners and was the first freshman across the line and Cornell’s 4th finisher. Cornell won the team title with 23 points.

Cornell is now off until the Heptagonal Championships on Oct. 30 on Princeton’s XC course in West Windsor.

Three of South Jersey’s top runners met Saturday morning at the Tri-County Conference Championships, and Highland junior Grace Wassell out-raced Kingsway junior Aubrey Pierontoni an Clearview junior Abby Waddington with all three going sub-19 minutes.

What a race!

Wassell ran 18:14 over 5,000 meters at Cumberland Regional in Upper Deerfield Township, finishing about 90 meters ahead of Pierontoni, who ran 18:34. Waddington was third in 18:44. 

Kingsway placed its five scorers in the top 17 (and six in 19) and came out on top in a wild three-way team battle with 54 points. Highland was second with 56 and Clearview third with 58.

Wassell became Highland’s first conference individual champion since Megan Venables won the 2010 race on the same course in 18:01. 

Her time is fastest at Cumberland since Kingsway’s Rachel Vick ran 18:02 in 2016 and it’s her fastest time ever over any 5K course. She ran 18:54 as a freshman at South Jersey Group 3 sectionals at Delsea in November of 2019. It’s also the fastest time on any course this fall by any South Jersey girl. Sofia Day of Mainland ran 18:15 at Stockton University in Galloway Township last month.

Pierontoni’s time is an all-course 5,000 personal best also. She ran 18:37 in a meet last fall at Ocean County Park in Lakewood. Waddington, the Gloucester County champ, has now run sub-19 at DREAM Park and Cumberland this fall.

Kingsway’s two-point margin of victory is the smallest in the 35-year history of the meet. The previous closest meet was in 2013, when Kingsway edged Delsea by three points, 40-43.

The four points separating the top three teams is also the smallest in meet history. The previous smallest gap between 1st and 3rd was six in 2000, when Delsea won with 67, Kingsway scored 71 and Gloucester was 3rd with 73.

Joining Pierontoni for the Lady Dragons were juniors Shelby Dyer and Nicole Lipieta, who placed 9th and 10th, both in 20:15, and seniors Allison Helkowski and Erin Tracey, who ran 16th and 17th in 21:08 and 21:12. Sixth runner sophomore Kendall Cramer also broke into the top 20, running 21:40 for 19th.

Here’s what the rest of the top 10 looked like: Highland seniors Princess Nwoga and Vanessa Marinero took 4th and 5th in 19:15 and 19:50, Clearview junior Abby Kotran ran 20:01 for 6th, Wildwood freshman Macie McCracken placed 7th in 20:02 and Clearview soph Margaret Wisniewski was 8th in 20:14.

Cinnaminson and Maple Shade both swept the top three spots on the way to commanding team titles Thursday at the BCSL Championships at New Egypt High School.

Juniors Alexander Boyko, Matt McCarron and Tyer Schill ran 1-2-3 for Cinnaminson in the Patriot Division race, and senior Ryan Olesky, junior Chad Cloke and senior Brennen King swept the top three places for Maple Shade in the Freedom Division.

Moorestown placed its five scorers in the top 11 to win the Liberty Division title by three points over Rancocas Valley.

First, let’s look at the Patriot Division meet.

Boyko ran 16:04 – a big lifetime best for any 5,000-meter course – to win his first XC invitational title and lead the way for Cinnaminson. His previous PR was 16:23 in the South Jersey Open at DREAM Park in Logan Township.

McCarron ran 16:23 and Schill 16:37 for the Pirates, and they were backed up by juniors Ryan Coceano and Dean Clark, who took 5th and 6th in 17:28 and 17:36. Sixth man Patrick Storti made it six Cinnaminson finishers – all juniors – among the top seven runners with a 17:44 for 7th place.

The conference title was the first since 2017 for Cinnaminson, which outscored Bordentown 17-58 and outscored the field 17-42.

Others in the top 10 were Delran senior Anthony Guarino [4th in 16:45], Bordentown sophomore Ajay Donthula [8th 17:46], Bordentown senior Matt Reiter [9th 17:49] and Bordentown junior Evan Cooper [10th 18:04].

Maple Shade was nearly as dominating as Cinnaminson, going 1-2-3-5-7 for 18 points and winning its fifth consecutive division title by an 18-41 margin over Palmyra.

Olesky won in 17:28, Cloke was 2nd in 17:44 and King ran 18:44 for third. Also scoring for the Wildcats were sophomore Aidan Cloke [5th 19:19] and Shane Smith [7th 19:45], and senior Conor Cloke backed them up in 9th in 20:18.

Also in the top 10 were Palmyra senior Dominic Belton [4th 18:53], Palmyra sophomore James Crean [6th 19:31], Palmyra sophomore Colin Broadbent [8th 20:03] and Westampton Tech junior Jeremy Henskens [10th 20:43].

Moorestown’s 36-39 win over Rancocas Valley was its first BCSL team title since it won the Liberty in 2016.

R.V. took the top two spots, with senior Andre Faigal and junior Ryan Smith running 15:57 and 16:18. Faigal’s 15:57 was fastest of the day and is No. 11 in course history and 2nd-fastest by an R.V. Red Devil, behind only Isaiah Curbelo’s 15:54 at the BCLS meet in 2015.

But Moorestown went 3-5-7-10-11-(13) to squeeze past R.V.

Junior William Inglis led the Quakers in third place in 16:36, with junior Colin Shand also under 17 minutes in 5th place in 16:59. Senior James Johnston ran 7th in 17:42, with sophomore Hari Bezwada and juniors Luke Labroli and Evan Schaffer placing 10th, 11th and 13th in 17:57, 18:14 and 18:23.

The rest of the top 10 looked like this: Pennsauken juniors Joel Oquendo [4th 16:42] and Pennsauken Nouman Farhat [6th 17:07], Northern Burlington junior Gavyn Messenger [8th 17:44] and R.V. senior Alex Pratt [9th 17:52].

 

Senior Owen Ritti and juniors Nick Scarangelli and Chris Sardy swept the top three places and Ocean City won its sixth Cape May County title Friday afternoon.

Ritti ran 16:08 over the 5,000-meter course at the Cape May Zoo in Lower Township, Scarangelli ran 16:16 and Sardy 16:25 as the Red Raiders placed all seven runners in the top 11.

Ritti’s time is No. 5 in course history, according to the MileSplit venue page, and fastest since Mark Nelson of Lower Cape May Regional ran 15:59 in 2016. The last Ocean City runner to go faster at the zoo is Louis Paone, who ran 15:52 in 2013.

Ocean City outscored 2nd-place Lower Cape May Regional 23-59. The meet wasn’t held last year, but Ocean City won every year from 2015 through 2019. Last time the Red Raiders did not win the county title was 2014, when Middle Township outscored them 24-34 for the title. Ocean City won 14 straight from 2000 through 2013 so has now won 20 of the last 21 titles.

Ocean City placed its 4th through 7th runners 8th through 11th, all between 17:18 and 17:34. 

The Raiders’ 4th and 5th scorers were senior Nigel Collins [8th in 17:18] and sophomore Matt Hoffman [9th in 17:31]. They were followed by junior Colin Abbott [10th in 17:33] and senior Reece Wagner [12th in 17:34].

Scoring against the field, Ocean City would have won 23-34.

Also in the top 10 were Wildwood sophomore Jorge Cruz [4th in 16:28], Lower Cape May Regional junior Jack Cura [5th in 16:30], Lower Cape May senior Zeb HInker [6th in 17:09] and Wildwood senior Robert Wileczek [7th In 17:12].