Led by senior Matt Hoffman, Ocean City swept the top seven spots and pitched a perfect 15-point score Wednesday at the Cape May County Championships at the Cape May Zoo in Middle Township.
The win was Ocean City’s 8th in a row and 22nd the last 23 times the meet was contested.
Hoffman ran 15:45.46 over the 5,000-meter course, breaking the listed course record on MileSplit of 15:47 turned in by Ocean City’s Kevin Scott at the 2012 Cape May County meet.
Also in Ocean City’s lead group were junior Ethan Buck [2nd in 16:16], junior Zach Hutchinson [3rd in 16:26], sophomore Erik Preisner [4th in 16:29] and junior Kal Heyman [5th in 16:45]. They were backed up by sophomore Robert Cesari [6th in 17:08] and freshman Nathan Aschmann [17th in 17:28].
Also in the top 10 were Wildwood senior Jorge Cruz Valle [8th in 17:54], Middle Township freshman Jamar Mack [9th in 18:27] and Cape May County Tech sophomore Evan Feliciano [10th in 18:51].
Ocean City outscored Middle Township 15-71 to win the team title. It was the first sweep since 2019, when Anthony Conte led the Red Raiders to a 1-2-3-4-5-6 finish and a 15-64 win over Lower Cape May Regional.
Ocean City won 14 consecutive county meets from 2000 through 2013. Middle Township won the 2014 meet 23-34 and Ocean City won each meet since. The meet wasn’t held in 2020.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 